Well, the Red Sox stole on today as they took two of three in their series with the Blue Jays. This win makes up for the Dice-K loss though, and had the Red Sox given him a bit of support, we would have been talking sweep here.
In that first game Daisuke Matsuzaka had another very nice start but the Red Sox scored only one run for him. He gave up two runs on three hits and three walks with ten strikeouts in six innings. Those two runs equated to his second loss of the season a despite three solid starts, he sits at 1-2. The lone run of the game for the Sox came early in the 2-1 loss. Wily Mo Pena hit a solo homerun in the third inning.
Yesterday, Tim Wakefield threw a very good game. He gave up just one run on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts in seven innings to pick up his second win. Jon Papelbon pitched shutout ninth in which he struck out the side to pick up his third save. Mike Lowell, Doug Mirabelli and David Ortiz all hit solo shots. Mirabelli finished with two hits and two RBIs in the 4-1 win.
This afternoon, the Sox had to contend with Roy Halladay and while he did a good enough job of shutting the Sox down, the pen didn’t and four late runs turned a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 win. Manny Ramirez hit a huge two run shot to tie the game and then an RBI triple by Alex Cora and a sac. fly by Coco Crisp put the Sox comfortably in front. Julian Tavarez had a decent enough start and he gave up three runs on six hits and Mike Timlin picked up the win with a shutout inning of relief.
So at 9-5, the Red Sox sit atop the East but the Yankees roll into town for a big three game series. It’ll be Curt Schilling throwing against Andy Pettitte in the opener in a pretty classic matchup. I like the matchups in all three of the games and with the series at Fenway, I’d expect the Red Sox to walk away with at least two of three.
