Dustin Pedroia fell a home run shy of the cycle in the Sox scary final game of their sweep. The Sox appeared to be cruising to their third win in a row until Buchholz hit a road block in the sixth inning. It appeared he would finally get a nice start under his belt until he couldn’t record an out in the sixth inning. He left in the middle of the inning with the bases juiced and the bullpen didn’t come through for him (big surprise I know). Scott Atchinson and Justin Thomas came in to face three batter without managing to record an out. It took a huge Matt Albers double play to let the Sox escape with their head just barely above water with a 7-6 lead. Somehow, someway that is how the game ended. The twins had seized all momentum, but the Sox bullpen kept them scoreless after the sixth.
Of course Aceves came in for a heart-attack save in the ninth, allowing two base runners with no margin for error, but he got out of the inning unscathed. All in all it was actually a good outing for the Sox pen allowing just one earned run the 3.2 innings they pitched and it turned out to be a great series for just about everyone involved, especially the bullpen. Maybe Daniel Bard’s appearence gave everyone a little extra confidence (while I doubt that to be true it sounds good and it makes Bobby V actually look good for once, well I’m not sure if I actually want that).
While the matchups looked promising for the Sox, with the way they were playing a sweep on the road seemed damn near impossible, even if it was against the now 5-14 Minnesota Twins. The Sox bats once again came alive when they needed them, scoring a combined twenty-five runs in the three game series. What I am most pleased to see is the production they have been getting early in the games, we can finally see what happens when our starting pitchers are able to work with a lead.
The Sox now head to the windy city to take on a very beatable Chicago White Sox team. They have some good starting pitching, but with the way Boston is swinging the bat right now I am not sure if they have quite the stuff to tame the Sox. What I do know is the White Sox lineup is not strong and the Sox starters actually need to take advantage of that for once. It will be the bottom end of the rotation in the first couple of games, but they have actually been two of the more reliable so far this season. The Sox need to continue this winning streak if they want a taste of .500 before May strikes.
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