No Lead Is Safe At Fenway by Jared Carrabis
Penny wasn't worth a dime, but Sox win anyway


This starting pitching is really starting to give me a headache. With the exception of Tim Wakefield and Josh Beckett, Red Sox starters (Lester, Matsuzaka, Penny) have accumulated a combined 10.93 ERA on the young season.

Contributing to that atrocious ERA on Friday night was Brad Penny. Making his second career start at Fenway Park, first in a Red Sox uniform, Penny was less than impressive against the Baltimore Orioles. Penny struck out the first batter he saw in Brian Roberts, before going on to put a zero on the board for Boston in the top of the first. Unfortunately, it would be all downhill from there for Penny.

The top of the second inning was a complete disaster for Penny. The right-hander walked three batters in the inning, two while the bases were loaded, but the biggest blow of the inning came when Nick Markakis blasted a grand slam to dead center field. Penny recovered to record the final two outs in order following the four-run blast by the Orioles' right fielder.

Trailing 7-0 after just two innings, the Red Sox offense went to work to try and play catch up. JD Drew started the bottom of the second with a walk to put a man on for Jason Bay. The red hot Bay took a breaking ball to the opposite field that came down in the bullpen area for a two-run shot, as the Sox wasted no time chipping away at the Orioles' lead.

Mike Lowell followed up Bay's homer with a walk, and a base hit by Jason Varitek put runners at the corners. With one out, Jacoby Ellsbury poked a base hit through the left side to drive in a run. After a vist to the mound, Dustin Pedroia legged out an infield single to load up the bases for David Ortiz. Big Papi skied a fly ball to center field that plated Jason Varitek on a sacrifice fly. That would be all the Red Sox would get in the second, but they responded with a four-run frame after trailing by seven runs going into the bottom of the second.

Boston picked up another run in the bottom of the third after a leadoff home run by JD Drew, his third of the season. After walking the leadoff batter to begin the fourth inning, Brad Penny was lifted from the game for Manny Delcarmen. Delcarmen gave up an RBI double to the first batter he faced in Nick Markakis, but retired the Orioles in order after allowing the inherited runner to score.

From that point forward, the Red Sox dominant bullpen rendered Baltimore's offense helpless. Manny Delcarmen was sensational out of the bullpen in relief of Brad Penny, going 2.2 innings, giving up just the double to Markakis, while striking out two.

The Red Sox got Penny off the hook in the bottom of the fifth with a two-out rally. With the first two batters going down in order, JD Drew got things going with a triple that rattled off the wall in center field. After consecutive wakls to Jason Bay and Mike Lowell, Jason Varitek forced a run home by grounding a ball to Aubrey Huff, which the first baseman booted for an error, allowing Drew to score from third.

Then the most pleasant surprise of the young 2009 season, Nick Green, came to the plate with the bags full and two down. Down in the count 0-2, Green drove an 83 MPH slider to deep center field that got down and rolled to the wall. In to score came Jason Bay and in behind him was Mike Lowell, as the Green and the Red Sox had tied the score at eight after being down 7-0. Green certainly picked the right time to rope his first double of the 2009 season.

With Brad Penny having exited after facing 20 batters over three innings and needing 85 pitches to do so, Terry Francona once again asked a lot out of his bullpen due to another Red Sox starter being ineffective. Javier Lopez came on in relief of Manny Delcarmen in the bottom of the sixth, but failed to retire a batter. After walking the first and giving up a single to Aubrey Huff, Ramon Ramirez was called to the mound to keep the O's at bay. Ramirez went on to pitch 1.2 innings of scoreless baseball, earning his first victory in a Red Sox uniform in the process.

Boston took the lead for the first time in the bottom of the sixth on a bases loaded sacrifice fly off the bat of Jason Bay, and then added an insurance run on a base hit by Mike Lowell to make it 10-8, Red Sox. Thanks to more lights out pitching by Hideki Okajima, Jonathan Papelbon was handed a two-run lead to protect in the top of the ninth.

Papelbon gave up a leadoff single to begin the ninth, but quickly settled in, retiring the next three consecutive batters including a strikeout of Felix Pie on a 96 MPH fastball to end the game. Papelbon earned his third save of the season, as the Red Sox have now won consecutive games for the first time in 2009.

Since Josh Beckett has elected to appeal his six-game suspension handed to him by Major League Baseball, he will in fact be on the mound in the middle game of this three-game series. Beckett was lights out on Opening Day, but gave up four earned runs on eight hits against the Angels on Easter Sunday. In that game, Beckett threw 103 pitches, 61 for strikes and picked up his first loss. In Beckett's last nine starts against Baltimore, he is 4-2 with a 3.73 ERA.

-Jared Carrabis

Final Score: Orioles 8, Red Sox 10

Published on April 18, 2009

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