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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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A
POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
May 27, 2007
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Joel Piniero took the win in relief of starter Julian Tavarez, who gave one of his best performances of the season. After Kevin Youkilis led off the eighth inning with his second single of the game and stole second, J.D. Drew singled to right, scoring Youkilis and tying the score. Mike Lowell followed with a single to left that brought Drew around, making it 5-4 Sox, and saddling Akinori Otsuka with a blown save. Dustin Pedroia's solo homer in the ninth provided the eventual winning run. Though Tavarez stifled the struggling Rangers' bats on one hit, a leadoff single by Kenny Lofton, over the first five innings, he encountered trouble in the sixth, giving up a 3-0 Sox lead on a booming three-run homer to Mark Teixeira. Tavarez walked Lofton and allowed a single to Michael Young, then Teixeira lofted one 453 feet and into the second deck in right, the fourth-longest home run hit in Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. When the homer was followed by three straight singles, the Rangers had a 4-3 lead by the time J.C. Romero relieved Tavarez and got the third out. And as the seventh inning developed, it seemed it might be a lost game for the Red Sox. With contributions from the struggling Drew, a single to lead off the fourth, and that single to score Youkilis in the eighth, combined with homers from Varitek (a three-run shot in the fourth off starter Kameron Loe, scoring Drew and Lowell) and Pedroia (his decisive solo shot came on a 12-pitch at-bat against Eric Gagne) and an impressive 1 2/3 innings of relief from Pineiro, the Red Sox headed home to face a sterner test than the Rangers provided. J.D. Drew broke a 17 at-bat hitless streak with a fourth-inning single to right field, then completed only his second two-hit game since April 22 with a single that scored the tying run in the eighth. Though Drew had been on base five times in Saturday night's victory (two fielder's choices, three walks), he still hadn't come through with a hit. Kevin Youkilis had to hide behind his glove. He used it to block the giant grin he couldn't wipe off his face, eventually giving up and laughing outright. With one out in the fourth, starter Julian Tavarez had picked a comebacker to the mound. But instead of throwing over to Youkilis, he rolled it. It took 12 pitches before Dustin Pedroia finally figured out Eric Gagne. But he got the Texas reliever. Pedroia hit his second home run of the season, marking the first time Gagne allowed a run this season over 9 1/3 innings in 10 appearances. It was the first home run off Gagne since May 14, 2005 (he pitched in just two games in 2006). Hideki Okajima picked up the save, his third of the year. Okajima did give up a run in the ninth inning on a single by Victor Diaz, a groundout by Michael Young, and a single by Mark Teixeira. Youkilis extended his career-high hitting streak to 19 games with a third-inning single. He followed that with another single, this time of the infield variety, in the eighth. Youkilis has had at least two hits in each of his last seven games, bringing his average to . |
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