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Coco Cola: See that little white speck bouncing off the Coke bottles way up there? That's Coco's granny exiting the ball park
The Sox delivered what we've all been waiting for these last few weeks--a good old fashioned ass-kicking!
Boston slugged 21 hits in the game and scored 13 runs in the first three innings, enabling Josh Beckett to cruise to his 12th victory en route to handing Tampa Bay its 11th consecutive defeat.
#1 STUNNER(s): Coco & Lowell 7-11, 4R, 2HRs, 10RBI
Don't rub your eyes, those numbers are correct. The Sox All Star third baseman (5-6, R, 5RBI)and speedy centerfielder combined to knock in 10 of Boston's 15 runs, with Coco's grand slam highlighting a six-run first, while Lowell's three-run bomb blew the game open, 9-0, in the second.
Oh, and Coco had yet another incredible over-the-shoulder basket catch (yawn!)
PAN's FAUN: J.P. Howell 2/3IP, 6H, 6ER, 2BB, 1K, 1HR
The Rays rookie lefty couldn't get out of the first inning in his first career start at Fenway Park, getting lit up like a carton full of M80's as 8 of the 10 batters Howell faced reached base, although Coco didn't stay there for long by the time his granny cleared the Monster.
BTW, his ERA for this outing would be 80.96.
RECAP
"That's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh uh-huh..."
Pardon me as I break into crappy disco lyric, but that's what happens when our favorite team busts out of a two-week offensive funk by administering its largest and most thoroughly dominant beating of the season.
Words are tough to describe what took place on this overcast and cool night at the old ballyard, so let me throw some numbers out there to help put this rectal reaming into proper perspective:
- Boston smacked a season-high 21 base hits; of the 12 players to get an official at bat in the game, nine registered at least one hit
- Of those nine players, 8 guys had at least two hits, Papi had three hits, and Lowell had a career-high five knocks (4 singles & a homer)
- Six players knocked in at least one run, Lugo drove in two, while Coco and Lowell had five each; all the RBIs came from the lower half of the lineup
- Jacoby Ellsbury replaced Manny in the fifth and wound up with two hits in two at bats
- The Sox led 6-0 after one, 9-0 after two, and 13-2 after three innings
- The 15 runs were a season high as well, besting a 14-3 shellacking of Seattle way back on April 10, also started by Beckett
- Rays starter J.P. Howell's ERA rose from 5.19 to 6.62, an increase of 1.43
- Coco batted four times with the bases loaded; the results were homer, walk, GIDP, K
- Two runs scored on bases loaded walks FOR Boston, a nice change of pace there
Okay, I'm all numbered out now (my brain starts to hurt when I put too many numbers together), but the stats are a quick way to get the full effect of what the Sox did to the hapless Rays this evening, namely unleash weeks of pent-up offensive frustration on one of the sorriest pitching staffs in the majors.
The game was a mismatch on paper from the beginning, with All Star starter (I think it's safe to say that now) Josh Beckett taking the mound for Boston against third year hurler J.P Howell, a veteran of exactly 30 career starts with a 5-10 lifetime record.
And wouldn't you know this was one of those times where the game, although it wasn't played on paper, it played out just like it would have had it been played on....
...ah what the fuck, let me just try to describe what took place, cause God knows that's gonna take me long enough.
After Beckett struck out the side in the top of the first the Sox hitters got right to work on supplying Becks with his usual 8+ runs of support per game that he has enjoyed for most of the season.
J.D. Drew (2-4, R) got the party started with a grounder up the middle that stayed in the infield but still resulted in a base hit. Dustin Pedroia (2-5, R) followed with a solid single to left center, and then Papi hit the hardest ball of them all, but it was knocked down by Carlos Pena at first and bounced to 2B Ty Wiggington who got Pedroia out at second base.
With runners at the corners and one out Manny lined a single to left to score Drew with the first ruin of the game, but like a woman on a night out drinking, once the seal was broken the Sox kept the flow going and going and going.
Mike Lowell greeted Howell with the first of his five hits, a solid single to centerfield to load the bases, and after Varitek walked to force in run #2, Coco stepped up with the sacks packed and the game in the balance.
If the Sox failed to push more runs across here, Howell would feel a sense of relief at stemming the tide and escaping with a manageable deficit. But if Coco could deliver a big base hit, the rout would be on, and the way the Rays have been playing the game could conceivably have been over in the first inning.
From what happened next, I'd say Coco got his mission accomplished.
Crisp launched Howell's second pitch into the Mannysphere over the Green Monster and up into the unsightly arrangement of ginaourmous plastic Coke bottles adorning the light tower, high above the Monster seats and the field of play.
It was the kind of moonshot normally associated with Manny, Lowell or Wily Mo, but not the diminutive, slender center fielder.
Someone check his urine!
Howell composed himself long enough to strike out Eric Hinske (0-2, 3BBs), but then Lugo followed with a walk and Drew dropped his second hit of the inning into right field and that was all she wrote for poor young J.P.
Signs you've had a bad outing: a team gets a grand slam, a bases loaded walk, and one dude gets two hits off you in 2/3 of a freakin inning!
Brian Stokes came on and got Pedroia out to end the carnage, but Boston would do some damage to Stokes' ERA before the next inning was finished.
Ortiz (3-5, 4R) led off the second with a double to the opposite field and Manny was walked after turning a 3-0 count to a 3-2 affair. I figure Lowell must've made an "I can top that" bet with Crisp in the dugout, because he catapulted the second pitch he saw from Stokes up & over the Monster and completely out of the park, and before you can say "D-Rays suck" the Sox were up 9-0 with no outs in the second inning.
Say it again? Sure.
Up 9-0 with no outs in the second inning.
Oh but it would get better. After Beckett showed he's human by allowing the Rays to get a couple of runs in the top of the third, Boston made sure he got those runs right back when they hung a four-spot on Tampa bay's next victim, errr hurler, Jon Switzer.
Pedroia flied out to start the third but things quickly went sideways when Papi singled, Manny doubled and Lowell notched his third hit of the evening, a hard single to right that scored Ortiz with the 10th Sox run and turned the game into an unofficial rout.
Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, they weren't through yet.
Captain Tek kept the inning going when he reached on an infield single to the pitcher (when it rains it pours), and then Coco drew the bases-loaded freebie on five pitches for his 5th ribbie of the night--in the third inning.
After Hinske fouled out (damn him!), Julio Lugo continued to get healthy off his old teammates when he drilled a two-run single into center that pushed the score to 13-2 and officially rendered the rest of the game Garbage Time.
Beckett ended up throwing a solid but not spectacular six innings (6IP, 9H, 3ER, 1BB, 9K), good enough on this night and hopefully good enough to get the All Star start. The hardest he may have been hit all night was when Rays catcher Dionner Navarro ran into him behind first base in the sixth inning.
Beckett appeared to come away from the collision okay, but Navarro had to leave the game, and certainly looked dazed and confused as he was helped off.
Appropriate since his team looked the same way on the field all night.
Oh speaking of the all Star game, the Sox found out before the game that Hideki Okajima won the Monster Fan Vote and was elected as a reserve, the sixth Sox player to be placed on the team.
When it rains it pours, right D-Rays?
NOTES
- The Rays did muster 11 hits against three Boston pitchers (Snyder & Timlin followed Beckett), the first time they've had double digit hits in ten days.
- Rays Rookie Delmon Young had three hits and an RBI and may have been robbed of his 10th outfield assist when Tek was called safe on a questionable call at home on the final run of the third
- Thanks, for nothing: the only Sox not to get a hit: Hinske and replacements Mirabelli (0-0, 2BB, RBI), Cora (0-1) and Wily Mo (0-2)
- Ellsbury's two hits raised his average to .375 (6-16) and he continues to make it difficult to send him back when the time comes
- The Sox have scored 97 runs for Beckett in his 16 starts, best in baseball
- Youk got the night off again to rest his ailing quad
- Broom Masters: The Rays were swept in its third consecutive series
- Despite all the hits and runs Boston only had five extra base hits, or one less that the night before when they won 7-5. They did manage eight walks as well.
QUOTES
"There's some other guys as deserving as I am. I'll be happy if he chooses me." -- Beckett. Translated: they'd better fucking pick me, what the fuck more do you want me to do out here, shoot flames out of my ass?!
"These guys never cease to amaze me with the way they swing the bats."--Beckett on his teammates. True that, Josh.
"After the grand slam, I thought we were still in it. But after that, it was over."--Howell
"That speaks a lot for our team. For me or anybody to come up with the bases loaded four times is pretty amazing."--Coco
RECORD: 53-31
AL EAST: Up 12 on NYY, TOR
STREAK: W-4
LAST 10: 5-5
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