No Way, Jose by Jared Carrabis
Sox continue dominance of Contreras, get Buchholz off the hook


In the two games that the RemDawg has been back in the booth, the Red Sox have scored 23 runs. Coincidence? I think not.

Coming off a disappointing series loss to the Yankees, the Red Sox looked to turn their fortunes around, as they welcomed the Chicago White Sox to Fenway Park for a four-game series.

In his previous three starts, Clay Buchholz had pitched like the number three starter that he had become by default. Posting a 1.89 ERA in 19 innings against the Yankees, Tigers and Blue Jays, Buchholz proved his worth to this Red Sox team, which may have had a great hand in why he still dons a Red Sox uniform in August. The high hopes that Red Sox baseball executives have for Buchholz paid off in high dividends over his last three starts, but as Monday night reminded us all, the young right-hander is still developing.

Buchholz last faced the Chicago White Sox on August 10, 2008. A game in which the right-hander got torched for five earned runs on seven hits, three of which were home runs.

On Monday night, it was more of the same for Buchholz against Ozzy Guillen's squad. After 92 pitches had been thrown, Buchholz had served up a two-run home run to Gordon Beckham and a three-run blast to Paul Konerko. When the right-hander was yanked from the game with two outs in the fifth, seven runs had been charged to Buchholz. He also walked three and struck out three.

Now, Buchholz's rough outing would have been a back-breaker for the Sox, had Jose Contreras been scheduled to start this game. Entering the game with a lifetime 3-5 record and an 8.82 ERA against the Sox, the Boston bats went to work to prove that these numbers were no fluke.

The Sox picked up a run in the bottom of the second to cut Chicago's lead in half, but the bottom of the third when things got really interesting. Alex Gonzalez started off the frame with a grounder back up the middle for a base hit. Contreras recovered to record the next two outs consecutively, but that's when the wheels fell off.

With two down, Contreras issued a seven-pitch walk to Victor Martinez and hit Kevin Youkilis with an 0-2 changeup to load up the bases. Swinging on 3-0, David Ortiz hit a dribbler down the first baseline that Contreras couldn't handle. An error was charged to the pitcher, Ortiz was safe on the play and Gonzalez came in to score from third.

The inning continued when Jason Bay walked on five pitches to bring home another run and Mike Lowell to the plate. Grinding out an eight-pitch at bat, Lowell got a 3-2 fastball and crushed it high over the Monster and onto the streets of Boston. The thee-run home run for Lowell was his sixteenth of the season, which put Boston on top

Of the six runs that the Red Sox tagged Contreras for, only one of them was earned. It took a single, two walks, an error and a three-run home run, all of which were the fault of Contreras himself. The right-hander departed from the game after going just 2.2 innings, tossing 84 pitches and giving up seven runs (one earned) on four hits. He walked three and struck out one.

A sacrifice fly by Dustin Pedroia and an RBI single by Youkilis added onto Boston's lead to make it 9-4 in favor of the Red Sox. The White Sox would close the gap in the top of the fifth when Konerko connected for the three-run home run I mentioned earlier.

In the bottom of the seventh, Boston would strike back to get those three runs right back. With two outs to start the inning, JD Drew hammered a 3-1 fastball into the bullpen area for his sixteenth home run of the season. A series of extra base hits would ensue, as Gonzalez doubled down the left field line. The Boston shortstop would come around to score when Jacoby Ellsbury got a lucky Fenway bounce in the left field corner, which allowed him to cruise into third base with his seventh triple of the season. Pedroia then drove his second double and third hit of the night into the gap in left-center to drive in Ellsbury.

With a four-run lead in the top of the ninth, manager Terry Francona went to his closer, who hadn't worked in six days. Jonathan Papelbon retired the first two batters he faced by way of the K and recorded the final out of the game without allowing a run or a hit.

Buchholz failed to go five innings in this one, so Ramon Ramirez picks up with win after going 1.2 innings of work without allowing a hit and striking out one.

Final Score: White Sox 8, Red Sox 12

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

Dustin Pedroia hit his 40th double of the season on Monday night and has six doubles in his last three games. In 15 games against the White Sox, Pedroia is hitting at a .397 clip with six doubles and a HR. Those numbers spark quotes from Ozzie Guillen such as this gem from last year:

"I never thought I was going to walk a God damn jockey. Walking a guy who just came from being on top of Big Brown. Right now, he's on a roll. This guy right now is on fire. No matter what you throw up there, he's going to get it. I can't believe you can change professions in one year, go from the Kentucky Derby to the Boston Red Sox ballpark. I think Pedroia is the heart of [Boston's] ballclub right now. A lot of people talk about Manny [Ramirez] leaving, I wish Pedroia was the one who was leaving because this kid can beat you so many different ways."

Mike Lowell belted his 16th HR of the season in the first game of this series. With is next long ball, he will match his HR total from 2008. Lowell's career high was 32 HR back in 2003, but he still has a shot of matching and/or passing his best mark with the Red Sox, which was 21 HR in 2007.

JD Drew also hit his 16th HR of the 2009 season on Monday night. Drew will likely surpass his best season with Boston, which was 2008, when the left-hander lifted 19 HR.

Who says Alex Gonzalez is only good for defense? Since joining the Red Sox on August 15, he has reached base safely in six of his nine games with Boston, including a three-hit performance on Monday night.

Brad Penny, who was recently demoted out of Boston's rotation, has a record of 7-8. After the Red Sox held on to defeat the White Sox, reliever Ramon Ramirez improved to 7-3 out of the pen. Just sayin'.

You know the college student that waits until the last minute before writing all of their five-page papers? That's the Red Sox. In tonight's game, 11 of the first 12 runs that Boston scored came with two outs. In fact, 27 of the last 30 runs that the Red Sox have scored have come with two outs. Even better, the Red Sox lead all of Major League Baseball with 268 two-out RBI.

The Red Sox have won six of their last seven home games against the White Sox.

Tuesday's pitching match-up:

In game two of this series, the pitching match-up heavily favors the Red Sox. Jon Lester will get the ball against Chicago, opposing Freddy Garcia and his 10.38 ERA. In his career, Garcia holds a less than impressive 4.38 ERA against Boston. On the other side of things, Lester has allowed no more than one earned run in nine of his last fifteen starts. In 27 innings this month, the left-hander has posted an ERA of 2.00 with 17 strikeouts.

Eye on the scoreboard:

Tampa Bay 12, Toronto 7
Texas - Off
New York - Off

Result: With Tampa Bay's shellacking against Roy Halladay on Monday (6 IP, 12 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 1 HR), the Rays remain three back of Boston in the Wild Card, but move within a game-and-a-half of the Texas Rangers. Boston bumps up to 7 back in the AL East, while picking up a half-game over the Rangers in the Wild Card to improve their lead to 1.5 games. On Tuesday, the Yankees and Rangers begin a three-game set that will shake things up in either the Wild Card or AL East race for Boston.

If you follow me on Twitter:

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen this Tweet from me last night from Fenway Park, "I've been coming to Fenway since 1997, and Hannah Kramer just sang the best National Anthem I've ever heard in my life. PS: She's 19!"

Well, I Facebooked Hannah today and she sent me the YouTube video of her performance at Fenway from Sunday night and I just had to share it with all of you. It gave me chills and almost had me in tears. Check it out!



PS: My book comes out in three days! (August 28)

-Jared Carrabis





Published on August 25, 2009

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