Moving On Up
The Old Town team pulled itself out of the AL East cellar with a bombastic offensive performance on the first official day of summer in record scorching heat.
It started off promisingly with Dustin Pedroia-sized Little Leaguers getting to take the field with their Red Sox counterparts. They stood reverently with one hand holding their baseball caps over their hearts during the presentation of the national anthem and their other hand clutching a baseball and pen. The Red Sox paid tribute to the mending Pedroia by scoring 15 runs, their highest score in the season so far.
Deven Marrero, Boston’s first draft pick in the recent amateur draft, visited the booth in the fourth inning. While he will not follow in the footsteps of former shortstop standouts Hanley Ramirez and Dustin Pedroia, it is pleasant to dream on the untapped potential of touted prospects. On the other hand, not many of the vaunted talent evaluators saw a Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in Pedroia, so perhaps another middle infielder from Arizona State will wildly exceed expectations.
Somehow without Pedroia the lineup pummeled the opposing pitchers. David Ortiz hit the 11th grand slam of his career in the bottom of the fourth to make the score 11-4: numeric poetry.
In the aftermath of the blowout Ortiz blew up. “I’m just tired of dealing with the drama here. This is baseball, man. It seems like everything that goes on around here is like one of those Congress decisions that will affect the whole nation,” he said. While it is upsetting to see a key player seething at the media, I was amused that Ortiz, an American citizen since 2008, still thinks that Congress does make decisions.
Sing it, Mary J.
| Game 68: June 20, 2012 | ||
| Miami Marlins 33-35 |
5 |
L: Ricky Nolasco (6-6) |
| 2B: Justin Ruggiano (6), Donovan Solano (3), Omar Infante (15) 3B: Ruggiano (1) HR: Logan Morrison (7), John Buck (5) | ||
 Boston Red Sox35-33 |
15 |
W: Felix Doubront (8-2) |
| 2B: Cody Ross (10), Kevin Youkilis (7) HR: Mike Aviles (9), David Ortiz (18), Jarrod Saltalamacchia (13), Will Middlebrooks (7) | ||
