Games 19 to 21 - Sox Take 2 of 3 from the Tribe

Monday April 27th

Boston opens a three game series in Cleveland and wins its 11th game in a row. This was a real pitchers’ duel between Tim Wakefield (7 innings of 1 hit shutout ball) and Cliff Lee, the 2008 Cy Young winner. After Lee turned in eight scoreless innings Jason Bay came to the plate with one out and two on in the 9th. He hammered a Kerry Wood fast ball for the three run game winning homer. Manny Delcarmen pitched a clean 8th and has yet to surrender a run this year. Jonathan Papelbon got the save while giving up 3 hits and 1 run. He did have 2 K’s.

Final Score: Red Sox 3 Indians 1
Jacoby Watch: 0 for 4 including a GIDP

Tuesday April 28th

Red Sox streak comes to an end in heart-breaking fashion. An uncharacteristic three errors led to four unearned runs for the Indians. The hardest to take was by Javier Lopez who dropped a perfect toss at first while the winning run scored in the bottom of the 9th inning. Brad Penny coughed up four run leads twice (5-1 and 7-4). In just 2.2 innings pitched his byline read 7H and 7R. Sox left 11 runners on base in what was a frustrating game.

Final Score: Cleveland 9 Boston 8
Jacoby Watch: 1 for 5 including a solo homer and a SF

Wednesday April 29th

Red Sox pull off a fairly improbable win coming from 5 runs down after 4 innings. Jon Lester was ineffective with control issues while giving up 5R on 7H with 7K’s in 6 innings. He did pick two runners off first and after Kelly Shoppach's two run bomb in the 4th managed to settle down a bit retiring the final 9 batters he faced. The star of the game was Jonathan Van Every in RF for the hobbled J.D. Drew. Van Every had 2 RBIs including the game winning homer in the 10th inning. Plus he made two excellent plays in the field. Interesting to note that Van Every spent seven years in the Indian farm system and even roomed with Jensen Lewis who surrendered that homer. Now it’s on to Tampa Bay.

Final Score: Boston 6 Cleveland 5
Jacoby Watch: 3 for 5 with an RBI.

Photo shows Jonathan Van Every watching the game winning homer.