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September 7, 2007
BALTIMORE — The key when you’re playing a team that has basically called it a season and is checking off the final days on the calendar in eager anticipation of the last game is to take care of business and claim as many victories as possible against that team.
So it is with the Boston Red Sox in this four-game series at Camden Yards against the already-packed-it-in-looking Baltimore Orioles.
And Boston did what it had to, subduing the slumping Orioles, 4-0, sending them to their 15th loss in their last 17 games, including two straight in this series.
The winning pitcher was Jon Lester, and while the left-hander may recently have fallen a bit into the shadow of rookie right-hander Clay Buchholz, he once again flashed the promise that the Red Sox have been touting for the last couple of years.
Lester, who has battled back from anaplastic large cell lymphoma that cut his season short last year, blanked the Orioles on four hits over seven innings. He fanned four and walked two in his 99-pitch outing, permitting only one Baltimore base runner to reach third. He retired 12 of the last 13 batters he faced.
It was the second time in six days that Lester (4-0) beat the Orioles. And one impressive part of his outing last night was his ability to stay focused while emotions between the teams spilled over and disrupted the game in the top of the fourth inning.
Offensively, the Red Sox, who won for the sixth time in the last seven games, managed to get to Baltimore Orioles’ starter Daniel Cabrera in two ways.
At the plate, they took advantage of his physical mistakes with the location of his pitches. And they also took advantage of him mentally, leading to an on-field skirmish in the top of the fourth inning that began when Coco Crisp, running from third base, embarrassed Cabrera by faking him into committing a run-producing balk.
That led to Cabrera’s throwing his next pitch behind the head of Dustin Pedroia, and sparked a spirited get-together on the field, including the relievers spilling out of the bullpen. And eventually Cabrera was ejected.
The right-hander, who has All-Star talent that hasn’t been harnessed because he’s prone to wildness, coughed up a pair of runs in the second inning. It was his lack of control that got him into danger.
Cabrera, whose fastball was in the 93-98-mph range last night, got ahead of Kevin Youkilis, leading off the inning, at 0-and-2. But Cabrera proceeded to throw the next four pitches out of the strike zone, giving Boston’s inning a jump-start with a walk.
J.D. Drew, mired in a 4-for-35 drought, then laced a ground-rule double to right-center. Jason Varitek cashed in one of the runners with a single to right and Crisp’s sacrifice fly chased home the run that made it a 2-0 game.
It was Boston’s third run that triggered the inflamed emotions in the fourth. Crisp opened the inning with a single and moved to third on a pair of groundouts. With a 1-and-0 count on Pedroia, Crisp gave a good fake that he was about to make a mad dash to the plate, attempting to steal home.
Cabrera began his motion, saw Crisp out of the corner of his eye and, as Crisp put on the brakes, Cabrera stopped his motion, which is a balk. That gave Crisp home, put the Sox on top, 3-0, and led to a little extra curricular activity.
The game was delayed for about 15 minutes before everything was sorted out.
Lester struggled to recapture the groove he had been in. He was nicked for a single by Miguel Tejada, leading off the bottom of the fourth, and then he walked Kevin Millar, putting runners at first and second with none out.
Lester, though, steadied himself, showing impressive poise. He got Aubrey Huff to hit into a forceout and, with runners at first and third and one out, Lester calmly retired Ramon Hernandez on a soft liner to short and emerged unscathed on Jay Payton’s fielder’s choice grounder.
As Lester kept sailing through the Orioles’ batting order, his teammates managed to tack on another run, thanks in part to the blazing speed of Jacoby Ellsbury, who scored from second on Youkilis’ two-out line-drive single to left in the seventh, making it a 4-0 Red Sox advantage.
--STEVEN KRASNER
Posted by Chris Venditto 
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