Tim Wakefield and the Boston Red Sox sent the Seattle Mariners out of town with basically the Scarlet Letter for their inept team.
With Boston's (62-37) 12-8 win yesterday afternoon at Fenway Park, Seattle (43-58) was not only swept in the three-game series but they set a new low for the franchise with its record 15th straight loss.
It's basically impossible to see a pitcher get two standing ovations after getting knocked around for seven earned runs on 10 hits in 6.1 innings (with a walk and four strikeouts) but that was the strange scene at Pink Hat Central.
Wakefield (6-3) got the extra dose of love since he became just the second pitcher in Red Sox history, joining Roger Clemens, to put up 2000+ strikeouts.
The win also gave Wake 199 in his Boston career, putting him on the cusp of even more history the next time he starts (Friday in Chicago against the White Sox).
Mariners rookie Michael Pineda (8-7) was a surprise All-Star this season but he was anything but in that type of form yesterday. In 4.1 innings, he allowed seven earned runs on eight hits with a walk and four strikeouts.
The conveyor belt (somewhere Claude Julien smiles) that is the Red Sox lineup continued to churn out double-digits with 17 hits in the game.
Jarrod Saltlamacchia led Boston with three hits and four RBIs. Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez each had three hits, two runs and two RBIs. Josh Reddick had two hits, two runs and an RBI, David Ortiz had two hits and two runs while Jacoby Ellsbury had two hits, a run and an RBI.
Kevin Youkilis smacked a two-run homer and scored two runs while Dustin Pedroia's double extended his hit streak to a career-high 21 games (an AL high this season) and he's reached base in 32 consecutive games (tops in the majors).
Brendan Ryan led Seattle with two hits and five RBIs. Franklin Gutierrez had two hits and three runs while Ichiro (run), Dustin Ackley (RBI) and Mike Carp all had two hits apiece.
Miguel Olivo gave the Mariners a 2-0 lead with a two-run bomb in the first.
No surprise, the lead was short-lived as the Red Sox put up a five-spot in the home half of the inning. Gonzalez drove in Ellsbury with an RBI single and Youk put Boston up 3-2 with a two-run shot (his 14th of the season). Salty's two-run single made it 5-2.
Ryan's RBI double in the fifth cut it to 5-3 in favor of the Red Sox.
Once again, Boston put up five runs, this time in the fifth inning. Crawford hit a two-run single to left (all three of his hits were to the opposite field, a good sign), Reddick had an RBI double and Saltalamacchia had another two-run single.
Gonzalez's RBI single in the sixth made the lead balloon to 11-3 for Boston.
Ryan's grand slam in the seventh cut it to 11-7, not that you had to worry since it was the M's. It also signaled the end of Wakefield's outing. Alfredo Aceves got the last eight outs of the contest.
Ellsbury added an RBI single in the seventh before Ackley closed out the scoring with an RBI double in the ninth.
The Kansas City Royals, a team that has an even worse record than Seattle, comes to Boston for their first meeting with the Red Sox this season. Jon Lester gets his first start since July 5 when he left a game early with the injury to his left latissimus muscle.
Facing Kyle Davies (1-9) and a team that he's 4-1 against all-time (including a no-hitter) with a 1.22 ERA seems like the perfect matchup for Lester to get back on his feet. Needless to say, he's a huge piece of the Red Sox' playoff hopes in this season which gets brighter as each day passes by. Boston remains three games ahead of New York for first-place in the AL East.
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