Great game today. The box score line of the first four hitters in the lineup says it all:
AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG
J Damon CF 6 2 3 0 0 0 3 .293
M Bellhorn 2B 6 4 3 5 0 1 2 .244
D Ortiz DH 6 2 4 2 0 2 1 .287
M Ramirez LF 4 2 2 3 1 1 1 .355
Gaudy, gaudy. 10 runs, 12 hits, 10 RBIs, 1 BB - from 4 hitters. And the next 5 hitters (a certain Mr Millar excepted) all did a great job too, walking an obscene amount.
B Daubach 1B 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 .236
J Varitek C 3 0 3 1 2 0 0 .313
K Millar RF 4 0 0 0 0 0 9 .263
K Youkilis 3B 2 2 1 0 2 0 0 .318
P Reese SS 4 0 2 0 0 0 2 .256
So yeah, I like this pattern. #1 and #5-9 hitters get on base, #2-#4 push them in. I watched the game as I changed and got ready for work (do workers manning the graveyard shift in Boston do this too?) and it just seemed that the Sox couldn’t stop running the bases. Except for Millar, who seemed to keep grounding out with runners in scoring position. Youklis keeps getting on base, which is nice since Mueller seems to be out for the next few weeks. And Andy Dominique called up, yay - the Sox farm system seems to finally be developing players.
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I love cheering for underdogs (except against the Sox, natch) so it left me befuddled as to who to favour in the Detroit-KC series. Amazingly, the Tigers managed to have a line up with four .300 hitters hitting #1-#4.