Gigantic
Game 118: August 17, 2005
Red Sox (69-49), 5
Tigers (57-62), 6
L: David Wells (9-6)
W: Jeremy Bonderman (14-9)
H: Vic Darensbourg (1)
H: Craig Dingman (2)
S: Fernando Rodney (5)
Welcome to Double Play City, population: the Red Sox. Boston was crippled by 5 double plays.
- Kevin Millar (shocker there, eh?) grounded into a 5-4-3 double play in the 2nd inning. Amazingly, the habitually slow John Olerud advanced to third base and positioned himself to score on Bill Mueller’s ground-rule double.
- Switching things around a bit, John Olerud grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to kill the 5th inning rally that began with a Johnny Damon leadoff double and a David Ortiz walk.
- Jason Varitek had leadoff with a walk and Mueller singled to put together a scoring opportunity in the 6th inning. Tony Graffanino snuffed the chance by grounding into a 6-4-3.
- Graffanino grounded into his second double play to finish off the 8th inning, this time a Pythagorean double play (5-4-3) like Millar’s. Millar had stunningly singled to opposite field to get on base, and Graffanino rendered the miracle futile.
- Even the most reliable hitters can fall victim to the twin killing. Ortiz grounded into a 4-5-3 to end the game.
The Red Sox did turn 3 double plays of their own, so it’s as if the Tigers were timesharing in DP City.
Wells lasted only 4 innings. It’s incredible he stayed in for so long given that he gave up 5 earned runs in the first inning. Let’s hope it’s only a result of pitching in the daylight with his sinus congested rather than a sign of Wells going Wade Miller on us. He ended with a line of 12 hits, 6 earned runs, no walks, 3 strikeouts, and 1 home run. The bullpen trio of Jeremi Gonzalez, Mike Remlinger, and Chad Bradford kept their team close in the late innings, but the early deficit was too large to overcome.
I’ll get to see a game in the final series with Detroit later this month. Amusingly enough, I, who never wins any luck-based contest, won these tickets in a raffle. The person who called me about my win said I had a choice between two games and kept on gushing about how lucky I was to get tickets because they were really hard to come by this season. Abashedly I admitted I already had tickets to many games and needed to check which ones I was already attending before I committed to a date. Strange how one can feel badly about winning something. With any luck, I’ll be feeling similarly wistful watching the Red Sox decimate the Tigers at the end of August.
