Benedict Lackey by Jared Carrabis
Lackey switches dugouts, defeats former club


It was a picture perfect night for Boston sports fans, especially those of the Red Sox.

It was Nomar Night at Fenway Park, and among the most excited people in the entire world was yours truly. I'll spare you the emotional blabbing about Nomar, his life and career with the Boston Red Sox, but if you are in fact interested, you can read all about his trials and tribulations with the Red Sox by clicking here.

Right-hander John Lackey got the nod on Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and his career numbers against the Halos were non-existent. Why? Because the Angels were the only organization that Lackey had ever known, prior to donning a Red Sox jersey this past offseason.

Looking to live up the expectations of being the highest-paid pitcher in Red Sox history, Lackey made great strides against his former club.

The big right-hander hurled 102 pitches over seven innings, holding the Angels to just one run on two hits. Just one mistake was the difference-maker between having a shutout and not.

A fifth inning solo home run by Brandon Wood deprived Lackey of his shutout, but it did not knock him off his game. Lackey racked up two K's in the top of the first and collected the biggest strikeout of the night when he whiffed Wood in a 2-out, bases loaded situation in the second.

Had Wood homered in that at bat instead of with the bases empty, the headlines might be a little different today.

The Red Sox got their scoring started when Adrian Beltre sent a chopper up the third baseline to drive in JD Drew.

Two frames later, David Ortiz came to the plate looking to bring teammate Dustin Pedroia's postgame words from Tuesday night to life. Having already singled in the second on a hard liner, Ortiz drove an off-speed offering from Joel Pineiro into the Monster seats for his fourth home run of the season.

In the bottom of the seventh with men on first and second, Kevin Youkilis shot a base hit through the left side. Playing just his fourth game in the outfield this season, Hideki Matsui came up firing and gunned down Marco Scutaro at the plate to keep it a one-run game.

In the bottom of the eighth, Adrian Beltre, who has been hot virtually for the entire season, absolutely murdered a 3-1 fastball from Brian Fuentes. Beltre hit an absolute bomb into the cameras in center field to give Boston a 3-1 lead.

Jonathan Papelbon came on in the ninth and slammed the door to make it three straight against the Angels. For Papelbon, it's his eighth save of the season, as Daniel Bard and his two strikeouts were credited with his sixth hold of the season.

Final score: Angels 1, Red Sox 3
WP: John Lackey (3-1)
LP: Joel Pineiro (2-4)
SV: Jonathan Papelbon (8)

Game notes: David Ortiz has now homered three times in his last four games. His opposite field HR on Wednesday night was the 321st long ball of his career, putting him in a three-way tie to 100th on the all-time HR list with Adam Dunn of the Washington Nationals and Ron Gant, who last played with Oakland in 2003. With his win over the Angels on Wednesday, John Lackey has defeated every American League team. Just the Diamondbacks, Braves, Marlins, Astros, and Pirates stand in his way for his career.

Tweet of the Night:

After the bomb squad was called to Fenway Park prior to the game after an apparent bomb threat to the park, Red Sox beat writer for the Providence Journal, Brian MacPherson, comes up with the TOTN:

@brianmacp: Paging the bomb squad: Beltre just hit one to center field.

Thursday's pitching match-up:

The Red Sox will send Daisuke Matsuzaka to the mound in hopes of a four-game sweep against the Angels. Matsuzaka was less than impressive in his first start of the season against the Baltimore Orioles. Matsuzaka gave up seven runs on seven hits, mostly towards the end of his outing. The right-hander is 1-1 in his career against the Halos with a 4.91 ERA. Opposing Matsuzaka will be the former nemesis of the Boston Red Sox, Scott Kazmir. In his career, the lefty Kazmir is 8-7 against Boston with a 3.59 ERA.

To order Jared's debut book, One Fan's Story: If This Hat Could Talk, click HERE!





Published on May 06, 2010

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