The Red Sox opened up the 2nd half of the 2007 season versus A.L. East foe, the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway. The Sox coming off three straight losses to the Detroit Tigers prior to the All-Star break were looking to get back on track, they had to face the ace of the Blue Jays pitching staff, Roy Halladay, someone who the Sox have had plenty of success against in the past. The past three years Halladay is 4-3 versus the Sox in 11 games with a ERA of 4.44, his ERA in games against the Sox at Fenway is 4.93. Wake was on the mound for the Sox, brining his 9-8 record into the game. Wake has had great success against the Jays the past three years, 5-1 with a 3.18 ERA.
After a shaky beginning, Wake settled down and allowed just one run in the first. The Sox offense came out hot in the first against Halladay. JD Drew led off with a single and then Pedroia set the tone for the game working a 10 pitch walk. Halladay is know as a quick worker on the mound, in fact when he's pitching the game rarely last two hours, but you could see the Sox had talked about how to approach him. Ortiz followed with a sharp single to right through the shift which scored Drew, tie game 1-1. Good to see Ortiz produce right away, he came out after the game and said his right meniscus has been torn since last year in June. Is this injury to blame for his lack of power? Why didn't he get it repaired in the offseason? Lots of questions surrounding this, hard to imagine it's been kept under wraps this long, half to wonder if we are getting the whole truth here. Certainly for the Sox to do anything in the post season they are going to need, Big Papi's bat. In what I hope is a sign of things to come in the 2nd half, both Ortiz and Ramirez's bats get going, Manny followed with a double to left that scored Pedoria, 2-1 Sox just like that and no outs. Youkilis was back tonight, his first start since injuring his quad back on 7/3 against Tampa, he hit a grounder to 2nd to score Papi. Lowell followed with a run scoring single to left and the Sox ended the first with 4-1 lead. What a way to start the 2nd half against a quality pitcher like Halladay.
Wakefield was on cruise control until the 6th, with a 5-2 lead, he left the knuckleball up to former Red Sox Matt Stairs and he deposited into the Sox bullpen in right, his 14th home run of the season, hard to imagine Stairs has more homeruns than Ortiz and Ramirez. All-Star Alex Rios followed with another bomb into the monster seats, for back-to-back homers for the Jays, who all of sudden were right back in the game 5-4.
The Sox offense responded in the 6th though, with Halladay out after only 5 innings and112 pitches, the Jays called on reliever Brian Tallet, who has done an excellent job out of the pen for them this season. In 40 innings opponents are hitting .193 off Tallet and he's K'd 37. After two quick outs, Dustin Pedroia reaches on weak slow roller to 2nd because the throw pulled Overbay off the bag. Ortiz followed with a deep drive to center that Vernon Wells should have caught easily for the third out inning but inside, Wells got twisted around and the ball tailed away and dropped in, Pedroia easily scored from first, 6-4 Sox lead. Manny followed with a hot shot that ricochet off the 2nd baseman into center for his 3rd RBI of the game. 7-4 Sox lead into the 7th
The Sox bullpen shut things down from there, in what looks to be Tito's preferred setup to Papelbon, Manny Delcarmen pitched a perfect 7th and Hideki Okijima once again came on and pitched a scoreless 8th, that's 14 straight innings without allowing a run. If Delcarmen can continue to pitch the way he has since his last callup, the Sox don't really need to go out and get Brad Lidge as has been reported. Papelbon closed out the game for his 21st save.
A solid start to the 2nd half, the bats were hot, let's hope they can stay that way.
Positives
Julio Lugo: two more hits tonight, and another solidly hit ball that was caught, he over .200. I have a bet with my friend from work that he will hit .290 or better in the 2nd half, a steak dinner on the line, let's hope Julio can do it.
David Ortiz: Three hits--2 RBIs, he produced with 2 outs as well
Manny Ramirez: Two hits--3RBIs and another outfield assist, poor Frank Thomas he's got no wheels.
Bullpen: 3 scoreless innings
54-34 best record in the majors
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