Sox on the board

The Red Sox had another late inning comeback coming up with 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th, and 4 in the 8th after being down 5-0. Kevin Millwood pitched well for the Texas Rangers even though the Red Sox hit him hard. However, the Sox had trouble delivering with runners in scoring position before the 7th inning. The Red Sox are first in the majors in runs from the 7th-9th innings. I think a main reason for this is the patience of the hitters in the lineup. Sox hitters have been working counts and making it hard for opposing starters to get deep into ball games. Once starters are out of the game, Red Sox hitters feast on bullpen pitching, which may be why they are first in the league in this stat. Today was a prime example of this. Millwood was giving them trouble, but once they chased him out of the game by getting his pitch count up, the bullpen could not contain Red Sox hitters.
Another story line in today's game came when Manny Ramirez, who has been hotter than any player in Major League Baseball, was ejected in the first inning for arguing balls and strikes. Had I attended the game, I would have been fairly upset paying to watch Ramirez and then seeing him get ejected for something as silly as arguing. I've noticed so far this year that many Red Sox players, not just Ramirez, have been arguing balls and strikes and it was about time someone was ejected for it. Ortiz, Varitek, Lugo, to name a few, have consistently been arguing balls and strikes. Maybe now that Ramirez was ejected, the Red Sox will keep their mouths a little tighter when it comes to arguing. Luckily, Pedroia was able to come off the bench for Joe Thurston to get the tying RBI in Manny Ramirez's spot in the lineup, because if he did not Ramirez would have seen that we needed him in there and can't afford to have him on the bench the way he is hitting.

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