Smoltz Gets It Done by Jared Carrabis
Smoltz picks up first win in Boston, Sox homer four times


For the first time since April 17, 2008, John Smoltz was the winning pitcher at the Major League level and for the first time in his 20-year career, that win did not come with the Atlanta Braves.

Smoltz made his fourth start of the 2009 season on Saturday night in search of his first win in a Red Sox uniform. Red Sox Nation has been pulling for Smoltz to succeed ever since he agreed to come to Boston, but his first three starts haven't given Sox fans much to cheer about. Given his past, the fans, his teammates and Red Sox management have backed the Hall of Famer-to-be, as the right-hander has pitched well enough to win one of his past three starts, but a bullpen implosion wiped his decision clean.

The main culprit in Smoltz's Boston failures haven't been so much his lack of effectiveness, rather the owner of 3,000+ strikeouts has had a case of the "one bad inning" syndrome. The Red Sox offense is capable of putting up big numbers, as they displayed tonight, but when Smoltz has struggled, so too have the Sox bats.

Smoltz shined in his five innings of work, allowing just four hits and one earned run while striking out seven, his most while donning a Red Sox uniform. Behind him, his offense went to work by tearing the cover off the ball. When the 42-year-old walked off the mound in the fifth, the scoreboard behind him displayed a promising 9-1 lead.

The nine runs compiled by Boston were headlined by three home runs. One from Kevin Youkilis, another from the captain, Jason Varitek, and towering two-run blast off the bat of David Ortiz.

Smoltz departed after tossing 97 pitches, in a great position to pick up his first win in a Red Sox uniform. Little did he, the Fenway Faithful and the fans watching at home know that the battle to chalk up a win next to his name would be so difficult at that point.

The pesky Royals attacked Justin Masterson for five runs in the top of the sixth. The five earned bumped Masterson's ERA from 4.31 to 4.99. In fact, Masterson was one of the biggest culprits in the last bullpen meltdown that stripped Smoltz of his chance to pick up a win in Baltimore.

July 11: 0.1 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 1 HR, 1 BB, 25 pitches
July 9: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 HR, 14 pitches
June 30: 2.0 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 1 HR, 35 pitches

In all of 2008, Masterson served up 10 HR, and the side-arm slinging reliever has already allowed six long balls in '09.

In the seventh inning, Masterson's bullpen-mate Hideki Okajima served up a laser beam of a home run to Jose Guillen to make it a three-run game. Daniel Bard charged in from the bullpen in the seventh and stopped the Royals dead in their tracks by striking out two batters and lighting up the gun with fastballs cruising in at speeds of 99 MPH.

Fearing an implosion similar to the one the Sox suffered in Baltimore, the offense went to work in the bottom half of the seventh. The Boston bats plated three runs, including a bases loaded RBI single off the bat of Nick Green.

The Royals tagged on a pair of unearned runs to make the game 12-9 in favor of the Red Sox entering the bottom half of the eighth. Kevin Youkilis started off the inning with a bomb over the Green Monster for his second home run of the game and his sixteenth of the season.

Aaron Bates tagged on another run with an RBI base hit into center field and JD Drew was drilled by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in Boston's fifteenth run.

Takashi Saito was called upon to shut it down in the ninth and a quick one-two-three inning put an end to the one that almost got away. John Smoltz earned his first victory in his fourth try with the Boston Red Sox, and with a Yankee loss out in Anaheim, the Red Sox moved to two games up in the American League East.

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

Kevin Youkilis' 16 home runs this season are the most that the Red Sox All Star has launched in his career prior to the All Star break.

Aaron Bates' eighth inning two-out RBI single was the first hit and RBI of his Major League career. Congrats Aaron!

David Ortiz's two-run bomb was home run number 301 for his career and, very appropriately, it was his 1,000th hit as a member of the Boston Red Sox. His 1,000 hits in a Red Sox uniform ranks him 30th in team history. Next up to pass is the man who got his job taken by Nomar Garciaparra, John Valentin. 44 more hits will move Ortiz past Valentin, but he more than likely won't be able to eclipse the all time leader, Carl Yastrzemski, who sprayed 3,419 hits in his Red Sox career.

The Red Sox were out-hit in this one 13-12, but the Royals' three errors to Boston's one played a big factor in this one.

This isn't Red Sox related, but I found it humorous. The Tampa Bay Rays rocked their retro Tampa Bay Devil Rays uniforms tonight at the Trop and went right back to their old ways, getting dunked on, 7-2 and falling back 5.5 games in the AL East.

Sunday's pitching match-up:

In the Sox' final game before the All Star break, Josh Beckett will get the ball with the chance to even himself up with his teammate, Tim Wakefield, for most wins in all of baseball. No matter how you look at it, Josh Beckett is straight up filthy under all circumstances tomorrow. He's 3-0 with a 2.41 ERA and 28 strikeouts in his career against Kansas City. He's 6-0 when pitching after a Red Sox loss, but that won't come into play. In Beckett's last ten starts, he's given up two earned runs or less in eight of those ten starts. At Fenway Park, Beckett is 5-0 with a 2.85 ERA and has struck out 47 batters in 53.2 innings. Beckett's next win will be win number 100 for his career. His opponent, Bruce Chen, is 0-3 with a 6.88 ERA.

-Jared Carrabis



Published on July 12, 2009

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