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April 7, 2007
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Limited to three hits Friday afternoon, the Sox broke out of their offensive doldrums with 11 hits last night. But it wasn’t nearly enough to off-set a failure by their bullpen.
The Sox were still within striking distance when starter Julian Tavarez left after four innings, trailing by two. But a disastrous sixth inning saw the Texas Rangers pound Kyle Snyder and J.C. Romero for four runs, helping them to an 8-4 victory over the Sox.
The Sox posed a mild threat in the seventh after Texas starter Kevin Millwood had departed and nicked the Rangers’ bullpen for a run when Manny Ramirez lined a sharp single to center, scoring Julio Lugo (single) and sending David Ortiz (walk) to second.
But former Red Sox pitcher Ron Mahay came on to get J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell and the Sox never offered much offensively after that.
The Sox stranded 10 runners on the night and once more had difficulty producing with runners on base.
The Boston bullpen had thrown eight consecutive scoreless innings coming into the game, but that streak ended in hurry last night.
In the sixth, Snyder gave up a leadoff double to Jerry Hairston Jr. and left one out later for Romero. Romero had been almost perfect in his three previous appearances, allowing only one hit over 2 2/3 innings, but couldn’t record an out as he faced five hitters.
Mark Teixeria greeeted him with a run-scoring single and Sammy Sosa followed with a belt to left-center, the 589th of his career and first of the season.
Singles by Hank Blalock and Brad Wilkerson kept the inning going and Nelson Cruz’ blistering shot off Dustin Pedroia’s glove scored the fourth run of the inning before Brendan Donnelly came in to finally get the third out.
Millwood recovered from a shaky start -- 50 pitches in the first two innings -- to find himself in the middle innings.
In getting Ortiz to ground out to end the second, Millwood went on to retire seven of the next eight Red Sox hitters and nine of the next 11.
Finally, in the sixth, the Sox stirred some. Drew singled to center and rode home one out later when Jason Varitek laced a pitch down-and-away to the wall in left for a run-scoring double.
It was the catcher’s second hit of the season and second RBI.
Tavarez, installed in the rotation in the final week of spring training, began well enough, retiring the first five hitters he faced, but there were warning signs in the second when he walked two after two were out and had wiggle out of a bases-loaded jam.
He wasn’t nearly so successful in the third when the Rangers scored four times.
After Jerry Hairston Jr. walked with one out, Michael Young drove a ball the opposite way. J.D. Drew attempted to cut the ball off the near the right field foul line, but the ball skipped under his glove and rolled to the corner as Hairston scored.
Drew then compounded things when his throw sailed over two teammates -- Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis. Varitek had to retrieve the ball himself in front of the plate and when he raced back to the plate to apply a swipe tag to Young, he was a fraction of a second late.
There was more trouble for Tavarez still to come. Singles by Teixeria and Sosa plus a walk to Wilkerson filled the bases for Cruz, who lined a bullet to left.
Ramirez seemed unwilling to make a diving stab at the ball for fear it might get past him. Instead, the ball fell a foot in front of him and Teixeria and Sosa scored, giving the Rangers’ a two-run lead.
It looked like it might be a quick night for Millwood, but the Sox weren’t as opportunistic as they could have been and had to be satisfied with single runs in the first and second when they could have had more.
With runners at the corners and one out in the first, Drew dropped a ball inside the left-field line, scoring Youkilis from third easily. But Ramirez, breaking from first with the play in front of him, made an ill-advised dash for third and was out easily.
The Sox collected three walks and a hit in the second, but had to be content with just a single run.
A single to center by Lugo scored Coco Crisp from second, but with the bases loaded, Millwood got Ortiz to ground out to first, stranding three.
--SEAN McADAM
Posted by Chris Venditto 
at 11:31 PM | Permalink
