Red Sox Smash Four Homers, Beat Phillies (19-21)

Lester wasn't great but he earned the
win last night

This game was essentially the opposite of the game before, as the Sox took an early lead and just hung on the beat the Phillies. This game started off really fast for the Red Sox as Mike Aviles homered on a liner into left-center. The Sox got into another good position to score in the second, when they put runners at second and third with no outs. Daniel Nava drove one in one a bad play by Joe Blanton-- who made a bad throw to second. Another one game in on a double play by Jon Lester, so it wasn't pretty but the Sox had a 3-0 lead. The Phillies got a two-out rally going in the third, culminating in a Shane Victorino double to make it 3-1. The fifth would mark the Red Sox' biggest lead of the night as it went to 5-1 on back-to-back homers for Will Middlebrooks and Jarrod Saltalamacchia-- both to right-center.

David Ortiz had a two-run
shot, his ninth of the year

However, the Phillies would nearly come back in the very same inning as Carlos Ruiz scored on a near home run by Hector Luna. Freddy Galvis would promptly drive both Luna and himself home on a blast to left-center to cut the lead to 5-4 Red Sox. In the fifth, David Ortiz let Red Sox fans take a deep breath though. He absolutely hammered a two-run homer into pretty much dead center-- his ninth of the year-- to make it 7-4 in the fifth inning. After a couple more scoreless innings for Lester-- he was taken out before the seventh inning with a 6 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 3 K line-- unimpressive, but he got the job done. Vicente Padilla came in and worked a scoreless seventh before he ran into some trouble in the eighth. With runners at second and third and two outs, Jimmy Rollins drove in one of them with an infield single to cut it to 7-5. However, Alfredo Aceves sent Red Sox fans home happy by working a four out save-- getting his ninth of the season to help the Red Sox win 7-5.


Bright Spots:
Mike Aviles- 1-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI
David Ortiz- 2-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Will Middlebrooks- 2-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI
Jarrod Saltalamacchia- 3-4, 2 R, 1 HR, 1 2B, 1 RBI
Ryan Sweeney- 1-3, 1 R, 1 2B
Daniel Nava- 1-4, 1 RBI

Dull Spots:
Adrian Gonzalez- 0-4, 2 K, 1 LOB

Player of the Game:
Jarrod Saltalamacchia- Salty had a fantastic game last night, going 3-4 and coming just a triple short of the cycle-- he is having a pretty good season at .283/6/16 this year.