For Jacoby Ellsbury, deuces might as well be wild because things are coming in twos for the Red Sox centerfielder lately.
With two strikes and two outs in the seventh inning, Ellsbury, who bears No. 2 on his back, stroked a single to center off Seattle pitcher Blake Beavan to score the two go-ahead runs Boston needed en route to its 3-1 win over the Mariners Saturday night. The hit was Ellsbury’s second of the night, giving him a streak of three straight games with two hits. The speedy outfielder later stole home on a wild pitch to round out the scoring.
Red Sox ace Josh Beckett certainly welcomed the effort after the Red Sox offense had failed to produce a run for him in the previous 19 2/3 innings before Ellsbury’s clutch hit.
The hard-throwing righty allowed just run on seven hits and one walk over seven innings of work while striking out seven. The performance lowered his ERA, which was already second-best in the majors to start the night, to 2.07, its lowest level in more than a month. The lone run came on a home run into the Red Sox bullpen by Mike Carp to kick off the seventh. Since receiving a decision in just six of his first 12 starts, Beckett is 5-1 in his last seven starts to improve his season mark to 9-3.
As a result of the Boston win, manager Terry Francona earned the 1,000th victory of his managerial career while at the other end of the spectrum, the Mariners tied a team-record with their 14th-straight loss.
Here’s more on what went right and went wrong in the Red Sox win.
WHAT WENT RIGHT
–Beckett was able to get Mariners hitters to swing and miss 19 different times in his seven innings of work. His ability to mix all four of his pitches (fastball, cutter, changeup and curveball) kept the league’s worst offense off-balance for most of the night. That was no more evident than in the sixth and seventh frames when he was able to strand multiple runners on base, including one on third in both innings.
–Dustin Pedroia extended his career-long hitting streak to 20 games with a double in the first inning. That streak is the longest by any Red Sox player since Victor Martinez hit in 25 straight in 2009. Pedroia ended the night going 2-for-4 to raise his average to .301, marking the first that it’s been above .300 since April 22. He also stole his 20th bag of the season when he took second base in the seventh inning.
–Adrian Gonzalez‘ double in the sixth was his first extra-base hit since the All-Star break. Put that together with his 6-for-12 showing at the plate in his last three games, and there are signs that the Sox No. 3 hitter may be putting his post-break funk behind him.
–Daniel Bard threw his 24th straight scoreless inning in the win, but it took some work to get there. A single, a walk and a botched bunt attempt loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth inning. Bard then got Carp to fly out to seventh, Jack Cust to simply stare at a backdoor slider that would have frozen any MLB hitter and Franklin Gutierrez to ground out to third to end the threat and hold the score at 3-1.
–Jonathan Papelbon tossed his fourth consecutive scoreless outing and notched his 23rd save in 24 attempts. In 21 1/3 innings for his career against the M’s, the Red Sox closer has allowed just one earned run for a lifetime ERA of 0.42.
WHAT WENT WRONG
–A few baserunning errors almost did the Red Sox in at inopportune times. With runners on first and third and one out in the second inning, David Ortiz was sent home on a Jason Varitek flyball to Mariners centerfielderFranklin Gutierrez, who has not made an error since Aug. 21, 2009 and had five outfield assists coming into Saturday night. Gutierrez’s throw from mid-range center was true, and Ortiz was nailed at the plate by catcherJosh Bard.
In the sixth, Gonzalez followed up a double by trying to advance to third on a grounder to the hot corner. Mariners third baseman Adam Kennedy almost look surprised to see the slow-footed Gonzalez jogging over and consequently tagged him for the second out of the inning. Instead of having a runner in scoring position, the Sox were left with Kevin Youkilis standing at first base instead.
–Even though they were finally able to scrape together three runs in the seventh, the Red Sox offense again showed a vulnerability against pitchers it hasn’t seen before, highlighted by a 1-f0r-8 showing with runners in scoring position before Ellsbury’s two-RBI single.
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