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A SEASON IN THE DRINK
June 4, 2011 ... A long, frustrating, and emotional day came to a fruitful end in the 14th inning when Drew's single scored Carl Crawford from second base to give the Red Sox a 9-8 victory over Oakland. Those players who had the energy mobbed Drew as he rounded first. His single ended a game that lasted 5 hours and 17 minutes and featured 495 pitches. The teams each scored a run in the 11th inning as darkness began to fall. In the 14th, Crawford doubled with two outs against righthander Guillermo Moscoso. Oakland intentionally walked Jed Lowrie to get to Drew. Drew had delivered an RBI single way back in the fifth inning, then struck out swinging in each of the four at-bats that followed. This time he took a strike, then lined a fastball to right-center. The single made a winner of Alfredo Aceves, who allowed one run over four innings of relief. The Sox took a 7-3 lead into the ninth, the product of six decent innings from Josh Beckett and three runs driven in by Crawford, who was 4 for 7 on the day. Francona decided to use Papelbon in a non-save situation because the closer had started warming up in the eighth before the Sox padded their lead with two runs. An apparently unfocused Papelbon gave up a single to Mark Ellis, then walked Daric Barton. He came back to strike out Landon Powell before getting Coco Crisp to ground toward second base. What looked like a possible double play turned into a disaster as the ball went between Pedroia's legs and a run scored. After Cliff Pennington's double drove in a run, Varitek was ejected for protesting the strike zone of umpire Tony Randazzo. Pinch hitter Conor Jackson followed with a line shot that deflected off the glove of a diving Kevin Youkilis at third base and went for a two-run single. Papelbon was then ejected by Randazzo and responded by charging at the umpire. Papelbon had to be held back as he pointed at Randazzo and tried to further confront him. Papelbon had his back turned to the plate when Randazzo came walking toward him. When Papelbon saw that, he became enraged and his first career ejection swiftly followed. Papelbon, oddly, was ejected after throwing a pitch to Ryan Sweeney that was called a strike. He claimed to be talking to catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia about the strike zone. Bobby Jenks took the mound and allowed a single by Sweeney. But he came back to strike out Josh Willingham. He struck out Hideki Matsui for what looked like the end of the inning, but the ball rolled away from Saltalamacchia. Jackson crossed the plate, but the run did not count as Saltalamacchia made a long, accurate throw to first base in time for the third out. Oakland took the lead in the 11th on a sacrifice fly by Sweeney off Aceves. The Sox were down to their last out in the bottom of the inning when doubles by Saltalamacchia and Jacoby Ellsbury tied it up against Oakland closer Andrew Bailey. Until today, Drew had never had a walkoff hit for the Sox. |
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