Victor Martinez made the Red Sox front office look good last night as he hit the go-ahead double as Boston rallied in the ninth inning to defeat Texas 8-4. Down 4-2 coming into the inning with closer Frank Francisco on the mound, three straight hits brought the Red Sox to within one run. Woodward struck out, however, and Clay Buchholz, pinch running for Varitek, failed to score from second, getting thrown out at the plate on a double.
Buchholz, a starting pitcher, hesitated between second and third base when Texas left fielder David Murphy leaped to try to catch Pedroia’s drive at the wall. Murphy quickly retrieved the ball and threw to Michael Young, whose relay beat a sliding Buchholz. The Red Sox ended up with runners at second and third, and Martinez followed with the go-ahead hit.
It was a great at bat as Martinez fell behind in the count, they fouled off strikes and took pitches until he got one he could drive. He drove it into the rightfield corner, and the Red Sox led 5-4. They’d add three more runs before the inning was over. Martinez is now 6 for 16 against Texas pitching this season.
Based on history, the Rangers worry this will kill their season:
The Rangers lost at home for the first time in 72 games when leading entering the eighth inning. They also fell 1 ½ games behind the Red Sox in the wild-card race after being an inning away from taking a half-game lead.
It’s a loss that left Marlon Byrd to reflect on last season, when the Rangers rallied from a 10-0 hole only to lose in similar fashion at Boston. That team never rebounded.
“It’s a game that can either kill a team, or we don’t even worry about it,” Byrd said. “Around this time last year, we came back from 10 runs down against this team. They came back, ended up beating us, and it was a heartbreaker. It went downhill from there.”
We’ll see today if the Rangers can rebound.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:09 am | Division Races, Games | Permalink | No Comments
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