3 days removed from the real Home Run Derby, the Boston Red Sox put on a show of their own last night, smashing 2 monster blasts in the first 2 innings of their game with New York. Between, Jacoby Ellsbury's lead off shot in the 1st and Johnny Gomes' equally amazing blast mere batters later, Boston put up 3 runs via the home run and also became the first team in baseball to belt 100 shots this season all to add quite a bang to a 7 inning, 3 hit performance by Felix Dubront.
Fact is, pitching is great and while it sure is a huge necessity, you were not jumping for joy after the top of the first. No, you waited until the BOTTOM of the inning to lose your mind. Literally on just the second pitch of the day for Yankees hurler Adny Pettitte, Sox leadoff man, Jacoby Ellsbury drilled it, catching the shot in the sweet spot of the bat and belting his 4th home run of the season long past the Yankees bullpen and deep into the Fenway outfield seating for a 1 nothing Boston lead.
"Ells kick-started us," said Ellsbury’s teammate Johnny Gomes. "One to nothing [after the] first batter.”
"It's definitely not a guessing game [with Pettitte]," Gomes continued, then speaking about HIS homer "but you kind of got to put your chips on two of his three pitches. [The home run] wasn't a bad pitch, but I hadn't seen his changeup yet, thought he was going to throw it, and [it] worked out."
Nevertheless after Johnny Gomes followed up Ellsbury's blast with a shot of his own, the attention then turned away from offence and instead to the man on the mound who looked to hold onto the 3-0 lead his team had worked to build. That man's name was Felix Dubront.
Now granted he is no "King Felix" like the Mariners ace up in Seattle but as he marched through last night’s initial innings, Dubront was dominant holding a no hitter through 4 frames all despite allowing a 4 pack of walks and stolen bases to hand the Yanks their 1st of 2 runs in last night game. Yet as the game went on, Dubront's dominance continued.
"I keep going deep in the game," said Doubront. "And my confidence, my focus is improving. I'm just trying to go deep and help the team win the game, keep the score down and let my team score runs."
1,2,3,4: in the end, Dubront would rack up 5 strikeouts and even after seeing his no-no broken in the 4th he was not phased-- waiting it out and holding the Yanks down for the majority of the night.
"As we've seen over the last 11 times he's gone to the mound for us, he's working six or seven innings each time out," Red Sox manager John Farrell said regarding Dubront's consistency at the mound. "Low runs. And then probably the last five or six of those starts, he's come out and gotten into the rhythm of the game much earlier than maybe the first month and a half of the season. He kept the game in check. Another very solid outing on his part."
In fact even Yankees manager Joe Girardi was begrudgingly singing the praises of the man who shut his team down last night "He's throwing well. You look at the last two months; he's pitched extremely well since the end of May. He's been tough on us. He has a very good changeup. We know that."
Whether it was the 2 home runs early on, Jonny Gomes' ground role double to seal the deal in the 7th, Felix Dubront's stellar start or Koji Uehara's pitching a perfect 9th inning Boston kicked off the second half with a bang last night. They beat the Yankees, delighting fans and posting a 4-2 final to a game that was far more lopsided than those 2 numbers do justice.
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