Red Sox win 10-8 in wild 14 inning affair

well, I could not have predicted a game like this as the first game of my daily red sox recaps. Nearly five years ago the Red Sox defeated the Rangers in a crazy 19-17 game. It is very possible this was the craziest Red Sox game since that 19-17 game. This game was insane from start to finish.

The game started with the Rays ace Alex Cobb on the mound. Cobb owned one of the best ERAs in the league coming into the game. The Red Sox didnt care. the first 8 Red sox of the game reached base, seven of them via hit, one on a walk. Before an out was even recorded in the game it was 6-0 Red Sox. Cobb finally got his first out on his 37th pitch of the night. Heading to the bottom of the first with a six run lead it the hope of many this would be an easy win for the Sox. No such luck. The Rays immediately cut into the lead with a leadoff home run. 6-1. The Longoria hit a home run two batters later. 6-2 after one inning. the Sox didnt get a hit in the second inning. 6-2 after two innings. The Sox didnt get a hit in the third inning. In the bottom of the third the Rays loaded the bases with no outs, seemingly setting up a big rally, but Lackey somehow got out of it allowing only one run. 6-3 after three innings. The Sox didnt get a hit in the fourth inning. In the bottom of the fourth the Rays contnued to chip away, striking for one more, 6-4 after four innings. The Red Sox finally picked up a pair of hits their first since the first inning, but failed to score. We headed to the seventh with still a 6-4 score. In the bottom of the 7th, James Loney hit a deep home run, the third of the night for the Rays and the score was now 6-5. Not hits for the Sox in the eighth. In the bottom of the 8th, the real craziness was about to begin.

With the tying run at third and Junichi Tazawa on the mound with two outs, Tazawa unloaded a wild pitch, allowing the tying run to score. 6-6. 6-0 lead blown. only two hits for the Sox in the past eight innings. We headed to extras tied at six, when in the tenth, Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a two run single with two outs to give the Sox a 8-6 lead, and seemingly clinch the win. Andrew Bailey took the mound in the bottom of the tenth, and the nightmare begun. Jose Lobaton started the bottom of the tenth with a home run. 8-7. Then a walk, then another walk. then a single. Bases loaded, nobody out. Then another walk. 8-8, still bases loaded, still nobody out. At this point the game seemed over, but Bailey got a double play, then a groundout, and we headed to an eleventh inning tied at 8.

The 11th-13th innings saw very few chances for either team, then in the fourteenth a base hit from Daniel Nava gave the Sox a 9-8 lead, followed by an insurance hit from Salty to make it 10-8. After a leadoff single by the Rays in the bottom of the 14th, it seemed the craziness may continue. However, a fly out, followed by a double play, finally ended this one, 5 hours and 24 minutes after it started.

Adding to the craziness of this game was the benches clearing in the sixth inning after Lackey hit Matt Joyce with a pitch in the back. A brawl nearly broke out but thankfully didnt

To track the craziness of this game, fangraphs, which tracks win expectancy, gave the Sox a 97.4% chance of winning after the six run first inning. Then down to 27% after it was tied. Then up to 83% after the two run tenth. Then down to 6.9% with the bases loaded and no outs for the Rays in the tenth. Then back to win. Crazy

MVP of the Game: Jarrod Saltalamacchia: Salty followed up his two homer game Sunday by going 4-7 with 3 RBIS, all in extra innings.

Its hard to feel to good about this one because the Sox used way more pitchers than they would have liked. It promises to be a long, crazy summer, because I have a feeling there will be plenty more crazy AL East games like this with how tight the division race promises to be.