After Alfredo Aceves' stinkbomb last night in a miserable rain-shortened 13-0 loss by the Red Sox (that earned him a demotion to Pawtucket today), Boston needed to regroup and find a way to bounce back against Oakland. The Red Sox (14-7 overall, 7-5 home) did just that by holding off the A's (13-9 overall, 7-5) 6-5 this afternoon at Fenway Park. With the win, Boston took two of three against Oakland-the best team that they have seen so far this season.
Jon Lester improved to 4-0 even though he had his worst outing of 2013: 5.2 innings, three earned runs, six hits, five strikeouts and six walks. Chris Young's three-run homer in the fourth gave Oakland a 3-0 lead. Boston responded with three runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth. That was enough to hold off single runs by the A's in the seventh and eighth.
Mike Napoli fittingly started the rally with an RBI double and Stephen Drew (yes him) tied it with a two-run triple. Shane Victorino's RBI double (he later left with a stiff back) put Boston ahead 4-3 then David Ortiz (2 hits, double, run) and Daniel Nava (2 hits) each added RBI singles. After Josh Donaldson's RBI single in the seventh, Young crushed a solo homer off Koji Uehara (second straight appearance that he's allowed a run) in the eighth.
Former A's All-Star closer Andrew Bailey struck out the side in the ninth for his fifth save. Of course, he had some help from the umpires since Jed Lowrie's (3 hits, double, run) possible double into the right field corner was ruled foul. It was too close to call and he ended up being the third out. I would say that Bailey has locked down the closer's position: in his last three appearances he has gone three innings, allowing no hits and no runs with seven strikeouts and one walk for two saves. Let's see Joel Hanrahan do that!
Boston received a gift from the MLB scheduling gods since this longest homestand of the season (10 were scheduled, 1 will be made up) is capped off by four games against Houston (7-14)-the worst team in their new league (American).
Clay Buchholz (4-0) faces Philip Humber (0-4) tomorrow night (6:35 p.m., NESN), Ryan Dempster (0-2) gets Erik Bedard (0-1) on Friday (7:10 p.m., NESN), Felix Doubront (2-0) takes on Brad Peacock (0-1) on Saturday night (7:10 p.m., NESN) then John Lackey (0-0) returns to oppose Bud Norris (3-2) in the series finale on Sunday afternoon (1:35 p.m., NESN). Good seats are still available for these awful games, the Red Sox need to win at least three against the hopeless Astros.
UPDATE 4/25: Ryan Lavarnway was called up from the PawSox, taking Aceves' spot on the roster.
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