Featuring a repertoire of mostly fastballs, Bartolo Colon blew away the Mariners in what amounted to an exceptional second start to his suddenly promising season. In the Red Sox’ 5-3 victory, Colon struck out four batters, walked just one and scattered five hits in his seven innings. The Mariners scored just once against Colon. In the sixth, Colon put runners on via a single and a hit batter, then allowed a sacrifice and a ground-out to second that scored the run. That was it. Of Colon’s 84 pitches, 68 were fastballs, the other 16 sliders. Colon began featuring the off-speed pitch more in the later innings, and with increasingly better results. The victory ended the Red Sox’ seven-game road losing streak as Colon’s won-loss record improved to 2-0 while his earned run average dropped to 2.25. At Safeco Field, Colon’s career record improved to 9-1 while his ERA shrank to 2.09.
Dustin Pedroia broke a 1-1 tie in the top of the eighth inning by knocking in Julio Lugo (on base following a failed sacrifice bunt that turned into a fielder’s choice) from second base with a ground-rule double that sailed over Raul Ibanez and over the left field fence on a hop. Manny Ramirez then followed an intentional walk to David Ortiz with a run-scoring, opposite-field double to right before Mike Lowellmade it 4-1 with an RBI infield single smothered by diving third baseman Adrian Beltre. Hernandez’ night fizzled out when he allowed another infield hit to J.D. Drew before walking Jason Varitek to push across the fifth run.
Sox Notes:Kevin Youkilis was scratched from last night’s game just before 5 p.m. with Sean Casey moving into the lineup at first base. Youkilis hurt the back of his right hand and was wearing a white bandage yesterday. Youkilis wasn’t exactly sure when he had done the damage. He did start feeling it Sunday night.
