Red Sox come back to life
Ninth-inning rally leads to a win in 11
By Sean McAdam | Thursday, July 2, 2009 |
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BALTIMORE - Turnabout being fair play and all, it was the Red Sox [team stats]’ time to bask in the glory of a comeback win Wednesday, staged less than 18 hours after a soul-crushing loss in which they spit up a nine-run lead with nine outs to go.
“Obviously, we thought we should have won (Tuesday) night’s game,” said Rocco Baldelli, who helped key the 6-5 comeback victory against the Baltimore Orioles in 11 innings with a two-out, two-run, game-tying, pinch-hit single in the ninth. “They obviously are in their clubhouse thinking they should have won this game. It was nice to come back and get that one.”
Said manager Terry Francona: “I guess, at the end of the year, they sort of seem like they even out - and they probably do. We needed to move on from (Tuesday) night and the easiest way to move on is to win.”
The same bullpen that collapsed in spectacular fashion the night before was perfect, with three pitchers - Daniel Bard, Ramon Ramirez and Jonathan Papelbon [stats] - retiring all 12 hitters they faced.
Kevin Youkilis [stats] put the comeback in motion with a two-run homer to right off reliever Jim Johnson. Strikeouts by Jason Bay, one of a career-high five for the game, and David Ortiz [stats] left the Sox down to their final out. A single and two walks off closer George Sherrill filled the bases for Baldelli.
“I was just looking for something out over the plate,” Baldelli said. “I got a fastball and it got in on me a little bit and I just tried to stay inside on it.”
Dustin Pedroia [stats] then popped out with the bases loaded, but two innings later, the Sox used a leadoff double from Jacoby Ellsbury [stats] and a single through the drawn-in infield by Julio Lugo [stats] to net the go-ahead run.
“We’re even now,” said Pedroia, smiling.
The Sox thought that having Josh Beckett [stats] (zero earned runs allowed in three of his previous four starts) would be enough to steal back some momentum after Tuesday’s debacle. But Beckett started poorly, walking Brian Roberts and falling behind 1-0 after two hitters.
When Beckett allowed a mammoth homer to Ty Wigginton to open the Baltimore fourth, the Sox trailed 5-1. But Beckett figured something out after that, retiring the final dozen hitters.
“He didn’t have a good feel for the ball early,” catcher Jason Varitek [stats] said of Beckett, “but he was able to get us late into that game and save the bullpen. He was able to start executing what he was doing. It was big that the game didn’t get too far out of hand. You never know what’s going to happen, so that showed us how big it was that Josh gets through the seventh and sets up our bullpen.”
With the pitching staff holding the O’s scoreless over the final seven frames, it was time for the offense to do its job.
“This team has a lot of good hitters,” Baldelli said. “Good hitters get on base, grind out at-bats and have a lot better chance having innings like we did late in the game here. You don’t necessarily expect it to happen, but we expect ourselves to try to make it happen.”
Said Varitek: “This was a big character win for us. That was big after what happened (Tuesday) night. They had that one (yesterday) and we found a way.”
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