One-Run Humdrum
It’s not like the Red Sox went into the tenth trailing 1-0 and won with a stunning grand slam off the bat of their star slugger. However, the celebration in the wake of such an electrifying event could have dire consequences; just ask the Angels’ Kendry Morales. You’ll have to wait until he gets out of surgery for his broken lower left leg, an injury he sustained landed awkwardly on home plate and into a circle of his teammates.
As tense as a run-of-the-mill one-run game like the one between Boston and Kansas City can be, it was nothing compared to Roy Halladay’s perfect outing against the Marlins which he won 1-0. In the outing prior to his perfecto Halladay was battered by the Red Sox for 8 hits and 6 earned runs. Halladay rebounded from that poor start with the 20th perfect game in MLB history. The 20-day gap between Dallas Braden’s and Halladay’s achievements was the shortest period of time between perfect games ever. No legs were broken in the Phillies’ celebratory mob.
The April version of this Red Sox team wouldn’t have won this game. An Adrian Beltre fielding error or Marco Scutaro throwing gaffe would have had Royals players skipping across home for the winning run. Or Jonathan Papelbon would groove one fastball too many and surrender the go-ahead score.
The Red Sox of May maintained the slim lead over seven innings. The lack of timely hitting in later innings was frustrating, such as squandering bases-loaded situations in the fifth and seventh.
Mike Lowell spelled Kevin Youkilis at first, a lineup move calculated to soothe the veteran player and avoid having Youkilis face Zack Greinke, against whom he is 1-for-10. Beltre led off the second with a rope to right and advanced to third on J.D. Drew’s wall-ball double. Down in the count 0-2, Lowell cut down on his swing to assure contact and drove in the only run of the game. The two-game losing streak was thus broken with a workaday win against a sub-.500 team.
| Game 51: May 29, 2010 | ||
| Royals 21-29 | 0 | L: Zack Greinke (1-6) |
| 2B: David DeJesus (14), Jason Kendall (9) | ||
 Red Sox28-23 | 1 | W: Clay Buchholz (7-3) H: Daniel Bard (10) S: Jonathan Papelbon (12) |
| 2B: J.D. Drew (12), David Ortiz (9) | ||
