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August 14, 2007
BOSTON – Heading into last night, the Boston Red Sox were just 1-41 when trailing after eight innings. Now make that 2-42.
Back in the lineup after missing three out of the last four games with a virus, Coco Crisp followed up a Mike Lowell homer and a two-out double by Jason Varitek with the game-winning hit in the bottom of the ninth, as the Sox edged Tampa Bay, 2-1, last night at Fenway.
The only other time they have celebrated a walk-off win was way back on Mother's Day when Boston scored all of its runs in the ninth inning of a 6-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on May 13.
``Especially with knowing the Yankees lost, this is just a good win,'' said Sox reliever Eric Gagne, who secured the win after pitching a scoreless ninth. ``Momentum changes with something like this. We didn't swing the bats great, so to win is real good.''
The focus of Boston's excitement began on the mound, where Jon Lester was making his first start at Fenway since facing the Yankees here on Aug. 18 of last year. After lasting just 3.1 innings last Wednesday at Anaheim, an outing in which he received a no decision after giving up 5 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks, the young lefty produced a solid effort last night – and at eight innings, his longest since going that long in a combined one-hitter with Jonathan Papelbon against Kansas City on July 18, 2006.
``He was aggressive with his fastball, commanded it,'' Francona said. ``(He) threw his cutter, change up and curve ball. And from the first pitch – even though he threw three balls – he was aggressive, down with a good angle on his fastball. Even his demeanor on the mound looked different. He looked like he was in charge of the game.''
After giving up a leadoff walk to the Rays' Akinori Iwamura, Lester then retired the next nine batters. It wasn't until the fourth that Carl Crawford ended his bid for a no-hitter with a leadoff double off the left-field wall. A B.J. Upton liner just managed to elude the glove of second baseman Dustin Pedroia for a single that moved Crawford to third.
Carlos Pena then drove Crawford in with a sacrifice fly to center to put Tampa Bay up, 1-0. That's the way the score would stay until the bottom of the ninth, as Boston continued to have difficulty against the Rays' Scott Kazmir.
Coming into last night's game, the only Sox in the lineup that had ever had much success against the southpaw were Dustin Pedroia (.500) and Julio Lugo (.400). That very much remained the case in this outing, as well, as Kazmir gave up just four hits – two of them to Pedroia, the first being a double high off the left-field wall – over six innings.
``He's a young lefthander with exceptional stuff,'' Sox manager Terry Francona said of Kazmir.``He had all his pitches working tonight. He pretty much had his way with us.''
Boston also couldn't get anything going against right-handed relievers Gary Glover (in the seventh) or Warwick native Dan Wheeler (in the eighth), but gave itself a chance by keeping Tampa Bay from pushing any more runs across.
Relieving Lester in the eighth, Manny Delcarmen gave up a leadoff single to Jonny Gomes, then walked Josh Wilson. Josh Paul sacrificed them both over with a bunt down the third-base line.
After getting Iwamura to hit a fly-out to left that was too shallow for Gomes to try to tag, Delcarmen intentionally walked Crawford to load the bases.
Mike Timlin took over for Delcarmen at that point and got B.J. Upton to strike out swinging to end that threat. Francona then handed Gagne the ball in the ninth.
Though he drew some boos when he threw three straight balls to start his outing, Gagne, who blew two leads in Boston's weekend series at Baltimore, had the Sox fans quickly cheering him on again, as the right-hander proceeded to strike out Carlos Pena and Delmon Young. He surrendered a two-out double to right to Brendan Harris, but had the sell-out crowd roaring again when he fanned Jonny Gomes for the final out of the inning.
Those cheers would continue in the bottom half of the frame. After Manny Ramirez started off Boston's final at-bat looking at a called third strike, Lowell came through with the Red Sox' first home run in a week, blasting a 2-and-0 pitch from Al Reyes onto Lansdowne Street.
Kevin Youkilis also struck out looking, but Varitek then bounced a ground-rule double over the right-field wall, which Crisp followed with a line drive to right to drive him home.
``We had obviously a pretty quiet night offensively, and then Mike Lowell jumps on a pitch and the whole complexion of the game changes,'' Francona said. ``All of a sudden, the tide (turned). We have (Hideki) Okajima in the bullpen, we're at home and our inning's not over. Jason has a great at-bat. I think from the dugout, we all didn't think it was going out, but we were blowing on it and pushing it, hoping it would go. And then Coco has a real good at-bat and stays on it enough. And then you're just hoping the ball short hops like it did because you know (Tampa Bay outfielder Delmon Young has) got a good arm out there. It's nice to see our guys jumping on each other. We haven't seen that a lot.''
--CAROLYN THORNTON
Posted by Corey Bourassa 
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