Even with Yoenis Cespedes on the bench (his flight from Oakland arrived late this afternoon in Boston), I have to say that I looked forward to tonight's Red Sox (49-60 overall, 27-29 home) game as much as any others that I can remember from this very forgettable season. Seeing a team that was basically half Pawtucket Red Sox beat the Yankees (55-53 overall, 30-27 away) 4-3 at Fenway Park was pretty gratifying. Anthony Ranaudo (1-0) made his MLB debut and it was a good one: 6 innings, 2 earned runs, 4 hits, 2 strikeouts, 4 walks.
Former Red Sox Chris Capuano (1-2) got the start for New York and he continued to prove that he's nothing special at this stage in his overachieving career. They will probably lose a bunch of games from here on out but I'll give the Red Sox credit for addressing many (who needs pitching?) problems facing the team. You hear all the clichés but it really was cool to see new faces like Allen Craig (1st hit for Boston-a double) blend with youngsters such as Mookie Betts and Will Middlebrooks who are trying to win everyday jobs for next season.
Brock Holt tripled and Dustin Pedroia (2 for 4 w/run) drove him in with an RBI double in the third inning. David Ortiz knocked in Pedroia with an RBI single for a 2-0. Carlos Beltran cut New York's deficit in half with a solo homer in the fourth inning-his 13th of the season. Middlebrooks doubled in the fourth
and David Ross delivered an RBI single that ended with him limping off the field. Clearly his foot is in rough shape so he should be out for a while (DL?).
Beltran came through again with an RBI double in the sixth that scored another former Red Sox-Jacoby Ellsbury. Dustin Pedroia's RBI single in the 7th turned out to be the insurance that Boston needed as Derek Jeter hit a solo homer over the Monster in the eighth.
Another PawSox Tommy Layne pitched a 1-2-3 7th and Junichi Tazawa surrendered the homer to Jeter before Koji Uehara locked it down with a 1-2-3 9th (1 strikeout/13 total pitches) for his 22nd save of the season.
It's another wretched (at least on paper) pitching matchup tomorrow afternoon (4:05, NESN): Allen Webster (1-0) vs. Shane Greene (3-10). Did I mention that it's supposed to rain all day? So yeah, might want to skip out on the tickets that you know your friends, family and co-workers will be trying to dump on you.
UPDATE 8/2: The Red Sox sent Ranaudo back to Pawtucket (womp womp) and added Joe Kelly to the active roster. Additionally, Ross went on the DL and the Red Sox called up catcher Dan Butler from the PawSox. Finally, Yoenis Cespedes is in the lineup this afternoon and playing left field in his Red Sox debut.
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