Red Sox Beat Rays Some Moore (9-4)

Buchholz threw 5 strong innings

Cody Ross hit home run #2

Today was a good day for the Red Sox as they continued on this very nice trend of consistently winning. The game started off strong as Cody Ross homered to left, continuing his excellent spring. After a scoreless bottom half for the Rays, the Sox went right back to work with Josh Kroeger leading off the inning with a home run to right. However, in the bottom of the second, the Rays did a little too as Evan Longoria led off the inning with a bomb to left to cut the Red Sox' lead to one. However, in the third, the Red Sox began to take advantage of Rays' starter Matt Moore's shaky control. Three walks in the inning loaded the bases with one out for Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Salty worked a full count before walking. Josh Kroeger then hit a high fly ball to left which would result in a sacrifice fly to give the Red Sox a 4-1 lead. The Sox got going quickly in the fourth-- after Jason Repko was hit by a pitch to start the inning, Nate Spears singled to right to put runners at the corners. Alex Hassan promptly hit a soft liner into center field to score a run and give the Sox a 5-1 lead. Mike Aviles then grounded into a tailor made double play; however, Spears scored to make it a 6-1 game. All this while, Clay Buchholz pitched very well for the Sox-- putting together his strongest start yet. He went five innings, allowing a run on four hits and no walks while striking out four. In the sixth inning, Mauro Gomez led off the inning with a single but it took two outs before they got a rally going. After Gomez advanced to second on a wild pitch, Alex Hassan grounded to third where Longoria threw the ball away, allowing a run to score. The bottom of the sixth did not go so well however, with Justin Thomas allowing two runs before a very good throw by Nate Spears to catch Jeff Keppinger at third base ended the inning. The Rays scored again in the seventh to make it only 7-4, but other than that Vicente Padilla's night was quite good (3 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts) as he closed out the game after the Sox made it 8-4 in the ninth.

Bright Spots:
Clay Buchholz- 5 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts
Pedro Ciriaco- 1-2, 1 RBI
Cody Ross- 1-2, 1 run, 1 RBI, 1 home run
Josh Kroeger- 1-3, 1 run, 2 RBIs, 1 home run, 1 sac fly
Nate Spears- 2-4, 2 runs, 1 steal
Alex Hassan- 2-2, 1 RBI

Dull Spots:
Justin Thomas- 1 inning, 4 hits, 2 runs, 2 strikeouts
Mike Aviles- 0-4, 1 run, 3 left on base

Red Sox Ride Aviles, Linares To Win

The only real thing we can conclude from yesterday's games is that Boston College is better than Northeastern. Last night, the Red Sox played their final non-official game of the Spring Training season against Boston College. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the 2nd-- helped by a very nice start by Felix Doubront (he went 2 innings, striking out one and allowing a hit). However, the Sox exploded for 4 runs in the 2nd inning-- helped by a liner off the bat of Mike Aviles (right), which went for a 2-run double to give the Sox a 2-0 lead. An RBI grounder by Juan Carlos Linares and a passed ball accounted for the other two runs. However, in the 3rd-- Junichi Tazawa was a bit rough, allowing two runs on three hits to push the lead to 4-2. In the bottom of the 3rd, though, Ryan Lavarnway got on base with a double. He was scored on a beautiful opposite field single by Alex Hassan. In the 4th, Aviles lined another shot off the monster-- this time, leading off the inning. Pedro Ciriaco pinch-ran for him, stealing third and scoring on a single by Linares. In the 5th, Doug Mathis wasn't terribly bad, but his defense didn't support him-- highlighted by a throwing error on a potential double play by Pedro Ciriaco. In the 7th, I was quite impressed by Chorye Spoone; he earned the save with a perfect inning, including striking out Travis Ferrick on a filthy curve to lead off the inning. All in all, a solid win for the Sox-- but definitely BC put up a tougher fight than NEU.

Bright Spots:
Felix Doubront- 2 innings, 1 hit, 1 strikeout, no runs
Chorye Spoone- 1 inning, 1 strikeout, no runs or hits
Mike Aviles- 2-3, 2 doubles, 2 RBIs, 1 run
Pedro Ciriaco- 1-1, 1 run, 2 stolen bases
Juan Carlos Linares- 1-3, 2 RBIs
Ryan Lavarnway- 2-2, 2 runs, 1 double
Alex Hassan- 1-1, 1 run, 1 RBI, 1 walk

Dull Spots:
Junichi Tazawa- 2 innings, 2 runs, 4 hits, 1 walk, 1 strikeout
Nick Punto- 0-3, 1 strikeout, 2 left on base
Jason Repko- 0-3, 2 strikeouts, 4 left on base