Sick
| Game 75: June 28, 2009 | |||
| Red Sox | 1 | L: Brad Penny (6-3) | 46-29, 1 game losing streak |
 Braves | 2 | W: Tommy Hanson (4-0) H: Eric O’Flaherty (7) H: Peter Moylan (11) H: Rafael Soriano (6) S: Mike Gonzalez (9) | 35-40, 1 game winning streak |
| Highlights: Mmmbop, ba duba dop. Please tell me this is Hanson’s mound music. He was 10 when the song hit number one. The Little Leaguers that took over the NESN studio wouldn’t remember this tune. Tom Caron asked a couple of the tykes who their favorite players were. Not surprisingly, one stripling named Dustin Pedroia. Because of the second baseman’s spunk, his glove, his bat, his accolades? Nope. Because Dustin rhymes with Justin, his own name. | |||
Tommy Hanson took a page out of Brad Penny’s book and pitched impressively despite flu-like symptoms. If Hanson maintains this pace he could be named the Rookie of the Year. That Boston lost to an outstanding first-year player and not just AAAA cannon fodder removes some of the sting of this loss. He may have been sick, but so was his stuff.
Clay Buchholz’s voodoo doll seemed to work at first. Brad Penny clutched his wrist after a pitch, prompting Paul Lessard and Terry Francona to rush to his side. But Buchholz’s hopes were dashed as Penny once again showed unexpected toughness to last six innings and pitch well enough to win.
Unlike pure American League pitchers, the stout starter knew his way around the batter’s box enough to make contact. He hit the ball on the screws right at Chipper Jones in the third and in the fifth reached on Jones’s error.
Jones had already made his mark on the game in the first inning with a two-out solo shot. Garrett Anderson led off the fourth with a four-bagger that proved the difference in the game.
I’m being a homer, but I wouldn’t pick either home run as the play of the game. Instead, Penny’s put out of Kelly Johnson in the fifth makes my highlight reel. He stood still and let Johnson’s ground ball ricochet off his foot, and then he caught the self-created carom and threw to first for the first out of the inning.
The last game of interleague means not having to watch David Ortiz stumble around batted balls. The ersatz first baseman reached Gregor Blanco’s third-inning bunt attempt well enough but dropped the ball when he tried to swipe tag the runner. In the fourth, Ortiz couldn’t pick Nick Green’s relay in the dirt and at first the shortstop was given an error. The official scorer eventually converted the error into a hit for Jeff Francoeur, perhaps to make him feel better after getting nailed in the helmet by Penny in the second.
Lessard not only fixes players’ ills but equipment, too. He tinkered with Ortiz’s glove, which was about as effective as Dave Magadan helping pitchers with their swings. Farewell to National League shenanigans, at least until the Midsummer and Fall Classics.
