Aug. 15, 2007: Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Boston Red Sox
Sox lineup versus Tampa Bay.
Cliff Floyd makes his debut in his second stint with the Sox after clearing waivers early in the day. Floyd will be the DH in David Ortiz’s absence and bat 7th tonight.
Boston needs a win tonight as New York has extend its win streak to 11 games with an afternoon victory over Baltimore, 7-4. The Sox currently are 9.5 games out of first with the New York victory.
tonight’s lineup:
2B Dustin Pedroia
CF Coco Crisp
1B Kevin Youkilis
LF Manny Ramirez
RF JD Drew
C Jason Varitek
DH Floyd
2B Mike Lowell
SS Julio Lugo
P Daisuke Matsuzaka
Matsuzaka works out of jam in 1st...
The Devil Rays got to Matsuzaka early with a two-run homerun by Carl Crawford in the first, scoring Navarro. That was followed by a walk to Rocco Baldelli, a fly-out by Elijiah Dukes, a single by Ben Zorbist and another walk to Josh Wilson before Johnny Gomes was jammed on the hands to induce a weak fly-out to center to escape a base-loaded jam. Daisuke has averaged 2.46 BB/9 this season.
Four more for Devil Rays in 2nd…
Matsuzaka looks out of synch tonight after surrendering four more runs in the second. An infield single by Carl Crawford was followed by a two-run double by Baldelli to give Tampa Bay a 5-0 lead. Two wild pitches later, Baldelli easily crossed the plate to push the lead to six. Terry Francona has to be thinking a change in pitchers soon.
6 Up, 6 Down for Sox
Lefty Jacob McGee has sat down all six Sox through two innings, the last three on strikeouts. Boston has not had a ball out of the infield against the rookie making just this third start.
Lowell breaks up shutout
Mike Lowell launched his eight homerun of the season off of McGee in the bottom of the third to put Boston on the board. The Sox still trail 6-1.
Matsuzaka tops 100 pitches
Daisuke just struck out Delmon Young for the second out in the 5th for this fifth strikeout of the night and his 105 pitch of the night, the tenth time in his last eleven stats has. After a season-high 132 in his complete game win against Baltimore last time out, you gotta wonder how much gas is left in the tank.
Boston looking for break through
The Sox have sandwiched two singles around a Cliff Floyd groundout to put runners on the corners with one out here in the 5th.
Lugo picks up RBI
Julio Lugo hit the ball to the far reaches of centerfield, but Baldelii was able to track it down and get it back into the infield to keep Lowell stuck on first. Varitek did tag up from third to score easily to cut the lead to 6-2.
Matsuzaka on the mound for the 6th
Diasuke is back on the mound, but Francona has Cla Meredith warming up in case there is trouble. The pitch count is up to 111 with Tampa’s 2-3-4 hitters due up.
Navarro ends Matsuzaka’s night
A tiring Matsuzaka failed to properly cover first on a grounder to Youkilis and Francona is quickly out of the dugout and summoning a new pitcher to the mound. Meredit, who began warming up last inning, is the new Boston pitcher with Carl Crawford up.
Dukes drives in Navarro to put Rays back up by 5
Elijah Dukes long single to right-center scored Navarro from second to end Matsuzaka’s line for the night: 5 IP, 10 H, 7 R, 3 BB, 6 K’s, 3 WPs.
McGee loads bases in 6th
Boston is looking to get back into this as Varitek just took a four pitch walk to load the bases. Cliff Floyd is the batter now.
Floyd scorched a liner back to the pitcher that almost cost McGee his head, but the pitcher was able to get his glove in front of it to get out of a bad situation. That’ll be on the highlight reel. Floyd’s game keeps getting worse, he’s now 0-3 with 4 runners left on base.
Sox threatening in the seventh
McGee is looking spent here in the seventh. After adding another run in the top of the inning, Tampa is poised to give up some here. Mike Lowell collected his third hit in as many atbats and lugo followed that with a four pitch walk. There is a conference on the mound as Pedroia digs in at home…
...Pedroia slapped a bullet into short right for his 100th hit of the season, loading the bases for Coco Crisp…….Crisp couldnt lay off the high heat and he is out number one in the inning...and like that, the inning is over. A double play, 5-2-3 to end the threat off of Youkilis’ bat.
New pitcher for Sox
Two innings from Meredith was enough for Francona and we see Mike Timlin throwing his warm up pitches here in the top of the eighth. Mike hasn’t been getting much work lately, having last appeared in a game back on 8.2.07 against Baltimore.
Floyd puts run across home plate
Cliff Floyd got a hanging curve from MR Edwin Jackson and put it into left field past a diving B.J. Upton at short to score JD Drew from third. Drew has hit a double off the Monster with one out before being moved over to third by Varitek...Floyd is on first awaiting Lowell stroll to the plate….A diving stop in the hole by Gomes at first ends the inning for Tampa. Lugo will lead off the ninth for the Sox.
Sox challenging with one out left
Down to their last out, the Sox have their fans on their feet. Dustin Pedroia broke up a potential inning ending double play at second and then proceeded to distract Zorbist in the hole on a grounder by Youkilis in order to give him time to get to first and beat out the throw...Runners are now on the corner for Manny Ramirez, who is hitless in 4 at bats...Upton dropped an easy out and allowed Pedroia to cross the plate. Looks like he had checked on Youkilis going to second before the ball was in his glove...Gary Glvoer enters to face Drew….Its a wild pitch, both runners advance...Drew grounds out to Wilson at second. Tampa 8, Boston 4.
