Repast
| Game 71: June 24, 2009 | |||
 Red Sox | 6 | W: Jon Lester (6-6) H: Justin Masterson (4) H: Hideki Okajima (14) S: Jonathan Papelbon (17) | 44-27, 4 game winning streak |
| Nationals | 4 | L: Craig Stammen (1-3) | 20-49, 2 game losing streak |
| Highlights: Home plate umpire Bob Davidson ran Dave Magadan in the fourth inning after the hitting coach joined Kevin Youkilis in disputing a called strike. It was just his second ejection as a coach. He was first thrown out as a coach on my birthday last year by Tim Tschida for arguing that J.D. Drew should have been given time to put pine tar on his bat. | |||
In an effort to increase local ticket sales, the Nationals had Player Recipe last night. Anderson Hernandez neglected to mention that he was sharing his recipe for Nick Green Kebabs.
Hernandez artfully demonstrated his skewering technique in the second but was thwarted by Green’s agility. Somehow the Red Sox shortstop avoided the bat shard targeting his tender midsection and it glanced off his sinewy arm instead.
Although he singled, Hernandez was perturbed by the failure of his showy entrée. “The ball was a decoy, it wasn’t supposed to get to the outfield. My swing is calibrated to shatter the bat, impale the shortstop, and place the ball such that it goes into the player’s mouth when he collapses.”
Instead of the kebabs, Craig Stammen served his world-renown meatball in the fourth to David Ortiz. Ortiz responded in kind with three rib eyes.
Jon Lester didn’t bring his finest cheese but didn’t resort to serving salad, either. He pitched six innings and matched the number of innings with the hits he surrendered and the strikeouts he doled out. Lester walked only two batters and allowed three earned runs.
Jacoby Ellsbury provided dessert with a snowcone catch of Ryan Zimmerman’s fly ball to center. (It didn’t peek out of Ellsbury’s glove until he hit the center field wall, but I’ve got a theme going here.)
Apologies to Dusty Brown for not mentioning his major league debut in the first game of this series. He got sent down today to make room for John Smoltz, but Brown did enjoy his first cup of coffee.
