Last night’s game was a roller coaster ride. Â The Red Sox scored three runs in the first two innings and double plays and strikeouts helped Jon Lester keep the lead going into the fourth inning. Â Then it started looking like the same old (read September 2011/April 2012) Red Sox.
A single, a walk and two outs in the fourth led to the Minnesota Twins scoring four runs off of Lester thanks to a two-run double followed by a two-run home run. Â The lefty lost the lead and gave up another run in the fifth, going into the sixth inning down 5-3. Â Then he settled in, needing only nine pitches to get three outs in the sixth. Â In the seventh, Cody Ross hit a two-run home run, tying the game and getting Lester off the hook for the loss. Â Franklin Morales and Daniel Bard pitched a good, if not clean, eighth inning and it was Ross again who hit a solo homer in the top of the ninth (with two outs) to give the Red Sox the lead. Â Valentine brought in closer Alfredo Aceves who, after getting an out and giving up a single, gave the Red Sox a scare when number nine hitter Trevor Plouffe hit a ball to left that looked like it was gone. Fortunately, Cody Ross was there to catch it and Aceves got Denard Span to ground out to end the game and snap the Red Sox five-game losing streak.
It wasn’t pretty and at times it was nerve-wracking (after the Plouffe out, Bobby Valentine made a trip to the mound to playfully ask Aceves if he was trying to kill him) but they got the win.  And they did it with Daniel Bard coming out of the bullpen.  Bard missed his start on Sunday and is expected to start on Friday but Valentine wanted to use him out of the bullpen last night (and hinted that he might use him again before Friday) and, fortunately, it worked. It also will have people arguing that he should be put in the bullpen full-time until, well, pretty much until either Bobby Valentine puts him in the bullpen or the bullpen starts producing better than it has.  Ironically, last night marks Bard’s first win of the season…not as a starter but as a reliever.
Josh Beckett takes the mound for the Red Sox tonight at 8 o’clock against Nick Blackburn. Beckett seems to be settling in after a rocky start and Blackburn hasn’t pitched in 10 days (when he was taken out of a game with shoulder stiffness) so the possibility is strong that the Red Sox can keep the momentum up and start on their second winning streak of the season.
(Originally published on Examiner.com)