A Forgettable Night
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 – Fenway Park, Section 41
Indians 9, Red Sox 2
Since this was a weeknight game and I was coming from work, I wasn’t able to get there early enough for batting practice, but I did just make the cutoff for the half-price Family Hour food. I was happy to see they had extended it through May, since it was originally announced as being for April games only.
Hideki Okajima, Ramon Ramirez, Hunter Jones, Javier Lopez, Takashi Saito, and Manny Delcarmen walk out to the bullpen.
With Justin Masterson on the mound for the Red Sox, the game started well. The Indians went down in order in the first and had their only baserunner in the second erased quickly on a double play. The Red Sox loaded the bases with no outs in the second on two walks sandwiched around Mike Lowell’s double. Jeff Bailey grounded into a double play, but a run came in the back door, and Jonathan Van Every’s single drove in the Sox’ second run.
Our view from Section 41.
But that’s where the game stopped being fun.
Masterson gave up a run in the third, and, after facing eight batters, three more in the fifth. Offensively the Sox were shut down by their former farmhand Carl Pavano. They had the bases loaded with one out in the fourth, but couldn’t push any runs across. After that, they went down quietly, including 1-2-3 innings in the sixth, seventh, and eighth.
The National League scores are updated between innings. The score for the Bruins' playoff game against the Carolina Hurricanes was also posted, although they went on to lose.
When Masterson allowed another run in the seventh, he was promptly removed, but Hunter Jones surrendered a 2-run homer. Javy Lopez pitched the ninth and gave up two runs. Even that would have been worse if Jason Bay and Nick Green hadn’t thrown a runner out at the plate to end the inning.
There wasn’t a lot to cheer about, but as the saying goes, in baseball there’s always tomorrow. This time, I actually had a ticket for tomorrow’s game, so I’d have the chance to forget this dud of a game and try again.
