Middlebrooks Powers Sox Again In Win Over Braves (37-34)

Morales struck out eight in six innings

The Red Sox are certainly winning at the time as they picked up another solid win last night to tie the series up at 1-1. They did this despite not even scoring first as the first two baserunners of the night reached second and third for the Braves. An RBI single would net the Braves a 1-0 lead but they did not score again in the inning. The Red Sox would score a few runs of their own in the bottom of the first when they put runners at the corners and two outs. They scored one as Adrian Gonzalez singled up the middle to tie the game. Another run would come in as Will Middlebrooks doubled off the left-center portion of the green monster to make it 2-1. With runners at first and second and one out in the second, the Red Sox would add on to their lead as Dustin Pedroia doubled into the gap in left-center to score two and make it 4-1.

Nava had a two-run single in
the seventh inning

They'd take one more run in the third on a leadoff homer over the monster by Will Middlebrooks. With a man on second and two outs, the Braves mounted a little rally which culminated in Michael Bourn grounding to left to score Jason Heyward from second and making it 5-2. After the first two men reached base in the fifth for the Red Sox, they made up for that run on an RBI double by Cody Ross. However, a Chipper Jones double in the sixth-- scoring Dan Uggla from first-- would make up for that and cut it to 6-3. The Braves got another rally going in the seventh as they put two runners in scoring position to bring the tying run to the plate. Unfortunately for them, Michael Bourn had an RBI groundout and that was all they got. Daniel Nava made up for that in the bottom half of the inning as he scored Cody Ross from third and Ryan Kalish from second with a two-out single to make it 8-4. The score stuck at that and the Red Sox won to remain tied in last with Toronto.

Bright Spots:
Vicente Padilla- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R
Alfredo Aceves- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R
Daniel Nava- 1-4, 1 R, 2 RBI
Dustin Pedroia- 3-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI
Adrian Gonzalez- 2-5, 1 R, 1 RBI
Will Middlebrooks- 3-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Cody Ross- 2-4, 1 R, 2 2B, 1 RBI
Mike Aviles- 2-4, 1 R

Dull Spots:
Scott Atchison- 0.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 R

Player of the Game:
Will Middlebrooks- Middlebrooks continues to swing a hot bat as the third baseman went 3-4, coming just a triple short of the cycle in a big game-- he is now .331/9/33 this season.