Sox alive another day

September 27 2011
Well it was off to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the Red Sox vs the Baltimore Orioles. With the Red Sox tied with Tampa Bay for the wild card it was a must win game with 1 to go after this game. The starting pitcher for the Sox was former Orioles starter Erik Bedard. Pitching for Baltimore was lefty Zach Britton. The Orioles scored in the 1st on a Vladimir Guerrero double. Nick Markakis scored from 1st. In the 2nd with O's Adam Jones on 2nd, Ryan Lavarnway (who was starting behind the dish for injured Varitek and Saltimacchia) threw out Jones who attempted to steal third. The Sox got going in the 3rd after a Marco Scutaro double, Jacoby Ellsbury hit his 32nd homer of the season to give the Sox a 2-1 lead. In the top of the 4th Sox came back. After singles by David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez, Ryan Lavarnway hit his 1st major league homer to give the Sox a 5-1 lead. Bedard was going good until the 4th when O's catcher Matt Wieters hit a 2 run homer. (5-3 Sox) After a walk and then single Tito went to the mound a took the ball and gave it to Alfredo Aceves. Aceves then got Nolan Reimold to fly to left to end the inning. In the top of the 6th after a Carl Crawford triple Marco Scutaro homerd to give the Sox a 7-3 lead. In the bottom of the 6th Baltimore fought back with a Adam Jones homer cut the lead to 7-4. With the score still 7-4 Ryan Lavarnway hit his second career home run to give the Sox a 8-4 lead. Feel safe. I didn't. So to the 8th inning Daniel Bard enters the game. Bard struggled for much of September (along with much of the Red Sox) Matt Wieters lead off the inning with a single, he got 2 outs. Davis singled scoring Wieters (8-5 Sox), Reimold tripled scoring Davis (8-6 Sox). Finally Bard got out of the inning when he got Andino to fly out to end the inning. So on to the bottom of the 9th Jonathan Papelbon in to close it out. JJ Hardy lead off the inning with a single. Nick Markakis grounded to first runner advanced to second. Vladimir Guerrero singled to left scoring Hardy (8-7 Sox) With Matt Wieters batting he hit a tapper in front of the mound and home and first. He was then thrown out by Lavarnway. (pinch runner Angle advanced to second) With Adam Jones batting and the tying runner on second Adam Jones battled for 11 pitched, but Papelbon got him on a ground out to third. Gave over. So with Tampa beating NY down south the Sox remained tied with tampa for the AL wild card lead with one game to go.
Next Up: Opening day April 12 2012 Sea Dogs vs Binghamton Mets
UPDATE- Sox dropped the next night to blow a nine game lead in the wild card race. Sox season over.