You May be excused by Jared Carrabis
After Bard falters in the 8th, Carl Crawford delivers his third walk-off hit in the month of May


You know you're hot when your best bullpen arm blows the game, and your slumping eighth hitter comes up with the game-winner.

In a game that was billed to be a low-scoring affair, as Josh Beckett and Justin Verlander were set to square off against each other, the end result was just that. Despite the weather slowing down Beckett’s fastball just a few notches, the veteran right-hander kept the Tigers off balance with a steady diet of two-seamers, cutters, changeups and curveballs to compliment a four-seamer that rarely cracked 93pmh.

As for Verlander, it was essentially; “here’s my fastball at 95-96mph. If you can hit it, then good for you. If you can’t, then that’s too bad.” Verlander features a devastating pair of breaking pitches, which came in handy during his no-hitter two starts prior to Thursday night’s outing against Boston.

The two aces traded hiccup innings in the second, and then combined to allow one run total through the next four frames. Beckett would exit the game after 83 pitches as a result of neck stiffness.

Thanks to a pair of homers off the bat of JD Drew and David Ortiz, the Red Sox turned a 3-1 lead over to Daniel Bard in the eighth inning. In that frame, Bard’s fastball peaked at 97, but hit heater wasn’t the problem. With a 1-0 count to three-hitter Brennan Boesch, the right-hander dealt a 91mph changeup that got sent to the seats for a solo jack.

Next up, Miguel Cabrera did what Miguel Cabrera does, and effortlessly launched a 1-1 slider into the Monster seats to tie the score at 3-3. The back-to-back homers for Detroit had taken the wind out of the sails of the Fenway Faithful, but the Red Sox remained confident, as Boston was undefeated when taking a lead into the eighth inning, as they did on Thursday.

With the game knotted at three in the ninth, Jonathan Papelbon emerged from the Boston bullpen, and what would a Papelbon outing be without nail-biting drama? With one out, the Boston closer allowed a pair of singles, and a five-pitch walk to load the bases for the part of the order that had punished Daniel Bard an inning prior.

Much like he did on Wednesday night when he allowed the tying run to reach third base with one out, Papelbon bared down, punching out the next two batters in Boesch and Cabrera, leaving the bases loaded, and a plume of smoke rising from Jason Varitek’s glove, as the last fastball registered at 97mph.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Red Sox returned the favor by loading the bases with no outs. Jed Lowrie made a bid to be the walk-off hero by dumping a bloop into shallow left, but with the force out being recorded at home, the fate of the game was then placed in the hands of Carl Crawford.

With Fenway on their feat, Crawford lined a 1-1 fastball back up the middle to record his third walk-off hit in the month of May, giving the Red Sox their sixth consecutive victory to move three games over .500, and a game-and-a-half back of the first-place Tampa Bay Rays.

Cubs fans should consider themselves lucky that they have a curse to blame for the ass-kicking that is coming their way this weekend.

-Jared Carrabis

Final score: Tigers 3, Red Sox 4

Also, on a side note, there are two new episodes of SoxSpace TV up on our YouTube channel! Be sure to check those out (episodes 6 and 7) and don't forget to subscribe!

Published on May 20, 2011

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