Rain, Rain, Go Away
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 – Fenway Park, Section 36
Red Sox 9, A’s 4
The Red Sox had Memorial Day off, and I spent the day keeping my sprained ankle elevated and watching other baseball games on TV. On Tuesday, I had to be at work in the morning, but I was able to take the afternoon off and make it to Fenway early. This was my parents’ first game of the year, and they wanted to go in early in the Red Sox Nation line to watch batting practice from the Green Monster. (Luckily my ankle was feeling better, because I couldn’t imagine trekking up all those steps if it still felt like it did on Sunday night.) Usually the only time I can get in to the park 2½ hours early is on weekends, and I seem to keep getting Sunday games when they decide to skip B.P. So I was excited to be going in early on a weekday when I could finally watch them hit… assuming that the rain held off.
Unfortunately, as we approached the park, the rain got heavier, and it was worst right at 4:30 when we were able to enter. We waited in the car until they were letting people in, and then we just stayed in the concourse under the bleachers until the rain stopped. With the tarp on the field, there was no batting practice, so I missed it again. As luck would have it, right around the time when B.P. would have been wrapping up, it stopped raining, so we got something to eat and walked around the park.
The relievers have fist bumps for bullpen cop Billy Dunn as they make their way in before the game.
As gametime approached, it started raining again, so there was a 20-minute delay before the game got started at 7:30. Our seats were in centerfield – as “center” as we could be, lined up with the middle stripe mown into the outfield grass, straight on a line through second base, the mound, and the plate. We were all the way at the end of the row, up against the back wall, which meant that there’s a little extra space at the end of the row, and with the angle of the wall there were no seats directly behind us. It’s always cool to be in seats that feel like they’re in their own little corner of the park, and for my mother it meant the added benefit that she could open an umbrella without bothering anyone if it rained again. That ended up being unnecessary, because it never rained once the game started. It stayed warm but the humidity dropped, so it turned out to be a perfect night for watching a game.
Our view from straightaway centerfield.
John Lackey started well, with a 10-pitch 1-2-3 first. The Red Sox had two baserunners in the bottom of the first but stranded them, and then left the bases loaded in the second. The wasted opportunites looked costly when the A’s scored 2 runs in the third and 2 more in the fifth, putting the Sox in a 4-0 hole. It could have been worse, but Lackey did a good job of escaping trouble in the fourth. The leadoff hitter doubled, and the next batter hit a bloop down the right field line. The runner had to hold up to see if it would be caught, so he was only able to move up to third even though the hit wound up being a double. The Sox caught a break on that, but then the next batter walked to load the bases with no outs. Lackey ended up getting out of it unscathed when a runner was thrown out at the plate on a fielder’s choice, a fly was caught in shallow center, and a popup to second ended the threat. Daisuke Matsuzaka must have been proud of Lackey’s Houdini-like ways.
When Victor Martinez came to the plate in the fifth inning, he already had a single and a double, so we were hoping he’d hit a triple and then of course pick up a homer in his next at-bat. He did end up with his third hit of the game, another double and a wall-scraper just like his previous one. Kevin Youkilis reached on an infield hit, and then Adrian Beltre smacked a 3-run homer into the Green Monster seats to get the Sox within a run. In the sixth, the A’s went to the ‘pen, and Bill Hall and Darnell McDonald started the inning with walks. That brought in another Oakland reliever, former Red Sox Craig Breslow. Marco Scutaro walked, loading the bases with no outs.
Marco Scutaro was planning on bunting, but pulled back when the pitch from Craig Breslow was a ball. He ended up walking to load the bases with no outs.
Dustin Pedroia came into the game in a slump, but I was sure it would only be a matter of time before the self-professed “laser show” was back to normal. He grounded into a double play, but a run came in the proverbial back door to tie the game, so we had no complaints. Victor was next, and with 2 doubles and a single, we were still hoping he’d hit a triple and then a homer. I thought he had it when he hit a long drive into the deepest part of centerfield. If there was a spot in Fenway where a catcher with an injured toe could hit a triple, the triangle was it, but it ended up bouncing into the stands for a ground-rule double. That was V-Mart’s third two-bagger of the game, and it put the Sox on top, 5-4.
In the seventh, we did get to see a triple, when Bill Hall drove in J.D. Drew with an insurance run. Then in the eighth, they piled on even more. They batted around and scored 3 more runs on 5 hits, including Victor’s fourth double of the night and a slump-breaking double by Pedroia. With the big lead, it was Joe Nelson who came in to finish it off in the ninth.
