The Red Sox had to take on Hiroki Kuroda of the Yanks last night, who has been without question their best starter this year. Luckily, the Red Sox had John Lackey on the mound who has suffered from little run support, but been nothing short of spectacular this year. Lackey continued to shine and the Sox were able to take advantage of Yankee mistakes and roll to an easy victory.
The Sox and Yanks stayed scoreless until the 4th inning when the Sox took advantage and got the lead. Stephen Drew hit into what looked like it could have been a double play, but the Yankees defense couldn't get the play done, so Ortiz came to the plate for the first Sox run. Carp then broke for 3rd and even though it looked like he might be out, he was called safe by the 3rd base ump. To finish off the inning Middlebrooks hit an RBI infield single and then Ells hit an RBI single of his own. Sox 3-0. Lackey allowed one run to score in the 5th when he gave up an RBI single to Ichiro. Sox 3-1. The Red Sox kept adding on though. In the 6th inning the Sox scored by way of a Salty RBI single and then an RBI double from Ells. Sox 5-1. Lackey took the mound in the 7th inning and with 2 outs he hit Stewart and was done for the night. Lackey gave the Sox exactly what they needed from him on a night when he really didn't have his best stuff. His pitching line for the night was 103 pitches, 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 3 BB and 1 K.
Breslow came out to finish off the 7th inning and got the job done. In the bottom of the 7th inning, the Sox added one more run when Papi hit a no doubt HR to centerfield. Sox 6-1. Breslow came back out in the 8th and got one out before giving the ball over to Junichi Tazawa. Taz got the 2 outs and was out of the inning. In the bottom of the 8th the Sox had the bases loaded, but were unable to score. That was not the most important part of the inning. Pedey took a foul ball off his foot, the same one that he had surgery on a couple of seasons ago. Pedey struck out and he limped into the dugout. The Sox said after the game that there are no fractures, but it's definitely something to watch. The Sox definitely need Pedey out on the field to continue this run they are on. The Sox finished the game off in the 9th with a scoreless inning from the closer Koji Uehara.
Red Sox 6 Yankees 1 BOXSCORE
WP: Lackey (8-10) LP: Kuroda (11-8)
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