Red Sox @ Yankees Recap 5/31-6/2

First, the family get together that I had mentioned on Friday didn’t take place.  My relatives had water in their basement.  I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to the news; but here in Iowa, we’ve received a lot of rain over the past couple weeks.  We had over 7 inches of rain Memorial Day weekend alone.  Rivers, creeks, and basements are all flooded here (as an aside, thoughts go out to all those people were have been affected by the weather lately: tornadoes, winds, rain, floods, and fires are all in the news today.  Terrible).

So, Friday night, my boyfriend and I watched the game together while we unwound from our busy weeks at work.  Let’s face it- Friday night’s game was hard to watch.  You could tell in the first inning Lester didn’t have his stuff.  Somehow, he managed to last 6.1 innings, but he threw 116 pitches in that.  His line for the night was: 6.1 IP, 6H, 4 ER, 4 BB, and 5 SO.  Not terrible by any means, but not what the Red Sox needed that night. 

The Red Sox ended up losing Friday night’s game 4-1.  Ellsbury, who had team-record 5 stolen bases the previous night, was unavailable to play all weekend.  Pedroia was 3 for 4 with 2 doubles.  Napoli and Ross also had doubles, and Napoli had the only RBI.  Nava had a nice outfield assist.

I didn’t watch much of Saturday night’s game.  First, the game was broadcasted on Fox; but in Iowa, so were the Cubs.  Cubs win here.  But, since there was a rain delay for the Cubs game, the Red Sox game was being broadcasted.  Unfortunately, it was being broadcasted at the same time as the Bruins game on NBC (Bruins won 3-0).  The Bruins are in the playoffs, if you didn’t know.  I would switch to the Red Sox game between periods and timeouts, but didn’t see much.  When the Bruins game was over and I switched permanently to the Red Sox game, the Cubs were playing.

I have to say, Doubront was pretty impressive Saturday night.  6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 SO.  I admit, I’m always a little hesitant when Doubront pitches.  Sometimes, he pitches well (like lately); but other times, he’s horrendous.  With the series on the line against the Yankees, the Red Sox really needed a good performance out of Doubront.  They got it.

Offensively, the Red Sox clobbered the Yankees and won 11-1.  Napoli hit a grand slam and went 3 for 5.  Drew went 2 for 5 with a home run.  Nava was 4 for 6, in the leadoff spot.  Every starter had at least one hit, except for Ortiz. 

The Red Sox won Sunday night’s rain-shortened-game 3-0.  In Ortiz’s words to The Boston Globe, “Three rain delays, a fake one and two real ones.  What else can you do?  Stick around and see how things are going to end.”  Things ended well for the Red Sox.

Clay Buchholz, whose last start was pushed back due to an injury, showed no signs of discomfort or rust.  Buchholz pitched 5.0 innings and gave up 2 hits.  He was credited with a complete game shutout, despite the fact that Miller game out after the rain delay to pitch the 6^th inning.  Since no out was recorded (and the outing only last 4 minutes, from reports), Buchholz got the complete game and Miller an appearance without throwing a pitch.

Ortiz and Napoli both went 2 for 3. Iglesias hit a home run, his first of the season.  For the record, Iglesias is hitting .434 in the Majors.  Ortiz also had a single-shot home run with a nice bat flip at the end (here’s the link for the video: Flipping the bat.

There’s also a great video of the members of the Red Sox and Yankees being startled by thunder.  Here’s that link: I'd jump too.

Overall, not a bad weekend to be a Red Sox fan.  The key for to make the playoffs is winning series, and that’s what the Red Sox are doing.  They are currently 35-23, and 2.5 games up from the Orioles.  Next game is against the Rangers tomorrow at Fenway.