Red Sox 6, Astros 1
W: Daisuke Matsuzaka, L: Runelvys Hernandez, S: Jonathan Papelbon
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Box Score
I thought I was at Fenway all over again when I arrived at Minute Maid Park tonight (well, the BUS first, but anyway) with all the Red Sox fans wandering around. I am really surprised there are that many people from the Northeast living in and around the Houston area. Surely they did not travel to Houston just for the weekend to see a baseball game. Would they? Either way 42,000+ purchased tickets for the game at an increased price makes Drayon McLane a happy man.
Things were cruising along for both pitchers okay until the third inning, Hernandez gave up a walk and a double to Coco Crisp and Dustin Pedroia to have runners on 2nd and third with one all. Former Cardinal, J.D. Drew came up to bat. He knocked the crap out the ball to plate three runs. Hernandez settled down and did not allow another run through the fifth. Those three runs cost him the win though.
The Astros were pretty nice to Dice-K only getting two hits off of him through 5 innings. The Astros did threaten to score in the fifth, but David Nehman popped out to Julio Lugo (I feel dirty typing his name.) to end the bases loaded threat.
The Red Sox scored again in the 7th and 9th, but it didn’t matter. Only shining star for the Astros tonight was the bomb hit onto the tracks at MMP by Reggie Abercrombie. The only run the Astros would score this night.
Bench Tidbits:
One thing I noticed was that it seemed like the Red Sox hitters were much more patient at the plate than the Astros were. They seemed to foul off a lot of pitches, which if pitch counts matter then Hernandez was going to be in trouble after the fourth.
Overall, the Red Sox fans were louder than Astros fans, but not rude, which was a good thing to me. I’ll take them anyday over Cub fans. They did seem to go to the bars before and after the game though. Good for the Houston economy.
Kevin Youlikis moves his butt a lot when at bat. Try and check it out, rather funny.
Mike Lowell has overcome cancer. I like this guy. I have ever since he was a Florida Marlin.
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