August 3, 2008 Red Sox 9, Athletics 2

The recent 4-10 slump for the Red Sox combined with Tampa Bay winning 7 of their last 9 has knocked the Sox lead in the wild card race down to 2 games over the Rays. I guess the boys in Beantown notice that, and everyone but Mike Lowell gets in on the act today. Jason Bay gets his first Sox hit and homerun on the same pitch, David Ortiz hit his first homerun since his return, and Daisuke Matsuzaka goes 8 inning striking out 9 with only one run allowed for his team-leading 11th win for the year. A fairly close 4-1 Sox leadis busted open with a 5-run 8th inning courtesy of a Jed Lowrie double, Jason Varitek single, a 2-run standup triple for Coco crisp, RBI single for jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia ripping one over the fence for a 2-run shot - all before getting an out in the 8th. That negate the save opportunity, so Chris Smith goes an uneventful 9th except for a Frank Thomas homer. One note of interest in the game - there was one unearned run for Oakland and one error. Normally that unearned run would occur because of the error, but not this time. Now with an error not causing it and no passed balls or anything like that, what would you may ask? Closer inspection of the box score reveals this, just above the web gems - CATCHERS INTERFERENCE - Lowrie. Good ol' Jed reached first on the interference, a Coco double send him to third and Ellsbury brings him home on a single for the unearned, error less run. That might be only the third or fourth time that I can recall where I have had an interference call in a manually played game, and two have been this season as the Phillies had one earlier in the year. They are fairly rare in real life anyway.

Strat-O-Matic Report

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BOXSCORE: 2008 Oakland Athletics At 2008 Boston Red Sox              8/3/2008
 
  Athletics          AB  R  H RBI AVG     Red Sox            AB  R  H RBI AVG
  R.Sweeney RF        4  1  2  0 .283     D.Pedroia 2B        4  1  1  2 .298  
  M.Ellis 2B          4  0  0  0 .231     K.Youkilis 1B,3B    5  0  1  1 .320  
  J.Cust LF           3  0  1  1 .206     D.Ortiz DH          4  1  1  1 .229  
  F.Thomas DH         4  1  1  1 .240     M.Lowell 3B         5  0  0  0 .250  
  C.Gonzalez CF       4  0  1  0 .230   C-S.Casey 1B          0  0  0  0 .352  
  J.Hannahan 3B       4  0  1  0 .195     J.Bay LF            3  1  1  1 .281  
  B.Crosby SS         3  0  0  0 .233     J.Lowrie SS         2  2  1  0 .221  
  D.Barton 1B         3  0  0  0 .236     J.Varitek C         4  1  2  0 .223  
  R.Bowen C           2  0  0  0 .148     C.Crisp CF          4  1  2  2 .271  
A-G.Petit PH          1  0  0  0 .185     J.Ellsbury RF       3  2  2  2 .312  
B-K.Suzuki C          0  0  0  0 .269                                          
                     -- -- -- ---                            -- -- -- ---      
         Totals      32  2  6  2                 Totals      34  9 11  9
 
A-Pinch Hit For Bowen In 8th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Petit In 8th Inning
C-Subbed Defensively (1B) For Lowell In 9th Inning
 
Athletics....... 0 0 0  1 0 0  0 0 1  -  2  6  1
Red Sox......... 0 2 1  1 0 0  0 5    -  9 11  0
 
Athletics (48-62)        IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR  PC    ERA  SCORESHEET
D.Braden LOSS(2-4)        7       7   5   4   5   2   2 113   3.38  A1 D6
D.Meyer                   0 1/3   4   4   4   0   0   1  22 108.00  D7 E2
J.Devine                  0 2/3   0   0   0   0   1   0   7   0.73  E3
Totals                    8      11   9   8   5   3   3
 
Red Sox (66-46)          IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR  PC    ERA  SCORESHEET
D.Matsuzaka WIN(11-3)     8       5   1   1   1   9   0 101   3.57  A1 D2
C.Smith                   1       1   1   1   0   1   1  17   8.22  D3
Totals                    9       6   2   2   1  10   1
 
ATTENDANCE- 37,318 DATE- Sunday, August 3rd 2008 TIME- Day WEATHER- Average
UMPIRES- Paul Emmel, Gary Darling, Jerry Meals, Bill Miller
T- 2:55
LEFT ON BASE- Athletics: 4  Red Sox: 7
DOUBLE PLAYS- Athletics: 1  Red Sox: 1
ERRORS- R.Bowen
DOUBLES- R.Sweeney(12th), J.Cust(13th), K.Youkilis(30th), J.Lowrie(7th),
         J.Varitek(21st), C.Crisp(10th)
TRIPLES- C.Crisp(4th)
HOME RUNS- F.Thomas(6th), D.Pedroia(13th), D.Ortiz(10th), J.Bay(20th)
STOLEN BASES- J.Ellsbury(25th)
WALKS- J.Cust, D.Pedroia, D.Ortiz, J.Bay, J.Lowrie, J.Ellsbury
STRIKE OUTS- R.Sweeney-2, F.Thomas-2, C.Gonzalez, D.Barton-2, R.Bowen-2,
             G.Petit, M.Lowell-2, C.Crisp
GIDP- B.Crosby, M.Lowell
CATCHERS INTERFERENCE- J.Lowrie
WEB GEMS- Top 1st: Mike Lowell robbed Jack Cust of a base hit.
 
Coco Crisp collected 2 extra-base hits and had 2 RBI as the Boston Red Sox
defeated the Oakland Athletics by a score of 9 to 2 at Fenway Park.
 
Boston went ahead for good in the bottom of the 2nd inning scoring 2 runners
on 3 hits.  For the game Boston out-hit Oakland 11 to 6.  
 
Daisuke Matsuzaka(11-3) went 8 innings allowing 1 run for the victory. Dallas
Braden(2-4) was the loser.  He surrendered 7 hits and 5 walks in 7 innings.
 

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