April 14th Red Sox

The Red Sox looked right at home again today, piling on a slew of runs against the Rays in a 13-5 victory. After 25 runs in the past two games the Red Sox have the most runs scored in all of baseball. The eighth inning was kind to the Sox again as they scored five runs to seal the deal. However, the Sox got off to another slow start allowing the Rays to score four times in the top of the first. The Sox scored first in just one of their eight games this season, that is a stat they are going to have to change if they want to have a successful season. 

Buchholz settled in very nicely after allowing four in the first. He went seven innings allowing five runs on six hits. Morales looked very strong coming out of the pen once again securing the Sox lead until they broke it open in the bottom half of eighth. It was a home run derby for the Sox, who went yard five different times during the slug fest. Big Papi hit a two run shot, part of his five RBI day, and Mike Aviles broke the 5-5 tie in the seventh with a solo shot. Yet none was better than Cody Ross’s monster clearing bomb to cap the Sox victory. 

Cody Ross had a huge spring and many thought he would come out of the gates on fire, but it was just the opposite, he entered todays game hitting under .200 to start the season. He hit the ball hard today in all five of his at-bats. He only ended up with a hit in two of them, but it is a good sign for Sox fans. He has the potential to be a deadly Fenway hitter and he showed why today. Someone has to step up in the outfield with Crawford and Ellsbury out and he and Sweeney are doing just that. 

I thought it might be Sweeney who got a chance at the top of the order but Valentine elected to go with Mike Aviles instead. Aviles went 3-5 with two runs scored. It will probably be a combination of Aviles and Punto at the top spot. We have already seen Punto at the top once and it worked out well so don’t be surprised if whoever is at shortstop is also leading off. 

The Sox look to pull even with the Rays with a win tomorrow and pull with one game of .500. It won’t come easy though, the Rays send young phenom Matt Moore to the mound in hopes of containing this red hot Sox team. For the Sox it will be Felix Dubrount.