That was the start we’d all been waiting for. It wasn’t as long as we’d hoped, but we’ll take it. John Smoltz pitched beautifully. Granted, that’s not hard to do against the Royals, but it’s a start. After seeing some of his other starts up to this point, it’s most definitely a start. Five innings, a run on four hits, a walk, seven strikeouts. He cruised. He was all over it. Obviously he was a little inefficient if he threw ninety-seven pitches in only five innings, but a win is a win is a win, and we’ll start with the first win and go from there.
The final score was 15-9, and the other eight runs had nothing to do with John Smoltz. He was gone by the time any of that took place. Masterson allowed the first five. I don’t know what’s happened to the kid. Maybe this switching back and forth between starter and reliever is taking its toll. Maybe he’s too young for his current workload. Maybe he just needs a day off. I don’t know. But somebody needs to do some evaluating before we find out halfway into the second half that there’s actually something wrong with him and he needs a stint on the DL. Delcarmen wasn’t bad. Okajima allowed another run and pitched to three batters while at last recording the final out of the sixth inning. Bard allowed two runs, neither of which were earned; Aaron Bates had a missed catch. Welcome to the big leagues. Saito had a good ninth. Finally it was over, with the win still intact by a margin of six. That’s six more than what it should’ve been, if you ask me, given who we were playing and who was on the mound, namely the best bullpen in the game versus not Zack Greinke.
But we get to be happy about the offense. We definitely get to be happy about the offense. Our hitting disappeared on the homestand, which was very unusual because Fenway is where we like to bat around. Before our wins on Friday and yesterday, we were batting just .213. That’s a collective .013 points above the Mendoza Line. That’s awful. But not so after Friday, and most definitely not so after last night. We’ll just go down the line, because with fifteen runs we have a whole lot to cover. Including four long balls. We scored in every inning except the fifth and sixth, and in every inning in which we scored except the third, we scored multiple runs. Oh, yeah. We took care of business.
Drew hit an RBI double, scored a run, and walked. Pedroia hit a double and a triple, batting one in in the process, and scoring once. Youk had an absolutely monster night, going three for four with a walk, four RBIs, and four runs. Youk accounted for two of the four long balls. Two home runs on the night, numbers fifteen and sixteen on the year. I’m telling you, when Youk gets hot, he gets hot. Second inning, middle-middle fastball, and it landed in a parking lot on Lansdowne Street. Cleared the wall completely to score himself and Pedroia. Perfect. Then the eighth inning and a solo blast hit very deeply into the far right of the Green Monster. Incredible. It was just incredible. Ortiz got in on the action as well with a two-run shot of his own into the seats behind our bullpen. A three and one fastball is not something you want to throw to Big Papi now that he’s found his stroke. He would also score again and walk twice. Bay doubled and scored but struck out three times. I’m looking forward to getting back to the days when that does not happen. The good news is that he’s in the process of getting out of his slump. He’s had a few good days here, a few good days there, so he’s in that sort of gray area between hot and not. He’ll get there. He did steal second last night. Ellsbury hit, walked, scored, stole, and batted one in. Tek walked, scored three times, and accounted for the fourth long ball, which whipped around the Pesky Pole. He’s already got thirteen on the year. That ties his season total from last year. Wow. And to finish, Kotsay walked twice, Bates collected his first Major League RBI, and Green batted in two.
Every member of the lineup reached base at least once. Not the starting lineup. The lineup, period. Everyone reached base. All but two members of the lineup batted in at least one run. All but one member of the lineup scored at least one run. That’s a lot of runs. Seriously. A whole lot of runs. But we needed that, just like we need this break.
And we extend our lead over the Yanks to two games in the process. We’re playing .609 ball, which is still good for the best record in the American League, but we have a long way to go to catch the Dodgers for best record in the Majors. Bruce Chen at Beckett, and all we have to do is win this one and cruise into the All-Star break on a high note. Speaking of which, Youk has declined an invitation to the home run derby to spend more time with his son. Bay already stated back in May that he wouldn’t be participating after he didn’t hit any in the 2005 derby. But you know what, everyone has his reasons. And Youk’s reason is definitely a good one.
