Games 52/162, Red Sox Win in Game One off of Pinch Hit Homer for Ortiz

Game 1:


The Red Sox started off the day 1 game ahead of the Yankees. In Game one, Gonzalez started off the scoring with a sac fly. In the second, Cameron lined a solo homer to deep center. Pedroia later made the score 3-0 with a solo homer of his own. The Tigers would also have two solo homers by Dirks and Boesch to make make it 3-2. To tie the game, Peralta singled in Miguel Cabrera. In the top of the ninth, Francona had a nice call for Ortiz to pinch hit for Salty. This move would be crucial as Ortiz hit a homer off of Jose Valverde to make the score 4-3. Ortiz has 11 homers this season. Ortiz is 2-2 with 2 homers and 5 RBI in his career against Valverde. Clay Buchholz did okay allowing 3 runs in 6 IP. He is now 4-3 with a 3.41 ERA.

Notable Players:

Matt Albers- 2 scoreless innings and the win

Jonathan Papelbon- his 10th save of the year with a scoreless inning

Dustin Pedroia- 1-4 with a solo home run

Jed Lowrie- 2-4

Mike Cameron- 2-2 with a solo home run

David Ortiz- 1-1, homer 

Starting Jobs

With Spring Training under way, the Red Sox have great starters at all positions after a great off-season where they acquired Adrian Gonzalez and sign Carl Crawford along with other moves. The only two uncertain positions  for the Red Sox are shortstop and catcher. At shortstop they will most likely have Marco Scutaro starting. He came to Boston last off season on a two year deal. In his first year of the deal, he hit decently with reasonable average and good defense. Another option at short is Jed Lowrie. He has had a lot of injuries over the last couple of seasons preventing him from getting a starting job but at the end of last season, he showed great power, and good average. If he does well enough this Spring, he might win the starting job. Catching, the Red Sox have Jarrod Saltalamachia as well as long time veteran, Jason Varitek. The Red Sox acquired Jarrod in a mid-season trade. He has always had great offense, but his defense and injury history has kept him in the minors. He will most likely start the season as the catcher with Varitek as the backup. So what do you think?