Lackey rebounds from rough first inning to lead Sox to 5-4 win

Despite losing tough games the last two nights, I have to admit I was a bit unmoved by the tough couple games. Even though Baltimore was creeping up in the standings, the losses didnt affect me that much because I knew this Sox team was a good team just slumping through a couple games, and I was 100% confident theyd bounce back for a win Saturday. Well, twenty minutes into this game, my optimism for this game seemed out of place.

After the Sox went down easy in the first inning, it looked the bats would go right back to the struggles they endured the night before. To make matters worse, the bottom of the first was a disaster. Nate Mclouth led off with a single, followed by a Machado double to make it 1-0. Markakis followed with a single of his own, and then Adam Jones hit his second infield single of the series and Baltimore led 2-0 before an out was even recorded. Lackey was able to get out of the first miraculously without any damage, but 2-0 still seemed somewhat daunting considering the way the offense was going.

the second and third innings only led to continued problems for the offense, but then finally in the fourth inning, the bats awoke and the game turned in an instant. Dustin pedroia hit a single, followed by a two run blast by Mike Carp to even up the game. On the next pitch, Jonny Gomes hit a single through the infield, and then stephen Drew laced a double down the line to score Gomes and give Boston their first lead of the series, 3-2.

Ellsbury singled to lead off the fifth inning, and good basrerunning got him to third with one out, where Pedroia grounded out allowing him to score and extend the lead to 4-2. In the bottom of the fifth, it looked like things could get disastrous. Taylor Teagarden led off the inning with an infield single that could have easily been an error, then nate Mclouth reached on an error, and what should have been two outs with nobody on, was actually 1st and 3rd with no outs. Mclouth was caught stealing for the first out, then Lackey buckled down to get the next two outs without allowing the runner on 3rd to score and the lead remained at two.

In the sixth, Jonny Gomes extended the lead with a solo shot, his fourth of the season for a 5-2 lead, which would remain until the ninth inning.

Andrew Bailey came on to save the game in the ninth, and gave a couple runs, we wont get into the dirty details because he averted disaster and the Sox hung on by their fingernails for what should have been an easy win, but a win is a win. The lead in the division is back up to 2.5 games, and the Yankees just keep losing so the lead over them has swelled to 4 games. Tampa continues to stay at a comfy 5 games back.

The finale of this four game set comes tomorrow at 1:35. Will the Sox extend their division lead to 2.5 games? or will it shrink back to 1.5? thats a big difference so tomorrow is certainly a big game.