Projo Sox Blog

BY ROBERT LEE
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON - Nothing has come easy for the Red Sox this month.

Not even a 9-0 lead was safe Saturday night against the Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park.
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John Smoltz had his best outing in a Red Sox uniform, while Boston's hitters, who were batting .235 as a team in their previous 12 outings, broke out of their hitting slump and amassed nine runs through the first four innings. But Boston's bullpen nearly blew the game in front of a sellout crowd of 37,825.

When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, the Red Sox had survived a furious Royals rally to win 15-9 and improve to 53-34 to take a two-game lead over the New York Yankees in the division standings.

"[You] play the game, try to play the game right, play through the frustrations and hopefully you win," sighed manager Terry Francona when it was over.

It wasn't easy.

Smoltz did his part by scattering four hits in five innings. He allowed just one run while striking out seven. He walked one batter and hit another.

Because Smoltz threw 97 pitches through five innings, 63 of which were strikes, he didn't come out to pitch in the sixth.

"We were hoping to get another inning," said Francona, "but [his pitch count] was about 97. And all the time we've spent getting him back, we didn't want him to have to reach back for a tough sixth. It didn't make sense to me."

The Red Sox wish he had. The Royals scored five runs on Red Sox reliever Justin Masterson in the frame, and suddenly it was a 9-6 ballgame.

Kansas City's hitters had their way against Masterson (1/3 inning, 4 hits, 5 runs, 1 walk, 1 strikeout), Manny Delcarmen (1/3 inning, 1 hit, 1 walk,), and Hideki Okajima (1/3 inning, 2 hits, 1 run, 1 strikeout) before Daniel Bard was able to stop the bleeding.

Jose Guillen led-off the seventh inning with a solo home run hit off of Okajima that cut Boston's lead to 9-7. After back-to-back singles by Mike Jacobs and Alberto Callaspo, Bard replaced Okajima and struckout the next two batters before getting David DeJesus to ground out to first base to end the threat.

"He pounded the zone at a time when we really needed it," said Francona. "He settled everything down."

Boston added three insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh when Jason Bay scored on an error and Nick Green hit a two-run single to left field with the bases loaded.

And as it turned out, they needed those runs. A Kevin Youkilis error set the stage for Billy Butler's RBI single and Guillen's sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth inning, cutting Boston's lead to 12-9.

But Youkilis (3-for-4, walk, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 4 runs scored) hit his second home run of the game in the eighth and Aaron Bates followed that up by recording his first major league hit, an RBI single. J.D. Drew was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Jason Varitek scored to put the Red Sox up 15-9. Takashi Saito shut out Kansas City in the ninth inning to secure the hard-fought win for the Red Sox.

It seemed only fitting that Dustin Pedroia was the one who ignited Boston's bats. Pedroia, who went 2-for-6 with a double, a triple, a RBI, and two runs scored, is hitting .481 (13-for-27) with six doubles, two homers, 5 RBI and 7 runs scored over his last six games. He got Boston's first hit of the night when he hit his first triple of the season in the bottom of the opening frame.

Youkilis drove him in with a RBI single hit up the middle. After David Ortiz walked, Jason Bay hit a routine ground ball to the shortstop, but Tony Pena misfired on his throw to second base and Youkilis scored on the error while Ortiz advanced to third base and Bay made it safely to first.

Ortiz scored on Jacoby Ellsbury's RBI sacrifice fly to left field.

The Red Sox added three more runs in the bottom of the second inning with two outs. After J.D. Drew scored on a Pedroia double, Youkilis blasted the first pitch he saw over the Green Monster and out of the park, giving the Red Sox a 6-0 cushion. The ball landed in the back of a black pickup truck.

Varitek got in on the action when he ripped a solo home run down the right-field line to make it 7-0 in the bottom of the third frame, and Ortiz gave the Red Sox a 9-0 lead when he recorded his 1,000th career hit in the bottom of the fourth inning which also happened to be a two-run home run.

All of which set the stage for Smoltz' first victory in a Boston uniform.

"The more he pitches, the better he's going to get," said Francona.

The Red Sox and Royals will close out their four-game series on Sunday at 1:35 p.m. at Fenway Park. Boston is leading the series, 2-1.

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