Sox survive a dicey Matsuzaka outing to beat Tigers

Sox 6, Detroit 3
WP: Matsuzaka (5-0)
LP: Bonderman (2-3)
SV: Papelbon (10)
HRs: BOS-Lowell (1), Youk (4), Ortiz (6); DET-None

SUMMARY:
Boston won despite its pitchers issuing 10 walks thanks to the resurgent offense, which racked up 11 hits, six for extra bases including three long balls, and Daisuke Matsuzaka extended his perfect record, even though his outing was far from perfect.

SUPERSTAR: Lowell 3-5, 2R, 2BI, 2B, HR
How nice was it to see the World Series MVP back in vintage Mike Lowell form tonight?

His 2nd inning homer got the Sox on the board, he doubled in the 4th and came home on Youk's blast, and he narrowly missed a second homer when his 7th inning drive was caught at the wall in left.

THE BIGGEST LOSER: Matsuzaka 5IP, 2H, 1ER, 8BB, 1K, 109P
I know it's tough to hang this honor on a guy who actually won the game, but with a linescore as odd as this one I thought it was appropriate. If not for the fact that the Tigers are an absolute trainwreck right now, Matsuzaka easily could've come away with a loss tonight.

RECAP:
I was trying to think of a theme for tonight's post, and it took me about 2.3 seconds to come up with not one but a few:

-Walk on the Wild Side
-Walk This Way
-Walk Like an Egyptian
-Walking in Motown
-I'm Walkin'
-Walk it Out
-Dice-K Walks
-Walking on Sunshine

I nixed those 8 ideas because they were a bit too obvious. But then I came up with a couple more:

-Walk the Line (up)
-Walk Right In

By the 10th "walk" I was tad burned out, though, so I decided to write a normal post, sans theme.

But you get the drift, right?

Somehow the Sox managed to win this game tonight even though its starting pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka, surrendered an astounding 8 free passes and threw 109 pitches in five innings. By comparison, Cleveland starter Cliff Lee, who is also 5-0, has walked only 2 batters ALL YEAR.

Dice-K matched that total in the first inning this evening.

That the Sox managed to win in spite of the erratic effort of Dice-K, who had men on base in each of his five innings yet he didn't surrender a hit until Curtis Granderson laced an RBI single to center in the 4th, is a testament to how well the offense has been playing since that week-long scoring slump led to five game losing streak.

And the offense was led by a few familiar faces.

Manny got the ball rolling when he doubled off Detroit starter Jeremy Bonderman (6IP, 7H, 4ER, 2BB, 4K, 2HR) to start the 2nd inning, and two pitches later Boston had a 2-0 lead when Lowell homered to left, his first four bagger since last September.

After escaping a 2-on, 1-out jam in the bottom of the 3rd when Matsuzaka got Magglio Ordonez to strike out and Miguel Cabrera to fly out to center, Boston added another pair of runs in the top of the 4th when Lowell led off with a double and Kevin Youkilis brought him home with aa 2-run blast to left field.

Staked to a 4-0 lead, not even the walking wonder could mess this up, although he sure as hell tried.

In the bottom of the 4th the Tigers finally got on the board when Gary Sheffield led off with a walk and Pudge Rodriguez walked two outs later. That's when Granderson, who has been smacking the ball all over the yard since coming off the DL two weeks ago, ripped a single to center to score Sheffield and give the Tigers hope that they could finally capitalize on all the freebies they had been handed.

But Matsuzaka ended those ideas when he got Placido 'Mr Potato Head' Polanco to pop out to short, ending the threat and keeping the Sox lead at a shaky three runs, 4-1.

It would remain that way until David Ortiz (2-4, R, 2BI), back after sitting out yesterday's game with a sore knee, lined an opposite field single off reliever Clay Rapada after Pedroia had doubled in the 7th to make it 5-1, but Detroit got right back in it in the bottom of the inning thanks to more shaky Boston bullpen work.

Craig Hansen, called up yesterday to take Brandon Moss' roster spot, had a quick 1-2-3 inning in the 6th in relief of Matsuzaka, but he ran into trouble in the 7th when he began the inning giving up a leadoff single to Polanco and then botched a slow roller to the mound by Carlos Guillen for a questionable infield single.

A double play by Ordonez looked like Hansen would escape the jam, but two out walks to Cabrera and Sheffield brought Tito to the mound and Okajima into the game, and he promptly surrendered a 2-run single to pinch hitter Marcus Thames to slice the lead to 5-3, and suddenly it was a game again.

Following a scoreless 8th, Ortiz provided a huge insurance run when he homered off Todd Jones with one out in the 9th, and then it was up to Papelbon to bring it home.

Thankfully the Boston closer has been the one reliable reliever in the pen all year, and he threw another 1-2-3 9th onto his stat sheet to sew this one up, but not before a few "whew"s were uttered in the Nation.

It wasn't pretty in many respects, but as they say, it was effective. Still, Boston has won four in a row, while the reeling Tiggers have dropped four straight.

I guess with the hometown Celts in the midst of the NBA playoffs, it looks like the Sox took a page out of their playbook: survive and advance.

RECORD: 21-13
AL EAST: Up 3.5 gms
STREAK: W4
LAST 10: 6-4
UP NEXT: Tue @ DET 705 Wakefield vs. Robertson