Beckett earns 14th win as BoSox rout Mariners
Seattle, WA - Manny Ramirez homered and knocked in a pair of runs and Josh Beckett pitched into the seventh inning for his 14th win of the season, as the Boston Red Sox crushed the Seattle Mariners, 9-2, in the finale of a three-game set at Safeco Field.
Beckett (14-5), who had lost back-to-back starts for the first time this season coming in, gave up just one run on eight hits in 6 2/3 innings with nine strikeouts and two walks for the Red Sox, who have won four of five.
“I thought his stuff was real good,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “When he got into counts where it wasn’t a hitters count, there were a lot of fastballs today that were down (in the zone).”
J.D. Drew added an RBI triple for Boston, while David Ortiz walked three times, scored twice and stole his second base of the season.
Jose Guillen collected three hits for the Mariners, who have dropped two straight after winning six of seven.
Miguel Batista (11-8) was saddled with the loss after yielding three runs — two earned — on five hits through six innings. The right-hander struck out three and walked five.
Boston struck for a pair of runs in the first inning as Coco Crisp led off the game with a double and then went to third on Kevin Youkilis’ fly ball to center. After an Ortiz walk, Seattle’s rookie center fielder Adam Jones dropped Ramirez’s fly ball, allowing Crisp to score from third.
Batista then intentionally walked Drew to load the bases before walking Jason Varitek with two outs to force in a run.
Ramirez’s 19th home run of the year in the fifth inning made it 3-0, but Seattle got on the board in the sixth inning on Jamie Burke’s two-out RBI single.
The Red Sox, however, answered with six straight runs to win going away.
Drew roped an RBI triple in the seventh before scoring on Mike Lowell’s subsequent single to make it 5-1.
Alex Cora led off the eighth with a double and Julio Lugo’s bunt single put runners on the corners. Crisp’s sac fly brought in a run and Youkilis’ double made it 7-1 Boston. Ortiz followed with an RBI single for a seven-run Red Sox advantage.
Dustin Pedroia’s pinch-hit, two-out RBI double in the ninth made it 9-1.
Jose Vidro’s run-scoring single in the home half of the ninth for Seattle completed the scoring.
“Sometimes you have those games and that’s just the way it goes,” said Burke. “It happens, even at the major league level. Obviously, when it goes bad, it goes bad.”
In the middle of the fifth inning, a quad driven by the Mariners’ mascot knocked over Crisp. The Red Sox centerfielder avoided injury.
“I didn’t see it live,” said Francona.”I heard it looked like Naked Gun. Just to be honest, about two minutes later, we got a very kind message from (Seattle general manager) Bill Bavasi. It wasn’t done on purpose. It obviously would have been a horrible accident. But, it was a very thoughtful message.”
Game Notes
Beckett joins the Angels’ Jon Lackey, Cleveland’s C.C. Sabathia and the Cubs’ Carlos Zambrano as the only 14-game winners in the majors…Batista was facing Boston for the first time in his career…Varitek was the only starter for the Red Sox not to record a hit.
