Lackey Struggles As Red Sox Lose Both to Jays

 

                                                                                            Sports Illustrated

Blue Jays 9 Red Sox 3

Winning Pitcher: Jesse Litsch (4-2)

Losing Pitcher: John Lackey (2-5)

Recap

Coming off of a loss in the first of a two game series, struggling John Lackey and the Red Sox were shellacked in the second game and head into their only off day of the month of May. The game started well for the Sox, as Kevin Youkilis's RBI base hit gave the Red Sox an early 1-0 lead after one. On the mound, John Lackey started out pitching pretty well, giving up a base runner in each of the first two innings, but allowing no runs in those innings. However, the third would bring some troubles to the Kermit the Frog sound-a-like. He allowed the first three batters of the inning to reach base, and ended up with a 2-0 deficit headed into the bottom of the fourth. The second batter of the inning, John McDonald, hit a solo home run, and a sac-fly later, the Sox were down 4-0 going into the fifth inning. The score would stay that way until the top of the sixth. As the second batter of the inning, Adrian Gonzalez hit a solo shot, his third homer in two games, with each being hit to the opposite field (bodes well for the Monstahhh). Two batters later, David Ortiz hit his sixth homer of the year, of the solo variety, to cut the deficit to 4-3. Lackey came out for the seventh, but the game got away in this frame. The inning started with a walk and a single, followed by two straight outs. With the game on the line, however, Lackey walked two straight, the latter of which gave the Jays a 5-3 lead. The next batter, John McDonald, hit a 2-RBI double, and Lackey was pulled in favor of Tim Wakefield (who became the oldest player to appear in a Red Sox game in tonight's game). Rajai Davis started Wake's historic appearance with an RBI single, and the Red Sox fell to a 9-3 deficit, which would hold for the final score, and the Jays finished off the mini-sweep.

News and Notes

• Jed Lowrie was held out of tonight's starting lineup with an illness. To take his place, Jose Iglesias made his first MLB start. In his debut start, Iglesias went 0-3 with a strikeout. Not much should be made of this start. Iglesias was never known for his bat to begin with. He's a young player, and his bat is something that will have to be developed throughout the year in the minors. As I stated in previous blogs, I think he will be starting at short next season, so it was nice to see a slight glimpse into the future tonight, no matter the results.

• Jacoby Ellsbury snapped his 19 game hitting streak on Wednesday night. He entered the game with his longest hitting streak since 2009, but was unable to record a single base hit against Jesse Litsch and company. In more exciting news, Carl Crawford continued his red hot May. He still has a hit in each game of the month, extending his hitting streak to 10 games. Crawford got two hits in the game, the only Red Sox hitter to do so other than fellow offseason acquisition Adrian Gonzalez. 

The Red Sox look to get back on track against the Yankees on Friday after their off-day Thursday, their only day of rest in the month. Boston will send Clay Buchholz (3-3 4.19) to the mound in New York against Bartolo Colon (2-1 3.86).