L.A. Beaten
Sundays are supposed to be leisurely but Clay Buchholz’s day was anything but. The Red Sox offense, so potent in the first two games of the series, strung together just two runs for the spindly starter.
Dustin Pedroia singled with one out in the first, a grounder that bounced off Casey Blake’s glove towards Jamey Carroll. With David Ortiz batting Joe Torre put on the shift. Pedroia was offended by Torre’s tactic; didn’t that manager know that blinding speed was one of the weapons in Pedroia’s vast arsenal of baseball weaponry?
The Red Sox second baseman bolted for second and continued on to third after his pop-up slide as no one backed up the hot corner. Torre intentionally walked Ortiz to get to Kevin Youkilis, who called “two ball, corner pocket” in the batter’s box. The Red Sox first baseman cunningly cued the ball down the third base line and Blake’s only move was to hope it bent foul. Instead the ball skipped along the line and hit the third base bag for a single, scoring Pedroia.
The only other run came in the third inning. Marco Scutaro led off with a single to center, advanced to third on Pedroia’s line drive to right, and tagged up on Ortiz’s fly ball to right.
ESPN tried to add some action to the broadcast by having Curt Schilling visit the booth. The pitcher was more Louella Parsons than Lou Piniella, and his gossip was about as current. I will never tire of tales from 2004, but Schilling already sounds like he is practicing for the 10th, 15th, and every five-year increment thereafter anniversary of that fabled season. Schilling seemed all too eager to dish about his former teammate Manny Ramirez, but did acknowledge the slugger’s positive aspects even though he divulged Ramirez’s negative traits with a touch of satisfaction.
After such a dismal start who would have thought 2010 to have much promise for the Red Sox? Boston is now tied with Tampa Bay; the two teams are one game behind the AL East-leading Yankees. In a year when the Bruins flatlined and the Celtics fizzled, it might be the slow-starting Red Sox who carry the day.
| Game 71: June 20, 2010 | ||
| Dodgers 38-31 | 0 | L: Hiroki Kuroda (6-5) |
| 2B: Garret Anderson (5) | ||
 Red Sox43-28 | 2 | W: Clay Buchholz (10-4) H: Daniel Bard (15) S: Jonathan Papelbon (16) |
| 2B: Adrian Beltre (19) 3B: Dustin Pedroia (1) | ||
