BoSox Keep Rockin' and Knockin' for Another Week
The Boston Red Sox did what they had to do this week, winning five of six at home.
Now, they'll get ready for another tough week, with three home games versus Detroit and a four-game trip to Yankee Stadium.
The Red Sox took two of three games from Baltimore before sweeping the the lowly White Sox over the weekend. Shane Victorino started things off by going three-for-three with two home runs and seven RBIs as Boston won, 13-2. Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia also had three hits in support of Felix Doubrant, who picked up his tenth victory.
Boston won the following evening, 4-3, when Mike Carp hit a bloop pinch-hit single in the eighth inning to plate the deciding run. Baltimore had led 3-1 in the seventh before Pedroia tied it with a two-out single, setting up Carp's heroics one inning later. The Orioles avoided the sweep the next night with a tense 3-2 victory, as they defeated Jon Lester, who saw his record drop to 12-8.
The BoSox needed to sweep Chicago at home before the schedule got tougher, and they did. It wasn't easy; two of the wins were one run victories.
The Red Sox won the first game, 4-3, after jumping to a 4-0 lead and then withstanding a late ChiSox rush. Ryan Dempster got the win in his first game back after his suspension, while Victorino and David Ortiz got the key hits. Ortiz had been 0-for-23 before lining a two-run single in the fouth inning that proved to be the winners.
Jake Peavy pitched against his old team on Saturday night and won easily, 7-2. Ellsbury pounded a key ground-rule double in the fourth to put the Red Sox ahead for good, while Peavy gave up only five hits in seven innings. Ortiz, Mike Napoli, and Jonny Gomes garnered RBIs, as did top prospect Xander Bogaerts, who was just bought up from the minors.
A back-and-forth 7-6 victory completed Boston's sweep on Sunday. They jumped to a 5-0 lead on hits from Ellsbury, Ortiz, and a Stephen Drew home run, but Doubrant struggled, allowing Chicago to cut the lead to 5-4. Pedroia and a suddenly hot Ortiz pushed the score to 7-4, and when the White Sox drew to within 7-6, Koji Uehara came in and picked up his 16th save, extending his scoreless streak to 24 innings.
Uehara is just another piece of the puzzle for the Sox this season, where everything has come together. He wasn't even in the conversation as a closer in the beginning of the year, but with Andrew Bailey, Joel Hanrahan, and Andrew Miller out for the duration, he came out of nowhere to be the late-game savior for the Red Sox.