Aceves Shaky as Red Sox Drop 2nd Straight to Chicago

                                                                    Sports Illustrated

White Sox 10 Red Sox 7
Winning Pitcher: Phil Humber (4-3)
Losing Pitcher: Alfredo Aceves (2-1)
Save: Chris Sale (2)


Recap
The Red Sox, coming off a loss to the hands of the White Sox last night, got a shaky start from Alfredo Aceves, and their late attempt at a comeback was unsuccessful. After both Aceves and Chicago starter Phil Humber put the respective offenses down 1-2-3, Aceves could not repeat that success in the second. He loaded the bases with one out on two singles and a walk to start the inning, and then gave up an RBI single to Gordan Beckham. With the bases still full of White Sox, Aceves got a ground ball to short, which was booted by Jed Lowrie, costing the Red Sox an easy out at third base. This resulted in another run, and the bases remained loaded with just one out. Chicago would eventually score two more runs on a single from Alexei Ramirez, and Boston entered the bottom of the second trailing 4-0. That deficit grew by one in the third, when Paul Konerko knocked in another run on a ground rule double, and it looked to be a long day for Aceves. Boston would get one back in the bottom of the inning on a home run from Jason Varitek, but Chicago came right back with a run of their own in the fourth. Aceves settled down a bit until the sixth, when he started the inning by hitting Adam Dunn and giving up a single to Beckham, and was pulled in favor of Scott Atchison. The White Sox would score four more runs in the inning, and Aceves' final line was 5+ innings, allowing 8 runs, 6 earned, on 8 hits, 3 walks and a strike out. In the top of the 7th, trailing 10-1, it seemed the Red Sox were virtually giving up, sitting Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford and Dustin Pedroia in favor of Josh Reddick, Mike Cameron, and Drew Sutton. The move would actually start a mini-comeback, though. In the bottom of the 8th, Reddick would double, and get knocked in by Sutton. That was followed by a 3-run shot from David Ortiz, and all of a sudden it was 10-5 entering the 9th. Reddick and Sutton each got an RBI in that 9th inning, but Adrian Gonzalez struck out with Sutton at 2nd to end the game, and give the White Sox the first two games of the series.


Home Runs
Boston: Jason Varitek (2), David Ortiz (12)
Chicago: None


News and Notes 

• In Pawtucket tonight, John Lackey made his first rehab start.  He was very solid against the AAA hitting, going 5.2 innings, allowing 1 run (a solo home run) on 3 hits, 0 walks an 1 strike out. The key to this outing was that he stayed in the low 90s for his fastballs, and saw no decreases in velocity as the outing went on. Lackey coming back to a shell of his former self could be a big development for this team, but so could him coming back and performing like he did earlier this year. 

 

• The Red Sox have moved Saturday night's game from 7 PM to 1:30 PM. They did so in order to avoid a conflict with the Bruins' game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals. All of Boston breathes a sigh of relief, because most (myself included) would not have tuned into the Red Sox over the Cup finals.

The Red Sox finish their series with the White Sox tomorrow afternoon at 1:35 PM ET. Boston sends Tim Wakefield (2-1 4.14) to the mound against Chicago's Gavin Floyd (5-5 3.69).