Shane Victorino is just 5 feet 9 inches tall, he is 32 years old and is nicknamed the "Flying Hawaiian" but now, in a statistic far grander than most others, Shane Victorino has become only the 788th player in the history of baseball to hit 100 home runs.
"I don't know that you can do much better," John Farrall said post game.
For Shane Victorino, last night's offensive explosion handed him entrance into a non-exclusive but still reputable 100 home run club. In addition to homer number 100, the duo of long-balls represented just the second time in Shane's career that he had been accredited with 2 homers. He belted 5RBI's via his home runs but after a late game double, he would tack on 2 more and set a career high for RBI's with 7.
"At this point," said outfielder Jonny Gomes, "with 11 [home runs] under his belt, his power isn't sneaky anymore."
But nevertheless, while Shane Victorino DID show us that it is all but glaringly true that he can hit home runs, his performance was not the only one that showered the monster seats (and beyond) with free souvenirs.
Sandwiched in-between both of Victorino's homers Mike Napoli came to the plate in the bottom of the 4th inning with nobody on base. He soon saw a 2-2 pitch hang over the middle of the plate...and Mike did not hesitate in swinging the bat. He hit the ball and he hit it far. Almost 500 feet when you look at where it landed.
"We got our butts kicked tonight." Orioles catcher: Matt Wieters said. Wieters in particular seemed to take the defeat very hard as after Napoli's moon shoot homer, he averted his eyes knowing all too well that when this ball hit the ground his team would be losing 4-2. The Red Sox would tack on 5 more runs in that brutal 4th inning, chasing Orioles starter: Wee Ying Chen from the game and inflicting all the damage necessary for the Sox to earn the win.
But while the game was relatively over by the 4th inning, Felix Dubront didn't seem to get the message. He played into the 7th inning allowing just 4 hits and 2 runs with 7 strikeouts. He threw 110+ pitches for the second straight start and continue to lower his ERA to 3.74 after last night's triumph.
“He corrected it pretty quick. When things could’ve become a big inning against us, he found a way to minimize it, which he’s done a number of times. After that he settled in very well. Much better fastball command throughout the later innings. Our starters have been on a good little run here.” Farrell said.
Last night's win, coupled with a Tampa loss to the Angles increased Boston's AL East lead to 2.5 games while pushing the Orioles to 6.5 games out. In addition to that, after the Yankees beat the Blue Jays, they have now pulled to just a half game behind the Orioles and in turn their close proximity to the 2nd and final wild card spot.
“Every game’s big from here on out,” Said Sox second basemen: Dustin Pedroia “We’re winding down towards the end. So we’re just going to try to come out, play hard. We played great tonight but it doesn’t carry over for tomorrow. So we’ve got to make sure we come out and we play well and we play the game the right way.”
Every games is big but if Shane Victorino can continue to play like he has of late, if the starters can continue to succeed and if Mike Napoli can continue to bombard the stratosphere with baseballs like he did last night, the 95% chance that the Sox have of making the playoffs will undoubtedly grow to 100%.
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