Captain Clutch by Jared Carrabis
Tek drives in game-winner, Sox take series opener


If you don't live in Boston, you wish you did.

Chalk up another sweep for Boston, as the Boston Bruins topped the Canes to force a game seven by a 4-2 score, the Boston Celtics edged out the Magic to take a 3-2 series lead with their 92-88 win, and the Boston Red Sox stole a 4-3 comeback victory in the ninth inning against the Angels. Oh, and by the way, SoxSpace took home some hardware by winning Best Red Sox Blog at the New England Sports Blog Awards. Let me say that one more time; you are officially reading the Best Red Sox Blog, as voted by the best fans in all of baseball.

With the Red Sox becoming the second team in the American League to reach 20 wins, Sox fans are being blinded by this team's success. What Boston fans fail to realize is that this team is nowhere near 100% and that the role players on this team have contributed a great deal to keeping this team on track. With Jed Lowrie on the shelf until the All Star break, Nick Green has performed above and beyond expectations. With Kevin Youkilis being placed on the disabled list retroactive to May 5 with an oblique injury, Jeff Bailey has chipped in his fair share.

On Sunday, Daisuke Matsuzaka tossed four shutout frames for the Portland Sea Dogs and will likely make one more rehab start before he returns to the big league roster. Matsuzaka's replacement in the Sox' roster took the mound on Tuesday night and gave Boston a great chance to win the ballgame. Masterson tossed six innings of five-hit baseball, giving up two earned runs, walking four and striking out three. The side-arm slinging right-hander need 105 pitches to make his way through 27 Angel batters. Although Masterson allowed a run in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Kendry Morales, he settled in nicely by blanking the Halos in four out of the six innings that he toed the rubber.

The Red Sox tied up the proceedings in the top of the second inning when JD Drew ripped a solo shot into right field off of Jered Weaver for his fifth home run of the season. The souvenir donated to the crowd by Drew accounted for his 18th RBI of the season. The home run for Drew was his second in the past three games. The Red Sox will need Drew to heat up if they look to keep pace with the red hot Toronto Blue Jays. Up to this point, the left-hander has been worth less than $14 million this season (.250 AVG, 5 HR, 29 K in 95 AB), but if history repeats itself, June should be interesting (if Drew can remain healthy). In June of 2008, JD Drew hit .337 in 92 at bats for Boston with 12 HR, 27 RBI and a 1.310 OPS. Hopefully, once the weather heats up in Boston, so will JD Drew.

With Dustin Pedroia scratched from Tuesday's lineup with a strained right groin, the Red Sox offense had to pick up the slack with Kevin Youkilis being placed on the disabled list just moments before the 10:05 start. With the Angels picking up a run in the fourth and adding an insurance run on an RBI single by Torii Hunter in the seventh, the Sox offense had their work cut out for them as the game neared the final frames.

Trailing by two runs in the eighth inning, the Red Sox began to stage their rally. With one out, Nick Green (1-for-3 with a walk) singled into right field to get things going for the Sox. Jacoby Ellsbury followed suit with a base-knock of his own into right field that advanced Green to third base to put runners at the corners. Julio Lugo, who was hitless on the night, walked on six pitches to load the bases for David Ortiz. After a pitching change, Darren Oliver plunked Ortiz on his left wrist for a painful RBI. With Ortiz missing significant time in 2008 with an injury to his left wrist, Red Sox fans held their breath after the left-handed slugger took a slider off the same exact wrist on Tuesday night. Ortiz would tough it out and remain in the game.

With the bases still loaded and the score now 3-2 in favor of the Angels, Jason Bay grounded a 92 MPH fastball to the right side of the infield, allowing Jacoby Ellsbury to come in through the back door to tie the game up at three.

Ramon Ramirez tossed up yet another goose egg in the eighth inning to allow the Red Sox to bat in the top of the ninth with the score knotted up at three. JD Drew singled to being the ninth and with one out, Jason Varitek launched his eighth double of the season that split the outfielders in right-center. Drew steamrolled all the way around from first base and slid across home plate to give the Red Sox a one-run advantage.

Jonathan Papelbon came out of the bullpen for the bottom of the ninth inning to shut the door once again. With the exception of a two-out walk to Bobby Abreu, Papelbon handled the Angels with ease, including a strikeout to Torii Hunter to conclude the game. The swinging K of Hunter earned Papelbon his ninth save of the season.

Tim Wakefield gets the ball in game two of this three-game set in Anaheim. Wakefield has been the biggest bang for Boston's buck thus far, giving up three earned runs or less in all but one of his outings for the Sox in '09. Wakefield is unbeaten in the month of May at 2-0 and has thrown two complete games in 29 starts against the Angels in his career.

Things you'll need to know to impress your friends:

Jason Bay's ground out to the right side of the infield to tie the game at three, which led to a 4-3 Boston victory, was Bay's 18th RBI this season when the Red Sox were within a run of their opponent. In fact, Bay is hitting at a sizzling .400 with 5 HR, 18 RBI and a 1.385 OPS when the Red Sox trail by one run. To sum that up, he's clutch. Bay's combined average in innings 7-9 sits at .375. Plain and simple, the guy gets the job done when it needs to be done.

Jason Varitek drove in the game-winning RBI on Tuesday night. In the last seven days, Varitek is hitting .308 with a .400 OBP, two doubles and an RBI. Varitek's game-winning RBI came when he was down in the count 1-2. The captain is batting .050 with 9 strikeouts when hitting behind in the count at 1-2, but was able deliver the back-breaker to the Halos on Tuesday. Tek's RBI was his second RBI in 2009 when the Sox were dealing with a tie game. The switch-hitting catcher is hitting .375 in the ninth inning this season, but his RBI double was just the first run that the Boston backstop drove in while hitting in the ninth inning so far this season. The double for Varitek upped his average to .500 against the Angels in 2009.

Papelbon's ninth save of the season bumps the right-hander up to first place in the American League in that category. Rest has been a drastic factor in Papelbon's performance in 2009, as the Boston closer's ERA is 1.80 when he is rested for 3-5 days and 2.25 on just a day's rest. Papelbon's 1.20 ERA is the lowest it has been in 2009. It was once as high as 3.86 on April 11.

Thank you all!

To the readers and supporters of SoxSpace, I could never thank you enough for giving me the greatest feeling in the world on Tuesday night in Boston. Hearing the name "SoxSpace" called after listening to "...and the winner of Best Red Sox Blog is..." by far ranks among the best moments in my life. I can't even begin to describe the feeling that I had going through my body when SoxSpace was named Best Red Sox Blog.

The best way I can describe it is that the feeling I had must be similar to the feeling that a professional baseball player feels when they win the World Series. I'm here spending hours on end working on SoxSpace day in and day out, working on the same work schedule as the Red Sox themselves, and to have all of these countless hours of hard work finally pay off is the most amazing feeling that I have ever felt in my life. I could never thank all of you enough, and I will never forget the feeling that all of you gave me when I first learned in a crowded room in Boston that the website that I built from the ground up as a 16-year-old on January 1, 2006 was named Best Red Sox Blog. My body literally went numb.

I will never be able to thank all of you enough, but I can make you all a promise that I will do everything in my power to continue to keep SoxSpace the best, if not better than it already is today.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart,
-Jared Carrabis

Final Score: Red Sox 4, Angels 3



Published on May 13, 2009

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