Red Sox have a field day in San Francisco: 12-1 final

To quote Tom Caron's  after Boston's uplifting victory Wednesday afternoon "The Red Sox needed this one."

The Red Sox had gone 6 and 9 through their last 15 games and had lost each of their last 4 series. Since August 5th, they had gone 5 and 7 on the road and their pitching was stalling. Whats worse, last night's starter: Felix Dubront came into the night having thrown just 8 innings through his last two starts and allowing 9 earned runs.

Things did  not look good but in the blink of an eye, that all changed.

After kicking off their offensive game with a double in the 1st inning the Sox fell in frame number one leaving Jacoby Ellsbury standing at second. Felix Dubront would then work his way around a lead off single with a nifty run down situation between Stephan Drew and David Ortiz boxing in Giant batter: Andrew Torres to clear the base-paths and snag the first out of the inning. He got out of the 1st with the game still waiting for its first run.

Now by the end of inning number two this one still looked close. After Will Middlebrooks drove in 2 tallies with a 2 out 2 run homer to left field, the Giants returned in the bottom of the second and quikely cut Boston's lead to just 1 run with a long ball of their own. But for the Giants that's about where their good fortune ended.

Felix Dubront would dominate for the better part of the night, ripping down the next 8 batters he faced following the San Francisco home run.

"I spent the last four days working on throwing the ball down in the zone," Doubront said. "I was able to do that and go with my stuff. I was working fast to get the hitters to swing at my pitch."

John Farrell soon backed him up: "once you get settled into the flow of the game he [Dubront] is great...we gave him a lead, he used all his pitches and he was able to carry his rhythm through the 8th inning" 

But while Dubront was dominant in holding the Giants down, a huge part of at lest the first 6 runs Boston scored was the deficiencies in San Fransisco's starter: Barry Zito. Once a back to back all star, the slow pitching Zito was not helping the Giants in any way. Zito pitched just 3 and 2 thirds innings, and never broke 90 miles per hour with a single one of his 85 pitches. At first it seemed that Sox hitters were off-put by the lack of movement in Zito's fastball but nevertheless, that didn't last long. Riding RBI's by Johnny Gomes, Shane Victorino, and Dustin Pedroia, the Sox raked up 6 runs against Zito, effectively putting the game out of reach for San Francisco before they even notched their 4th at bat.  

"Any time you get hits out of the top of the lineup good things can happen," Victorino said. "We just have to keep it going." Victorino said regarding the 3 RBI's he notched yesterday.

Middlebrooks was also happy with his performance. "I was surprised," Middlebrooks said. "He went fastball away and I thought he would stay away. He left a slider up in the zone and I put a good swing on it." he said when asked about his home run. 

The Red Sox would tack on 6 more runs before all was said and done. A big part of those 6 runs was a 3 run bomb by Stephan Drew in the 7th inning. With runners on 1st and 2nd, Drew got ahead of an early pitch driving it out to right field and belting his 10th homer of the year. 

"On the heels of last night it was good to come out with the day game and get a win like this." John Farrell said. 

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Stephan Drew seals Boston comback with 3 run bomb, Ortiz continues hot streak: Red Sox beat Astros 7-5

I am beginning to believe that the Boston Red Sox are on a strict regimen to NEVER LET US SLEEP AGAIN!

Fact is among 11 walk offs on the year is another far more sleep depriving tally. For the 27th time in 116 games, the Boston Red Sox once found themselves down a run or more yet by the time the 9th inning had been completed, they were in the lead. For the 27th time in 116 games, the Boston Red Sox belted a comeback win.

Now frankly, it should not have been this hard. I mean coming into this now concluded sires with Houston, the Red Sox were the best team in the Al and well, the Astros were the worst. So, going by any and all simple logic one could produce, those three games should have been a cake walk….not at all. Boston dropped game one then fell behind in game two as they were into the bull pen by the end of the 1st inning. Things were not looking good, but in the blink of an eye, that all changed. In the span of just 5 innings, the Sox rode long balls by Johnny Gomes and Jacoby Ellsbury all the way to a dominant 15 to 10 win.

So on we go to last night. With the 3 game set knotted at 1-1, the Sox were going for the win they were expected to get, and well, the Houston Astros were going to likely set a new high point in their dismal 2013 37 win campaign.

"Credit to Houston, they pushed us to the hilt in this series and I'm just proud of the team for the grit we showed yet again," said manager John Farrell without understating a single fact. Houston DID push Boston. "This is, once again, a team win."  

After beginning the night with a scoreless 1st, Boston broke through in the second and 3rd innings as by the bottom of the 3rd they had given their starter: Ryan Dempster a decent cushion to work with. But nevertheless in a season in which Dempster had already allowed 21 home runs, he saw another cracked off one of his pitches as with one swing of the bat, Robbie Grossmen tied the game for Houston there in that 3rd inning. 

For a short while, Houston seemed to have flipped the tides in their favor. By the time that the Red Sox took to the plate in the 7th inning they were down 5-2 and once again it SEEMED that the Astros had the game won. But not against Boston. 

Much like the situation in the bottom of the 3rd, the Sox made it a game again in the 7th inning via a dominant 2 run blast by Johnny Gomes. But by then, all the work was not yet completed. After going down in order after Gomes' homer and then losing their 8th inning at bat via a clutch double play, the Astros found themselves still up 5-4 with just one obstacle standing in their way: the ninth inning. 

Josh Feilds on the mound, Stephan Drew at bat, one out, one on as Johnny Gomes once again stood at second base representing the tying run. 0-1 the count to Drew, the second pitch of the at bat, hurled over the upper right hand corner of the strike zone. Drew, turning with power, lines the ball into deep to right field, Red Sox dugout rising to its feet, the Houston right fielder looking up and the ball was gone. 7-5 lead for Boston at Stephan Drew had once again sent Boston into a late game pandemonium.  

Gomes rounds 3rd and heads for home, pumping his fist because at that point he knew that this game was over. 

"He threw me a first-pitch change-up, and watching Jonny's at-bat and having faced [Fields] yesterday, I just figured if I got something up in the zone I'd put a good swing on it," said Drew. "I got a curveball and he left it out over [the plate] and I got a good rip." Drew said ensuring the fact that he KNEW that that ball was gone. 

"I should have buried it down a little bit more," opposing pitcher Feilds said to contradict Drew's words. 

Over the past few weeks, the word comeback has been a constant theme in Boston as 6 of their last 7 victories have come in such a way. But while we have been amazed at the power of this teams refusal to quite, another name has caught on fire in that same 2 week span. 

Since David Ortiz massacred Baltimore's phone back on July 27th, he has continued his reign of terror with some bat slamming of a different sort. In the 11 games since then, Big Papi has almost literally torn the cover off the baseball as he is currently on a 19 for 46 cut and is already batting .469 in the month of August. It has been 3 games since he has struck out, but most impressively, he has tallied 9 hits in the Houston series.  8 of those hits have come in the form of back to back 4 hit games thus bumping his SEASON batting average up to an astounding .412. He is just 3 thousandths of a percent short of equaling his career high for single season batting average.  

I said it yesterday and I will say it again. Baseball has a since of humor. It pits the worst against the best and hands you the strangest of outcomes, all before yanking a sure win away and handing it to an opponent who just a few innings ago seemed down and out. 

Baseball is weird but as long as things keep going in Boston's favor, I'm not complaining.

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Red Sox take a trip to Hogwarts with magical 6 run 9th inning: Danial Nava and the Sox walk off 8-7 over Seattle

And it's heart attack time from Fenway Park.

21 hours and 38 minutes after Stephan Drew belted the Sox to victory after 15 innings, Daniel Nava did the same smacking a walk-off of his own and capping off one of the greatest 9th innings in Red Sox history. It is impossible to fully capture in words what happened last night but nevertheless, the numbers generated from Boston's second walk-off win in 24 hours might suffice enough to bring forth a gasp, shake of the head or even a smile from baseball fans across the globe.

At one point, only a inning and a third before Nava's miracle clincher, the few Sox fans who had stuck around at Fenway Park watched in horror as Felix Hernandez pinned their team down to just 1 run through 7 innings. With just two chances to bat remaining in the game, the Red Sox were down 7-1 and things did not look all that great.

But as with all that we have seen this season, those tides were almost guaranteed to turn as Boston rode into the end of this mighty ball game. "We somehow find some energy late in the game; It's been many different guys that have been the reason for the walk-off. I can tell you, the conversation each time we're at the plate in the extra innings; we're looking for something to draw energy from to make one last push. We were able to do that here again tonight." Manager John Farrall said after his team snagged its first of two walk-offs yesterday when Stephan Drew ended the game a 1 AM.... and last night that was no different.

Staring down the barrel of an emptying stadium and a deficit of absurd proportions, right fielder: Shane Victorino came to bat in the top of the 8th inning with one intention: hit the baseball. Well, he did just that and he did it on only the second pitch he faced in that at bat. With Seattle middle reliever: Chris Furbush on the hill, Victorino turned a 0-1 pitch and crushed it hard into the monster seats to cut the lead to 5 runs.

Now while the Red Sox would go down in the 8th without doing any more damage, as a Boston sports fan who gleefully watched Patrice Bergeron's game seven miracle back in May, as things transitions into the 9th inning, one could not help but wonder: what if?

Nevertheless, not to be overlooked was another additional task that further complicated Boston's hopes at a comeback. They had to keep the Mariners off the board in the top of the 9th, there was no question about that. Unfortunately, Seattle was not so willing to oblige as they soon moved a runner to 1st base via a Kendrys Morales single on a line drive to left fielder Johnny Gomes. But it was during the ensuing at bat that things really got interesting. With Morales on 1st, Michael Saunders turned on a David Wright pitch by Boston and lined the single off the left field Green Monster. Morales had already been running and upon seeing the ball bounce fiercely off the wall, he continued towards 3rd base.

Yet left fielder Johnny Gomes saw this too and soon played the bounce into his glove, turned and without hesitated fired to 3rd to gun down a slowing Morales. Justin Smoak would then strike out but Boston was not out of trouble yet as even with 2 outs in the 9th, they still had to pay attention to a runner on second and a then a fearful pop up to guess who: Johnny Gomes. But Gomes was not done with the antics as 1 game after turning the unassisted double play and 1 third of an inning after that epic throw to 3rd, he went crashing into the monster but held onto the baseball to end the inning.

The defensive work had been done, and now it was time for some offence...and a lot of it.

The "miracle" began with a 0 out walk to Daniel Nava. One batter later, Ryan Lavarnway drove one up the middle to move Nava to second and put himself on 1st base. But still, no runs had scored...until. In his 4th at bat of the day, 3rd basemen: Brock Holt, broke up a hit-less night via an RBI double.  With Seattle now flushed with a hint of trouble, out came the coach trying to remind his pitcher that Boston was STILL out of it. But unfortunately for Seattle, over the next 3 batters, a reacquiring bases loaded situation would soon turn this into a real ball game. It was 7-6 Seattle still in control but they were by then frantically clawing at the floorboards as they tried to hold onto this dwindling lead.

Out came the coach again, and with him came the bullpen's help in this game. Yet for a storming Red Sox team, they would not quit, and, with a runner on second base, he smacked the hit that had been building all night.

"I don't know that you ever really know it," said John Farrell. "But any time you get a leadoff walk it kind of breathes a little life in you. I think after Victorino's base hit to right that brought us within two, that seemed to be not only further momentum but it was getting closer."  

"I don't know that you ever really know it" but nevertheless, weather you saw IT or not, IT happened and in the blink of an eye, Johnny Gomes had tied the game and Daniel Nava was up to bat with the bases loaded.

"Is it magical? It's a lot of fun. Is it magical? I'll leave that up to you to decide," Nava said. "I don't think anyone saw that happening tonight." 

Well he settled the deal on whether or not last night was magic with one swing of the bat. 

The Boston Red Sox won 8-7 last night with their largest 9th inning comeback since 1940 and only their second since 1911. Our Red Sox are a full game clear of the Rays for the division lead and have begun to beg a giddy question. From across the world of sports, we watch in awe at those movies and documentaries where the team wins with a perfect game or a walk off grand slam but in the end, we snort in derision, and say 'that will never happen'. That happened last night and in a season of enlightening comebacks and breaths of fight and refusal to quit, we have come to a point where this fact is true: this is magic, and this Boston Red Sox team is a team of 40 wizards fresh out of Hogwarts School of Magic. 

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A different Johnny Rocket: Johnny Gomes does it again, Red Sox walk off 2-1 against the Padres

Every time Bruin D-Man Johnny Boychuk scores a goal for his team, local play by play announcer Jack Edwards screams "IT'S A JOHNNY ROCKET!!" and while the Red Sox don't play hockey, that same call would be equally correct if screamed about a different Johnny running the base-paths immortalized against the Fenway sky last night: Johnny Gomes.

The Sox have hit 8 walk off home runs this year, yet while that sure is a record for the ages, the most spectacular aspect of Boston's dramatic finishes has been that 2 of them have been hit by the same man: Gomes.

Nevertheless, as profiled by Boston Globe writer, Julian Benbow, the events leading up to John Farrall's decision to insert Gomes as a 9th inning pinch hitter were ones of careful thought yet forced action. You see with the Sox and Padres going at it last night, the fact that San Diego and Boston are on well, opposite sides of the country means that the only time these two teams play is during the MLB's annual interleague play. With this looming over the Red Sox heads, that meant that Padres closer Luke Gregerson was a completely new face to all but 4 of Boston's roster members. 

Of those 4 Red Sox, one of them was out with a hamstring injury and 2 were already locked into the bottom of the order and would not be facing Gregerson in the inning meaning that the only available Boston hitter who would not be completely new to Gregerson was Johnny Gomes.

“I felt like this was an opportunity to pick a spot to use Gomes,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said, and he wasn't wrong.

Yet like he did with each of the three outs he had already thrown in the game, Gergeson went with his slider, a pitch he and the Padres had used all game with great success downing countless Sox mostly via the strikeout.

“He throws a good slider,” Gomes said. “No one’s hitting it the whole game.”

Nevertheless using his knowledge of Gergeson, Gomes continued to work the count finding his way towards forcing Gergeson to throw his 5th pitch of the at bat.

“I let that one go by and it kind of locked me into my sights... I always go for the fences,” Gomes said when asked to relive the seconds before that 2-2 pitch.  

With Fenway on its feet, and Jose Iglesias on deck for the Sox, Gomes finally saw the hanging slider he was looking for and didn't think twice on swinging. 

“I knew I hit it far enough, but that green wall can be tricky sometimes,” Gomes said. “So I just hoped I had enough air under it to get out.” he did. 

With Gomes rounding 3rd, that baseball was gone. Gergeson slowly walked from the field and Fenway shook from the ground up as the 30+ thousand fans within its walls roared with delight carrying Gomes in towards home. His teammates crowded the plate, Gomes faked punting his helmet (a celebration that caught eye's the last time he and his team walked off this year.) and as he jumped into the pile, the Boston Red Sox were back on top: tied for the most wins in baseball. 

2013 is no fluke, for the first time in years; the Red Sox are contenders for the division title. They have more wins than anyone in the AL, they have without a doubt one of the best pitching staffs in the league.  And they have now hit more walk-offs than any other team in the MLB. Do you believe it yet, do you believe that the Sox have forsaken the chicken and beer of the early days of this new decade, do you believe that they can get the postseason and not stop there. Do you believe that the Red Sox are World Series contenders? I'd think yes.

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