Pitching ruled the day as Dice-K, Daniel Bard & Jon Papelbon allowed the Oakland A's just 1 run in a 2-1 win. Big Papi's sac fly & Adrian Beltre's HR were enough offense off Ben Sheets to hand him the loss.
Dice-K ran into trouble in the 7th with runners on 2nd & 3rd and 2 outs. I give Francona a lot of credit for making a move to Bard at that point of the game. Bard got the next batter to pop to 3rd. Inning over.
A loss last night would have started this important road trip on a negative note. But it was run-prevention with good pitching & solid defense that won the day.
The offense continues to struggle which is not a good sign. The 7-8-9 batters are striking out with regularity. A few hitters in the 1 through 6 spots need to get hot.
Tim Wakefield goes against Darren Braden tonight. Let's hope Wake pitches better than his last few outings. We need every win we can get.
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We also have Buccholtz coming back from his hamstring pull, and Beckett returning from a bout of Sukitis. From his last two outings in the minors, it does not appear that Beckett is over his problem.
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