Happy Memorial Day from the Red Sox

As you would expect, the Red Sox' first win in nearly two weeks (May 14 at Minnesota, same night the Bruins were eliminated by the Canadiens) couldn't be simple and straight forward. Nope, their 8-6 win over the Braves on Memorial Day afternoon at Turner Field in the series opener had to include a rain delay that was one hour and 26 minutes long. The game itself was wacky enough as Boston (21-29 overall, 11-12 away) trailed Atlanta (28-22 overall, 18-11 home) 6-1 after four innings as they rallied to snap a 10-game losing streak.

The two biggest hits for the Red Sox were provided by none other than Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz in the fifth inning. Pedroia roped a two-run single then Ortiz crushed a three-run bomb to left center, his team-leading 12th of the season. Boston went ahead for good with a pair of runs in the seventh on Ortiz's sacrifice fly and an RBI single by A.J. Pierzynski.

Due to Clay Buchholz (8 walks) leaving after only three plus innings, in addition to the rain delay, Boston needed six relievers to piece it together but somehow they managed to pull it off. Burke Badenhop allowed two inherited runners from Buchholz's mess to score but got all three outs in the fourth, Chris Capuano had a scoreless fifth with one strikeout, Edward Mujica (2-1) pitched a scoreless sixth for the win, Junichi Tazawa had a 1-2-3 7th, Andrew Miller picked up his second hold with a scoreless eighth then Koji Uehara notched his tenth save in only eight pitches.

Boston had scored first, on Jackie Bradley's sacrifice fly in the third but Atlanta put up three runs in both the third and fourth innings. Justin Upton had a two-run double in the third and Gerald Laird notched an RBI single. The Upton brothers (don't forget that jackass B.J.) both had RBI doubles in the fourth and Andrelton Simmons closed out their scoring with an RBI single.

Jon Lester (4-6) faces Aaron Harang (4-4) tomorrow night (7:10, NESN) in the pseudo series finale as the Braves come (back) to Boston for two more games starting on Wednesday. Cool schedule right?

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