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DAVID ORTIZ |
A
POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
The Red Sox breeze past
the
White Sox twice
August 24, 2007
...
The Red Sox pounded the White Sox, 11-3 and 10-1, outcomes that led
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen to utter one of the more memorable
loser's lines of this or any other season ("Twelve hours of my life I
wasted and I'm never going to get them back."), with Davis Ortiz
whacking two home runs among his four hits and Youkilis hitting a
three-run shot in Boston's first three-homer game since July 26.
They not
only played, but scored 10 or more runs twice in the same day for the first time
in 50 years. Josh Beckett, after surviving a rough first inning in which he gave
up a two-out double to A.J. Pierzynski and walked three straight batters to
force in a run, recovered to take the game into the sixth inning, leaving with
two on, two out, and the score 5-3, Josh Fields having taken him deep for two
runs in the fifth.
But the
newly recalled Javy Lopez got the last out of the sixth, Okajima worked a
scoreless seventh, and with the Red Sox breaking it open with six runs in the
last two innings, Jason Varitek hitting a two-run home run in the ninth off
former Sox lefthander Mike Myers to add to the two-run double he hit in a
four-run fourth, Mike Timlin was left in to pitch the final two innings in the
998th appearance of his career. Varitek had beaten himself up after ending four
innings in Wednesday's 2-1 loss at Tampa Bay, each time with two runners on
base, saying the loss.
The box
score will say the first game was played before a crowd of 30,581, but that was
based on the tickets sold for the game that had been washed out Thursday night.
Curt Schilling spotted the White Sox a 1-0 lead on Juan Uribe's home run in the
second, but Dustin Pedroia walked to open the fourth and Ortiz hit lefty John
Danks' next pitch into the right-field seats for his 22d home run. The Red Sox
tacked on three more runs in the inning, then Ortiz led off the fifth against
Gavin Floyd with another first-pitch home run, this one to dead center. Two
walks followed, then Youkilis connected for his fourth hit of the day, having
singled twice after entering Game 1 as a pinch hitter in the seventh.
Manny
Ramirez's chances of hitting his milestone 500th home run appear to be dimming.
Needing 11 to join Frank Thomas and Alex Rodriguez as the newest members of the
500 club, Ramirez's only home run this month came Aug. 5 in Seattle off Miguel
Batista, a span of 60 at-bats. He hit a ball with home run distance down the
right-field line in the eighth inning of Game 1, but it went foul. He hit
another with home run distance down the left-field line, but it curved foul
also.
Jacoby
Ellsbury hit safely in both games of Pawtucket's games in Buffalo to extend his
hitting streak to 20 games, a PawSox record. Ellsbury tied the record held by
Dave Stapleton (1979) and Dave Berg (2005) by going 3 for 4 in the Paw Sox' 7-4
opening win, and broke the mark with a 1-for-3 showing in a 7-0 loss in the
second game. |
