Sports Redux: Red Sox Win Ugly

Baseball can be an exciting, intense and creative enterprise. You wouldn't notice that after Saturday's run-filled spectacle that featured 10 pitchers, 14 walks, four errors, 24 runs and one torrential downpour en route to a 15-9 Red Sox win. Boston's powerful offense was on display, too. The Sox scored runs in the first four innings, including three, each, in the first two innings to build a 9-0 lead. Boston had three runs in four different innings.

Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz combined for six RBI in the first four innings. That trio finished 6-13 with seven RBI and 18 total bases. Youkilis led the way with a 3-4, four RBI, four-run performance.

The Nation finally got a glimpse of what we expected from John Smoltz. He pitched five innings, allowed four hits and one run while fanning seven Royals. He corrected the "one bad inning" thing, which Bostonist likes. Excuse us, Mr. Smoltz, could you now work on going deeper into games? Please.

The 9-0 advantage dissipated as quickly as it arrived thanks to the monstrosity unleashed in the sixth inning by the bullpen. Justin Masterson, Hideki Okajima and Manny Delcarmen gave up five runs on six hits in that frame to make the score 9-6. The Royals made it 9-7 before Daniel Bard took the mound and pitched like, well, Daniel Bard in the seventh. Somehow, in the sixth, J.D. Drew threw Miguel Olivo out at home on a force play.

Aaron Bates recorded his first MLB hit and RBI on an eighth-inning single. In the fourth inning, Ortiz's home run looked quite familiar and was the 1,000th hit in his Red Sox career. Congratulations!

Meanwhile, the Yankees have lost two straight in Anaheim. They were ahead in both games and ended up allowing a total of 24 runs in the two losses, including Saturday's 14-8 loss that featured a seven--run inning. This is a really bad thing, despite the optimism breaking out amongst our friends at Gothamist who root for the Yankees. In case you wanted to know, the next Sox-Yankees clash is scheduled for August 6-9 in the NYC. On August 21-23 (Boston) and September 25-27 (NYC), the teams play after New York returns from West Coast trips.

Bostonist has to congratulate two non-Nation baseball players on a pair of impressive accomplishments. James McOwen of the High Desert Mavericks, Seattle's Class A squad in the California League, saw his hitting streak end at 45 games on Friday. Amazing. McOwen's streak is the longest minor-league hitting streak since 1954.

Jonathan Sanchez of the San Francisco Giants pitched a no-hitter in an 8-0 win over San Diego in front of his father who traveled from Puerto Rico to San Francisco to see his son pitch. Sanchez allowed one baserunner, which came on an error. Padres batter Everth Cabrera struck out to end the game after trying to bunt to break up the no-hitter in an 8-0 game. That is considered poor baseball etiquette.