Posted on 08/25/2007 1:31:21 AM PDT by Red Steel
David Ortiz homered twice and Kevin Youkilis added a three-run shot as the Boston Red Sox routed the Chicago White Sox 10-1 Friday night to take both ends of a split doubleheader.
In the opener, Josh Beckett became the major leagues' first 16-game winner and Jason Varitek had four RBIs to lead the Red Sox to an 11-3
The Red Sox's bats kept rolling in the nightcap and made it easy for Curt Schilling.
Schilling (8-5) allowed just three hits and a run in six innings, giving up a solo homer to Juan Uribe in the second as Boston upped its major league-best record to 78-51.
The White Sox have lost 11 of 13 and fell a season-low 16 games under .500.
Boston drove out struggling rookie John Danks (6-12) in a five-run fourth that featured Ortiz's two-run homer, RBI doubles from Mike Lowell and Coco Crisp, an RBI single by Kevin Cash and two walks. Danks is 0-6 in his last seven starts and winless the last five weeks.
Ortiz, who tied a career-high with four hits, drove his 23rd homer to lead off the fifth against Gavin Floyd, and Youklis added a three-run homer following back-to-back walks.
In the first game, Beckett got out of a big jam in the first by allowing just one run after he'd walked three batters.
"Three walks. I definitely wasn't too excited about that, but to get out of that inning with only one run, was a big deal. I was lucky," Beckett said. "The guys picked me up and scored runs."
Beckett (16-5) allowed seven hits and three runs over 5 2-3 innings and had plenty of support from his teammates and the crowd.
The announced attendance was 30,581 but there were only about a third of that number in the stands for the makeup of Thursday night's rainout. They included many noisy Boston fans, some chanting "Let's Go Red Sox."
Being a first-place team and playing in front of thousands of empty seats was strange enough.
"That was weird, wasn't it? I think everyone felt it. We tried to create our own energy because there wasn't much here," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.
Also strange was Beckett's first inning. He'd walked only five batters total in his previous five outings. And he hadn't walked more than two batters in 13 straight starts, but all of a sudden he couldn't find the plate
"I just wasn't throwing strikes," said Beckett, now 9-1 in 10 starts this season away from Fenway Park.
In the first, A.J. Pierzynski hit a two-out double and Beckett walked Paul Konerko, Darin Erstad and Jermaine Dye to force in a run before getting a third strike past Juan Uribe on a 3-2 pitch.
Boston tied it with a two-out run of its own in the third when Alex Cora doubled and Julio Lugo came through with an RBI single.
Crisp started Boston's big fourth with a single. Ramirez singled one out later and Lowell followed with an RBI single. J.D. Drew reached on second baseman Danny Richar's error to load the bases and Varitek then hit a two-run single off the left-field fence. Eric Hinske had another run-scoring hit for a 5-1 lead.
Rookie Josh Fields hit his 16th homer after a single by Jerry Owens in the fifth to cut it to 5-3.
Jon Garland (8-10), coming off a performance against Seattle in which he gave up 10 hits and 10 runs in 2 2-3 innings, lost his third straight start, and the 18-game winner in 2005 and 2006 hasn't won since July 27. Garland allowed nine hits and six runs in seven-plus innings.
He was also aware of the many Red Sox fans at U.S. Cellular Field. They were easy to hear with so many empty seats.
"I felt like I was on the road today. That was a little embarrassing, but what do you do?" Garland said. "People got to go to work and they (Red Sox fans) are here to see their team."
Boston added two in the eighth as pinch-hitters Bobby Kielty and Youkilis delivered with the bases loaded. Kielty had a sacrifice fly and Youkilis an RBI single that made it 7-3.
Notes:@ It was Ortiz's third multi-homer game this season and 29th of his career, 27 with the Red Sox. ... White Sox DH Jim Thome was a late scratch from the opener with a stiff back and didn't play in the second game.
Hope my Tigers can put the boots to the Yanks again tonight. And also that KC keeps Cleveland in check...
M’s have the Angels. Let the Yanks have the wildcard.
This weekend, one of my two favorite teams.
I hope it’s the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs in this year’s World Series. I was also hoping for the Chicago Cubs to make it to the ‘04 World Series, and then, it would of been “cursed team” v.s. “cursed team”. The national television ratings would of been hard to beat if it was the Boston Red Sox v.s. the Chicago Cubs in ‘04.
Never underestimate Lou. We still miss him. Of course, your scenario augurs the inevitable reversal of Earth's magnetic field.
The Mariners may be flying under the radar now, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they made the playoffs. I also say this—as a Giants fan—who went to Seattle last season to see the Giants play against the M’s and came away very impressed and with a ton of respect for the Mariner franchise.
They’re sort of Team Gestalt: whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Hargrove just suddenly quit, and the rotation is, at best, above-average.
Bullpen is nails, though. Ichiro is Ichiro, Beltre is finally coming through, and Guillen is caliente, finally.
Need a 1B, though.
It’s really been a long, long baseball year for Texans of all stripes.
If you stayed up till 3:30 am (thanks to late start and extra innings) you heard the Tigers win it (I work those hours
anyway and was able to do so). Yankees lose, theeeeeeeeeee
Yankees lose! How about if the Red Sox win the division
and some other team besides the Yanks (Mariners, for
example) scoops the wild card? Fear not, there would still
be playoff baseball in New York...with the Mets!
>>Carlos Guillen’s three-run homer lifted Detroit to a 9-6 win over the New York Yankees on Saturday morning. “First time I hit one at 3:30 in the morning,” Guillen said. “Long day for us.” It was even longer for the Yankees.
greatest comeback in history
2004 ALCS—Yankees 3 games, Red Sox 4
the curse of Hillary lives
Had it not been for Grady Little and that guy in the stands
at Wrigley, it could have been Sox-Cubbies in ‘03...
Boston Massacre I or II... take your pick.
I’m waiting for that big Yankees comeback. ;-)
The Senators of Arlington should have built an air-conditioned, retractable-roof park a la Chase Field in Phoenix. Pitchers go down there and just die after late June.
The Ballpark at Arlington, however, is beautiful. Not much we can do about the summer heat, unless we elect Gore.
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