June 20, 2008
Pujols Powers Cards Past Sox in 2004 World Series Rematch
St. Louis 7, Boston 2
Jon Lester paced himself for most of the game, keeping the Cardinals off balance while he engaged in a pitcher's duel with St. Louis starter Kyle Lohse. But, it was Lohse whose veteran experience proved to be enough to keep the Red Sox quiet long enough for the Cardinals to get to Lester and take the opening game of the three game rematch of the 2004 World Series, 7-2.
The Red Sox didn't have the explosiveness we had seen in the Philadelphia series, settling for the first run of the game via a walk, a passed ball, a sacrifice bunt and a ground out. Leading off the bottom of the 3rd, Brandon Moss, playing in place of Manny Ramirez once again, drew a four pitch walk from Lohse and advanced to second when Yadier "My favorite" Molina couldn't handle a fastball in the dirt for Lohse. After Jason Varitek sacrificed Moss to third, Julio Lugo hit a hard chopper back up the middle that Jeff Hoffpauir snared on the outfield grass and beat Lugo to first with a stellar plant and throw.
Nursing the one run lead, Lester was solid for the first five innings, retiring 15 of 16 batters without allowing a runner to reach second base. In the sixth though, things unraveled quickly for the young left-hander. With two quick outs, Lester issued a pair of walks to Brendan Ryan and Hoffpauir to put the tying run into scoring position. Molina, make amends for his previous misplay, doubled home the pair with a drive off the wall in left-center. Albert Pujols followed Molina with a two-run home run and before the Sox coaching staff could adjust, their one run lead had exaporate and the team trailed 4-1.
"We didn't see it coming, that's for sure," manager Terry Francona said afterwards. "Jon was cruising along and then he lost his control and they took advantage. They are a solid patient club and they wait for their chances like this and pounce."
Ryan Ludwick added a solo home-run in the seventh to push the lead to four runs. Boston would add a run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by David Ortiz, but the Cardinals came back with a pair of runs off Manny Delcarmen in the top of ninth to put the game out of reach.
W: Lohse (8-3) L: Lester (8-3)
Player of the Game: Kyle Lohse (7.1 IP, 5 Hs, 2 Rs, 3 BBs, 3 Ks, 105 PI)
Around the League:
...Minnesota traded SP Nick Blackburn (2-8, 5.72 ERA) to Oakland in exchange for minor league SP Dana Eveland (4-6, 3.91 ERA w/ Sac)...Oakland resigned SP/MR Shigeki Noguchi (7-2, 4.50 ERA) to a 4-year contract extension worth $1.72m total...Texas DH Hank Blalock (.267 avg., 6 hRs, 30 RBIs, .817 ops) fractured his ankle running the bases and will miss about 8 months of action...Atlanta RF Jeff Francoeur (.279 avg., 16 HRs, 53 RBIs, .850 ops) injured his back while throwing and is expected to miss two months..
With J.D. Drew in the midst of a bad slump (.172 avg., 1 HR, 4 RBIs, 19 Ks in 58 ABs in 18 games this month), I decided to recall Jacoby Ellsbury from Pawtucket and give him and Moss more ABs going forward. We had Ellsbury with us earlier in the season and he wasn't used much (17 ABs in 11 games) so we sent him down for more playing time, but with the Yankees creeping back up, we feel it is time to put our best possible lineup on the field to break out of our slump. Brandon Moss has been hitting better lately (.267 in June v. .192 in May) so we'll probably see more of him in RF with Ellsbury as the primary back OF since he is not rated in RF yet.
We did shop Drew around and got no one-for-one trade options. Probably have to wait until the offseason and see if anyone is interested then.