Lowrie’s Seasoned Salt
My mom always had a jar of Lawry’s Seasoned Salt in the cupboard to quickly add zest to hamburgers or pork chops. In much the same way Jed Lowrie adds zing to the Red Sox; it’s not a coincidence that since Lowrie has been inserted in the lineup home cooking has been tastier. Today Lowrie put Sam Fuld to shame with a 4-for-5 outing, sprinkling in four runs batted with a splash of two-run home run for good measure.
Terry Francona exploited Blue Jays starter Ricky Romero’s vulnerability to J.D. Drew by slotting the right fielder into the leadoff slot. The move also gave Carl Crawford some relief from the pressure of batting first. Drew led off the game with a triple that nearly cleared the center field wall and went on to score the first run of the game.
Kevin Youkilis also just missed a homer when he hammered the ball of the top of the home bullpen’s wall in the bottom of the third but easily lofted the ball over the visitors’ bullpen wall in the sixth. His 114th home run further padded the lead to 7-0 and equally split his roundtrippers to 57 at Fenway and 57 on the road, appropriate for such a balanced hitter. Youkilis displayed personality outside of getting pissed off at umpires’ ball and strike calls and staring down pitchers that buzz him inside in the seventh inning. Adam Lind carved a ball high into the Fenway jet stream to shallow left. Youkilis backed up for it and tumbled towards his left as he desperately tried to track its progress through the swirling wind. He gloved the ball, hit the ground, and barely stopped the ball from toppling to the turf. It’s not quite warm enough for snow cones but Youkilis served the Blue Jays a fresh one anyway.
All the offensive support would have been for naught had Daisuke Matsuzaka repeated his previous performance, but the starter hurled an outstanding 7 innings with 1 hit, 1 base on balls, no runs, and 3 strikeouts. He had a run of 16 batters out in a row. Francona wisely pulled Matsuzaka before Toronto batters could get to him, reestablishing the fifth starter’s self-confidence and perhaps allowing the fans to believe in him again as well.
Another player that may have reversed his fortunes was Crawford. From the seventh spot the left fielder was 1-for-5, but his hit clanged high off the left field wall and drove in a run, his first RBI since April 3 and his first extra base hit since April 11. Then again, it may have been Lowrie’s mere presence on the base paths that powered Crawford’s sixth inning double.
Before they jet off for their first trip to the Left Coast the Red Sox wrapped up their wrap-around series with a tidy three-game winning streak. Boston is still in last place in the AL East, but this homestand has shown that this team can play up to the lofty expectations most everyone had for them.
| Game 15: April 18, 2011 | ||
| Toronto Blue Jays 7-9 | 1 | L: Ricky Romero (1-2) |
| HR: Yunel Escobar (2) | ||
 Boston Red Sox5-10 | 9 | W: Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-2) |
| 2B: Kevin Youkilis (5), Carl Crawford (2), Adrian Gonzalez (4) 3B: J.D. Drew (1) HR: Jed Lowrie (2), Youkilis (2), Jacoby Ellsbury (4) | ||
