A nice stretch for Sox
They go a long way for their latest win
If your attention lagged a time or two yesterday afternoon while the Red Sox were beating on the Orioles, 13-4, you weren't alone. Even the Sox acknowledge their win was hardly a four-hour-and-four-minute exercise in nonstop excitement.
"Terrible," third baseman Mike Lowell said of the game's flow. "It just wasn't a good pace.
"But you're not always going to have a nice-paced game. It's better that you win. I'll take a slow-paced game with a win rather than a great-paced game and lose."
When it mattered most, the Sox clearly were paying attention. After Curt Schilling uncharacteristically squandered a 4-1 lead in the sixth at the only juncture in the game striking for its suddenness -- the Orioles loaded the bases on just three pitches, Schilling giving up three straight singles, and all three runners eventually scored -- the Sox scored nine unanswered runs in their last three at-bats.
They were ably assisted by an Orioles pitching staff that heaved 209 pitches, only slightly more than half of which were identified as strikes (114). Jason Varitek was hit by a pitch by Jon Leicester to open the sixth and came around to score the go-ahead run on Kevin Youkilis's two-out single. Leicester then walked the bases loaded to start the seventh, misfiring on 14 of 16 pitches, before clutching the back of his shoulder in pain. He left with what was called a strain.
While Javier Lopez and Hideki Okajima succeeded in rescuing Schilling, Orioles reliever Todd Williams could not escape the hot bat of Alex Cora, who delivered a two-out, two-run pinch single after Coco Crisp's ground ball had brought home one run. Sox pinch hitters had been called upon 18 previous times by manager Terry Francona, and not one had returned to the dugout having produced a run. Cora knocked in two.
The Sox piled on for five more runs in the eighth, helped by some sloppy Orioles fielding. Williams took a 9.45 ERA back to the team's hotel. He'd begun the day at 3.60.
Cora, who remained in the game at second, had an infield hit in that rally, and is now batting .475 (19 for 40) in his last 16 games. He politely declined to pick the winning numbers in last night's lottery drawing, though Lowell objected to the invitation even being posed to him.
"That would means he's lucky," Lowell said of Cora, who also pulled a sleight-of-hand double play with Julio Lugo when the Orioles were making noises about mounting one more comeback with back-to-back singles off Okajima to start the eighth.
"[Cora's] on a good roll," Lowell said, "but he's putting together good at-bats. Sometimes you create your own good luck, and he's doing a really good job with his at-bats."
He was not alone, of course, on a day the Sox had 15 hits, drew seven walks, had two batters plunked by pitches, dropped down two sacrifice bunts and a sacrifice fly, and were 11 for 22 with runners in scoring position.
Lugo became the third Sox player this week to have a four-hit game, joining Varitek and David Ortiz, and is now 11 for his last 25 (.440), improving his average to .261. Ortiz blooped an RBI double and singled, scoring three times. Lowell had two hits, a sacrifice fly, scored twice, and had two RBIs. The Sox only had three extra-base hits on a cool day with a 14 mile-an-hour northeast crosswind knocking down deep flies -- ask J.D. Drew about the three-run home run he thought he had in the fourth -- but they made starter Steve Trachsel labor early (102 pitches in just 4 1/3 innings) and made the Orioles bullpen pay late.
Schilling, of course, was not pleased about giving back the lead. Miguel Tejada (bloop to center), Ramon Hernandez (opposite-field single to right), and Aubrey Huff (opposite way to left) pounced on Schilling's first three pitches in the sixth. Schilling fought back from a 3-and-0 count to strike out Melvin Mora, but Jay Gibbons lined a full-count fastball to left for an RBI single, his third hit of the day, and Schilling walked Payton on another full count after fuming that plate umpire Chris Guccione had missed the 2-and-2 pitch.
The walk forced home another run and Schilling was done. Lopez, just recalled from Pawtucket Friday, entered and retired Corey Patterson on an infield chopper that scored the tying run, then retired Brian Roberts on a roller to short. He became the pitcher of record when the Sox took the lead in their next at-bat, and emerged with the win after Okajima bailed out Brendan Donnelly in the seventh after a single and hit batsman, Okajima striking out Huff and retiring Mora on a grounder to third.
It's 17 2/3 scoreless innings and counting for Okajima.
"Javy kept the bleeding to a minimum," Schilling said, "and Oki was once again himself, and did an awesome job. And then we just opened it up."
Even if it took the length of the afternoon.
"We did a good job of getting the lead and extending it, and making it no contest after the eighth," Lowell said. "We're playing good baseball. We're still playing good baseball."
Gordon Edes can be reached at edes@globe.com. 