Short and Sweet
Saturday, May 12, 2012 – Fenway Park, Section 36
Red Sox 4, Indians 1
In the past week, the Red Sox had lost two of three in Kansas City and then returned home to split their first two games against the Indians. Saturday brought my next game, and my first chance to see Felix Doubront pitch this season.
Felix Doubront had been impressive enough in Spring Training to earn the #4 spot in the rotation, and he continued to impress with a quality start today.
Earlier in the week while the Red Sox were on the road, we heard the sad news that P.A. announcer Carl Beane had died in a car accident after suffering a heart attack. For the first game back at Fenway, they left the mic silent in his honor. Now there was an new interim announcer, Henry Mahegan, but before reading the starting lineups, they still played a recording of “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Fenway Park, America’s most-beloved ballpark for tonight’s game between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox,” in Beane’s familiar voice.
A sign was placed outside the P.A. announcer's booth in memory of Carl Beane.
Doubront started off strong, striking out 2 in the first. In the second he allowed a hit to Travis Hafner, but Cody Ross made a great throw from right field to gun the runner down trying to stretch it to a double. That was the only Cleveland hit through the first five innings, with harmless 2-out walks coming in the third and the fifth.
Cody Ross had a good defensive play early in the game, and he hit a blast high over the Green Monster late in the game.
The Red Sox lineup did their part to back up Doubront’s good start. After Mike Aviles led off the third inning with a single, Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz hit back-to-back doubles to drive in 2 runs. Aviles drove in another in the third, on a sac fly that followed hits by Daniel Nava and Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
It was a pleasant night at the ballpark as the Red Sox took on the Indians.
The Indians did finally get on the board in the sixth. After a leadoff double, a groundout and an infield hit got the run in. But the Red Sox got the run right back, when Cody Ross launched a towering home run over the Monster in the home half of the sixth. Doubront was up to 109 pitches at the end of the sixth, and was done for the day after a very nice effort.
Vicente Padilla stretches in the bullpen before coming in to pitch a perfect eighth inning.
Andrew Miller pitched the seventh, Vicente Padilla handled the eighth, and Alfredo Aceves closed it out in the ninth – all three delivering 1-2-3 innings. The game ended at 9:40, an efficient 2 hours and 30 minutes after it started. After having seen a bunch of frustrating losses prior to this game, it was very satisfying to watch a well-pitched, quick-paced game with timely hitting and good defense. What a concept!
