This is a legitimate post for the first time in six days. Boston was fantastic, as far as having the ability to go. I was able to see many of the towns a majority of my Springfield College friends are from. From start to finish was the most interesting. We managed to leave the gate in Buffalo early had lunch with my friend at his place as soon as we got settled and then he joined us as we spent the entire afternoon in southeastern Maine. The following day was a day on the town as we were planning to spend most of it in the North End of the City. Prior to our adventure Towards Yawkey Way, our first hotel was in historic Lexington so we checked out what they had to offer, along with the nicest library I've ever seen and the best kid in a candy shop display. Due to certin detail that would be strenouously long to descirbe, I won't go into detail about how the tickets for the batting practice tour at Fenway Park were sold out. So that gave us an extra three and a half hours before the first pitch around the ballpark.
Little did I know come the first pitch that it would be a high scoring game. The starters were C.J. Wilson for LA and for Boston Clay Buchholz, both of whom received a no decision for that contest. Albert Pujols was able to play despite indication of an MRI scan due to an injury the night before and ultimately didn't play (starter or substitute). By itself, the bottom of the second and top of the third innings took an hour long. a total of 13 runs combined were scored and the score at that point was 8-6 Los Angeles. To start off, Sox designated hitter Adrián González got a two out base hit to score second baseman Dustin Pedroia who had doubled in the at-bat preceding González. Then came the bottom of the following inning. Left fielder Scott Podsednik singled first baseman Mauro Gómez home, who doubled two batters prior. Two batters later, Jacoby Ellsbury the centerfielder drove in Podsednik on a base hit, and finally Pedroia homered in Ellsbury along with leadoff man in Pedro Ciriaco, who played at third base.
The Angels didnt need the rally monkey to get things going in the top of the third, however. After singles to center fielder Mike Trout and right fielder Torii Hunter, Trout would steal third, before being driven in by a Howie Kendrick (second baseman) base hit. This was followed by as tring of two walks, an error by Ciriaco, and another walk. The second walk scored Hunter and Kendrick scored on the error with third baseman Alberto Callaspo scoring the following walk (he had an the lone error for the halos later on, and had another error taken away). LA had batted around the order at this point before Iannetta's single brought home the shortstop Eick Aybar. Two more singles by Trout and Hunter in consecutive at-bats brought home left fielder Vernon Wells then Iannetta, respectively.
Over the course of the game, a run was scored in each combined inning except the fourth. I lost my voice by the eighth inning. Boston would score two more runs in the fifth and sixth, the Angels got a run in the seventh, and two more Red Sox runs in the eighth gave us a 10-9 lead favoring Boston.the Angels scored three in their half of the ninth to take a one run lead.In that stretch were home runs by shortstop Mike Avilés for Boston, and for Vernon Wells of the Angels (who put the ball over the infamous Green Monster at 27 feet high in left field). To make things interesting, Sox right fielder Cody Ross with a solo home run, tied the game at 12 apiece.
On to extran innings, free baseball if you will. Kendry Morales, the Angels designated hitter, go another solo blast in the area near Pesky's Pole (named in honor of the late John Paveskovich) to lead-off the inning. A Vernon Wells double scored Aybar from first base but Wells got thrown out at third on a close call after being caught in attempt to steal third as Podsednik had difficulty taking the ball that had rolled all the way along the left field foul line towards the Monster. That leads us into the bottom half of the inning with a score of a 14-12 margin to the Angels. After Podsednik led-off by striking out looking, Ciriaco singlede then stole second by a means of defensive indifference (when nobody holds him at either the base being stolen from (first) or stolen (second) in the ensuing at-bat. That resulted in a shallow fly ball to center by Ellsbury with a passed ball during the at-bat sending Ciriaco to third. Pedroia came up to the plate having homered earlier in the game. He got a base hit to bring Ciriaco in to score. After the single by González in the first inning, he hadn't gotten a hit having gone 1-5 since then. On an 0-2 count González swings . . . and misses and the ball game was (finally) over after four hours and 34 minutes of play. "Light that baby up", "just another Halo victory"!
A full list of statistics can be found here along with a complete visual play-by-play (maybe five minutes in total). The Angels swept the three game series as they prepared to head to Detroit for their four game series starting the following evening. Meanwhile my folks and I decided to enjoy Chinatown after a quick visit to Foxboro to go to the Patriots Pro Shop so I could pick up new Revolution gear . . . in the middle of a Tim McGraw/Kenny Chesney concert adding an extra twenty minutes driving on the way there. The rest of my excursion will be featured in tomorrow's post. Bye until then.
-Ricky
Pictures include: Cary Memorial Library, Minuteman Statue& the Battleground, Candy Castle
Little did I know come the first pitch that it would be a high scoring game. The starters were C.J. Wilson for LA and for Boston Clay Buchholz, both of whom received a no decision for that contest. Albert Pujols was able to play despite indication of an MRI scan due to an injury the night before and ultimately didn't play (starter or substitute). By itself, the bottom of the second and top of the third innings took an hour long. a total of 13 runs combined were scored and the score at that point was 8-6 Los Angeles. To start off, Sox designated hitter Adrián González got a two out base hit to score second baseman Dustin Pedroia who had doubled in the at-bat preceding González. Then came the bottom of the following inning. Left fielder Scott Podsednik singled first baseman Mauro Gómez home, who doubled two batters prior. Two batters later, Jacoby Ellsbury the centerfielder drove in Podsednik on a base hit, and finally Pedroia homered in Ellsbury along with leadoff man in Pedro Ciriaco, who played at third base.
The Angels didnt need the rally monkey to get things going in the top of the third, however. After singles to center fielder Mike Trout and right fielder Torii Hunter, Trout would steal third, before being driven in by a Howie Kendrick (second baseman) base hit. This was followed by as tring of two walks, an error by Ciriaco, and another walk. The second walk scored Hunter and Kendrick scored on the error with third baseman Alberto Callaspo scoring the following walk (he had an the lone error for the halos later on, and had another error taken away). LA had batted around the order at this point before Iannetta's single brought home the shortstop Eick Aybar. Two more singles by Trout and Hunter in consecutive at-bats brought home left fielder Vernon Wells then Iannetta, respectively.
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| Featuring the crew, NESN and analyst Peter Gammons |
Over the course of the game, a run was scored in each combined inning except the fourth. I lost my voice by the eighth inning. Boston would score two more runs in the fifth and sixth, the Angels got a run in the seventh, and two more Red Sox runs in the eighth gave us a 10-9 lead favoring Boston.the Angels scored three in their half of the ninth to take a one run lead.In that stretch were home runs by shortstop Mike Avilés for Boston, and for Vernon Wells of the Angels (who put the ball over the infamous Green Monster at 27 feet high in left field). To make things interesting, Sox right fielder Cody Ross with a solo home run, tied the game at 12 apiece.
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| More of the crew and Fenway. |
On to extran innings, free baseball if you will. Kendry Morales, the Angels designated hitter, go another solo blast in the area near Pesky's Pole (named in honor of the late John Paveskovich) to lead-off the inning. A Vernon Wells double scored Aybar from first base but Wells got thrown out at third on a close call after being caught in attempt to steal third as Podsednik had difficulty taking the ball that had rolled all the way along the left field foul line towards the Monster. That leads us into the bottom half of the inning with a score of a 14-12 margin to the Angels. After Podsednik led-off by striking out looking, Ciriaco singlede then stole second by a means of defensive indifference (when nobody holds him at either the base being stolen from (first) or stolen (second) in the ensuing at-bat. That resulted in a shallow fly ball to center by Ellsbury with a passed ball during the at-bat sending Ciriaco to third. Pedroia came up to the plate having homered earlier in the game. He got a base hit to bring Ciriaco in to score. After the single by González in the first inning, he hadn't gotten a hit having gone 1-5 since then. On an 0-2 count González swings . . . and misses and the ball game was (finally) over after four hours and 34 minutes of play. "Light that baby up", "just another Halo victory"!
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| Final stats and the end of the game. |
A full list of statistics can be found here along with a complete visual play-by-play (maybe five minutes in total). The Angels swept the three game series as they prepared to head to Detroit for their four game series starting the following evening. Meanwhile my folks and I decided to enjoy Chinatown after a quick visit to Foxboro to go to the Patriots Pro Shop so I could pick up new Revolution gear . . . in the middle of a Tim McGraw/Kenny Chesney concert adding an extra twenty minutes driving on the way there. The rest of my excursion will be featured in tomorrow's post. Bye until then.
-Ricky
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