Boston Red Sox win 5-1 over Seattle Mariners to keep slim playoff hopes alive
At this point in the season all the Boston Red Sox can do is win every game they can and hope for the best. Wednesday night they kept their fading post-season hopes alive with a 5-1 win over the lowly Seattle
Mariners.
Red Sox starting pitcher Clay Buchholz continued to make his case for the AL Cy Young Award with a fairly dominant performance pitching, seven innings of four-hit ball walking three, and striking out six.
The only run he gave up was a home run to Russell Branyan in the first inning.
Seattle’s most serious threat came in the second inning. With runners on second and third, catcher Victor Martinez caught Casey Kotchman trying to take too big of a lead at third and threw him out. After
walking Michael Saunders to get runners at the corners with just one out Buchholz got the next two batters to ground to end the scoring threat.
Martinez threw out Chone Figgins in the third inning and added a two RBI double in the seventh inning to help Buchholz earn win No. 16.
“We had to take a chance, no outs,” Martinez said in regards to his successful attempt to pick off Casey Kotchman in the second inning. “I always take that chance.”
Boston finally got on the board with a home run by Adrian Beltre in the fourth inning to tie the game at 1-1. The go ahead run came two innings later in the sixth when David Ortiz scored due to Chone Figgins’
fielding error.
Seattle threatened in the eighth when they got runners on first and second with only one out. Reliever Hideki Okajima got Russell Branyan to hit into a double play to end the threat. Scott Atchison pitched
a scoreless ninth in a non-save situation to preserve the win for the Red Sox.
With the win the Red Sox improved to 82-64 on the season and sit six and a half games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East and six games behind the New York Yankees in the AL wild card race. With time
winding down, even with strong play they'll need one of those teams to hit a cold snap if they want to catch up.
Boston will take Thursday off before starting a six-game home stand starting with a three-game weekend series against the Toronto Blue Jays. John Lackey is scheduled to take the mound for the Red Sox on Friday
with Brett Cecil set to do so for the Blue Jays.
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