Déjà Vu by Jared Carrabis
Sox Walk Off For Second Straight Night

Don’t check the info on your television set, that wasn’t “Sox In 2” of Tuesday night’s game being aired again. For the second straight night, the Boston Red Sox entered the bottom of the ninth in a tie game. For the second straight night a member of the Red Sox sent a line drive back up the middle to center field. For the second straight night the Red Sox have themselves a walk off win.


Yet another wild night at Fenway Park has the Red Sox streaking in the right direction in dramatic fashion. The Red Sox won the game in their last at bat for the eighth time this young season to lead the Majors in that category. The offense was at a low for both sides yet again but in the end, the only thing that matters is if you walk away victorious. The Red Sox are back to playing great baseball all thanks to great pitching, excellent defense and timely hitting.


For a while the Red Sox only hit on the night was a single by Manny Ramirez to lead off the bottom of the second inning. In the bottom of the seventh inning, David Ortiz launched his fifth home run of the season into the third row out in right field. The solo home run accounted for the second hit of the game for the Red Sox and the first extra base hit for the entire team since last Friday when Manny Ramirez doubled in the fifth inning. A whole 39 innings in between extra base hits, quite the drought but finally has come to an end.


Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched seven complete innings for the first time this season and pitched them well. Matsuzaka yielded just two hits over those seven innings of shutout work. Daisuke walked just two batters and punched out four on the night. Manny Delcarmen took the mound in relief of Matsuzaka and was one and done when he could not retire Adam Lind who singled to center. Manager Terry Francona would motion to the bullpen for the lefty, Hideki Okajima to come on to face Gregg Zaun.


Zaun ripped a double out of left to put two men in scoring position for Alex Rios. With a big time scoring opportunity, Marco Scutaro was called upon to pinch run for Gregg Zaun. Alex Rios cranked a hitter’s count 3-1 fastball out to the right-center gap. The recently called up Brandon Moss fully extended showing shades of Trot Nixon out there to make the diving grab saving the go-ahead run from crossing home plate. Scutaro would score on the sacrifice fly by Rios to tie the game at one a piece and remove the possibility of Daisuke Matsuzaka picking up his fifth win.


Okajima would pitch his way out of the jam by striking out the next two batters (David Eckstein/Scott Rolen) to preserve the tie ballgame at hand. The Red Sox would not be able to capitalize on a one out double by Coco Crisp. Jonathan Papelbon would trot out to the mound for his second straight night of work in the ninth inning in a tie game scenario. Papelbon would let up a single to Matt Stairs to lead off the inning and John McDonald would come on to pinch run for the slow running Stairs. With Vernon Wells at the plate, Papelbon used his quick feet (as we have all seen with his dancing skills) to throw over to first and pick off the leaning McDonald. The pickoff was the first of Papelbon’s career in the regular season, but you may all remember that pickoff of Matt Holliday in the 2007 World Series. Jonathan Papelbon would go on to get the next two outs and give his team the chance to win it in the bottom half of the ninth once again.


With the shift on, Ortiz continued making up for his slow start to the season (now leads team in runs batted in) by hammering a line drive past the “Ortiz Shift” to put the lead runner on in the bottom of the ninth with no outs. Wisely, the Blue Jays didn’t give Manny Ramirez anything to hit and Ramirez worked the walk (didn’t work too hard though) to put two men on. Ortiz, now in scoring position, was called back to the dugout and Jed Lowrie strapped on his spikes and headed out to run for David Ortiz.


With one out (Lowell struck out looking), the rookie Brandon Moss came to the plate with the chance to win it against the lefty Scott Downs. There was no one warming in the Toronto bullpen so that either says that Blue Jay’s manager John Gibbons had all the confidence in the world in Downs…OR, he had absolutely no confidence in the remaining arms in his bullpen. Nevertheless, Gibbons was to ride out Scott Downs for the remainder of the ninth inning. Brandon Moss accounted for a clutch home run on Opening Day in Japan in the ninth inning and I myself saw Moss hit a ninth inning home run to tie up the proceedings during a Spring Training game this past March. Point of the story is, the kid comes up big in the clutch.


On a 3-1 offering from Downs, Moss ripped a single back up the middle as Jed Lowrie was waved around from second. Vernon Wells charged and threw a strike to home plate, Lowrie…gunned. Now with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the captain Jason Varitek strolled to the plate with Manny Ramirez now standing at second, Moss at first. The captain kept his hands back on a 2-1 breaking ball and said “Betcha can’t do that again” to Vernon Wells as he drove a single back up the middle to the Gold Glove center fielder. Ramirez would huff and puff all the way around from second and score the winning run.


Papelbon picked up his second win of the season in as many nights and the Red Sox pick up their second straight victory in back-to-back walk off fashion. The Red Sox finished off the month of April strong with 17 wins (more than they had in 2007) now sitting atop the American League East after one of the most (if not the most) bizarre starts to a season in franchise history. Closing out this three game set with Toronto will be Tim Wakefield who had a six inning (no decision) outing against Toronto earlier this season. Opposing Wake will be AJ Burnett. Burnett coughed up five runs on eight hits for a loss in his last start.


Final Score: Blue Jays 1, Red Sox 2

Published on April 30, 2008

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