Red Sox 4, Reds 3 (12). The aggressively crimson-themed matchup gave starts to Cincinnati's Homer Bailey and Boston's Felix Doubront.
Doubront worked a 1-2-3 first, which allowed his teammates to open the scoring in the bottom of the inning. They did so with a Dustin Pedroia walk, a Shane Victorino single, and groundouts by David Ortiz and Mike Napoli. Cincinnati countered in the top of the second with a Todd Frazier walk, a Ryan Ludwick double, and a Skip Schumaker RBI single to tie the game at 1; they had runners at the corners with nobody out at that point, but Zack Cozart flied to short right, Neftali Soto grounded to third and produced a rundown that got Ludwick thrown out, and Tucker Barnhart flied out to end the inning with the game still tied.
Bailey and Doubront had an easy time of it for the next two half-innings, as Joey Votto's single in the top of the third made him the only baserunner allowed by either pitcher and he was removed on a Brandon Phillips line drive double play. Bailey cracked again in the bottom of the third; Jackie Bradley led off with a walk, Pedroia doubled him to third, Victorino grounded out, Ortiz was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Napoli worked a walk on a full count to force in the go-ahead run. Grady Sizemore followed that with an RBI single for a 3-1 advantage.
Schumaker and Cozart both singled in the fourth, but were left on; Bradley met both of those criteria in the bottom of the inning as well. Ortiz led off the fifth with a ground-rule double, but progressed no further. Doubront walked Phillips and Ludwick in the sixth before being pulled with one out, and Schumaker hit into a double play on Burke Badenhop's first pitch.
Bailey pitched through a flawless sixth before turning the game over to his bullpen. Badenhop secured a 1-2-3 seventh, as did JJ Hoover, preserving the 3-1 margin. The nearly half-game scoring drought finally ended in the top of the eighth against Junichi Tazawa when Votto walked, Phillips doubled him to third, Frazier singled in one run, and Ludwick added a game-tying sac fly. Hoover allowed a leadoff single to Sizemore, but he and Manny Parra recovered to keep the runner at first for the remainder of the bottom of the eighth.
In the top of the ninth, Koji Uehara allowed a leadoff single to Cozart, who was bunted to second and moved to third on a flyout; Chris Heisey then singled as well, but strangely, it was a bunt single which did not allow Cozart to advance. Votto then fouled out to leave the runners at the corners. The bottom of the inning began with a Parra strikeout of Bradley; Sam LeCure then relieved and allowed a single to Pedroia, who was then caught stealing. LeCure walked both Victorino and Ortiz, and Victorino stole third before Napoli grounded out to send the game into additional innings.
Cincinnati mustered only an error against Andrew Miller in the tenth, while Boston got nothing at all against LeCure in the bottom of the inning. The eleventh saw the first five batters retired by Miller and Logan Ondrusek, respectively, before Pedroia doubled and was stranded. Craig Breslow relieved in the top of the twelfth and permitted only a Phillips single, and the Sox got to Ondrusek in the bottom of the inning, winning the game on consecutive hits by Ortiz, Napoli, and Sizemore.
Grady Sizemore has not necessarily had a brilliant start to the season; he's hitting just .242/.314/.385. But that's not actually too bad at the 2014 exchange rate, and it pales in comparison to the fact that Sizemore has had any kind of start to the season at all. The man who spent several years of the last decade as one of the AL's best players just had his first 3-hit, 2-RBI game in over three years, two of which passed without him stepping onto a major league diamond at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment