Another One Bites The Dust: But The Sox Pick Up A Win

I've never been to San Francisco, but if normal people get injured at the rate the Red Sox do while there, I really have no interest in going. For the second time in two days, the Sox have played the Giants and have walked off the field one player short. This time around, the victim was Dahmer. Why did he injure himself? Because apparently AL pitchers don't practice running the bases in preparation for interleague. After hitting a single, Clay was attempting to move to second on a ground out by Scu-Scu-Scutaro, and pulled up lame about half way to the bag. The original diagnosis was a hyperextended knee. Terry Francona, I guess, was still in a good mood after the game, (hopefully) jokingly insulting Clay:

"He's a dumbass, too,'' Francona said with mock irritation. "He swung right through the take sign.

Oh Tito, ever the comedian. Anyway, turns out that instead of a knee issue, Clay actually has a minor lower hamstring tear, and no one seems to know yet whether or not he's definitely making his next start. Smart money is on no, but seeing as how depleted the team is, we may just have to make him. Luckily, we've got quite a few off-days coming up.

So Dahmer only pitched one inning. That left 7-8 innings for the bullpen to cover. Can they do it? You're damn right they can! Everyone in the bullpen pulled themselves together, and combined went 8 innings, giving up five hits and two runs, only allowing 2 walks while collecting six strikeouts. THAT was a team effort, and it was bloody appreciated after the costly injuries. Yeah, we ended up exhausting our pen, but they really did a fantastic job picking up Clay when he needed it. Again, Scott Atchison stepped into the starter shoes and did an admirable job. For someone who was DFA'ed, what? Twice? He's been just what we needed. Atch was followed by Rambo, Delcarmen, Richardson, and OBP. Fantastic job by the pen. Even better that it was all for a winning effort! Let's discuss the offense, shall we?

Ronald McDonald opened up the scoring with a solo HR in the first inning. The second inning brought us three runs on Cameron's first home run as a member of the Red Sox. And that, my friends, was all we needed. Which was good, because it was all we got. They only pulled together five hits, but for once, they made almost all of them count. The only two hits that didn't lead to a run were Dahmer's single and Scutaro's double. A win is a win, and this was the definition of a team win one day after Pedroia goes down. The pen, let by Atch, really banded together. This was definitely one of those pen performances that you can really be proud of. Every pirate lent a hand... or a peg leg.

Now, with the first two wins and injuries out of the way, we leave it to Jon Lester to face the reigning NL Cy Young winner in Tim Lincecum. This will be interesting!