Coming into this series with the Rangers, we hadn’t found a way to beat them. They scared us. Their starting pitching, their mammoth bats. We continued being terrified after Game 1 when we couldn’t get anything going against CJ Wilson. And now, 3 games later…we are much less terrified of the Texas Rangers.
Andrew Miller was on the mound for the Sox. He had a nice outing last time, but I wasn’t brimming with confidence of him pitching against the Rangers lineup. I should have been. He was just spectacular. Miller pitched like that guy we hoped we were getting when we called him up. Miller was able to keep the Rangers off the board while allowing the Sox bats to go to WORK. Miller struck out Josh Hamilton three times during his outing. Miller was on a somewhat limited pitch count since he hasn’t been in the normal 5 day rotation since July. Miller pitched 6.1 IP, 83 pitches, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BBs and 6 Ks. He just looked fantastic. He looked like a guy who I really wouldn’t mind staying in the rotation.
The Red Sox bats also got to work against the Rangers pitching once again. Gonzo continued to show his HR stroke is back with hitting a dinger in the first inning to give the Sox a 1-0 lead. Papi got into the HR action with hitting his own solo HR in the 2nd inning. Gonzo wasn’t done with the HRs and hit his 2nd HR of the evening in the 3rd evening. Wow. I guess Terry Francona was right that Gonzo tends to hit his HRs in bunches. The Sox lead 4-0. In the 4th, Jarrod Saltalamacchia also got a 2 run HR of his own to give the Sox a 6-0 lead. All of the runs scored by the Red Sox were scored by the homerun. Everyone in the Sox lineup got at least one hit except for Ellsbury and Pedroia (slackers).
With Miller pitching 6+ strong innings, the bullpen just had a little bit of work to get done to get this game in the books. Alfredo Aceves came out in relief of Miller. He continued his usual pattern of pitching well and not allowing runs to score. He finished off the 7th inning and also pitched a scoreless 8th inning. His command did seem a little wild in the 8th, but he and Salty were able to battle through. Dan Wheeler came out in the 9th and had himself a 1-2-3 inning with 2 Ks.
Great series for the Sox. The team showed that they can in fact beat Texas.
Red Sox 6 Rangers 0 BOXSCORE
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