Final
Red Sox find power stroke in win over Braves
Jun 21, 2007 - 3:46 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Don't look now, but the Boston Red Sox are on a roll again.J.D. Drew, Coco Crisp, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Eric Hinske homered and Julian Tavarez hurled seven scoreless innings to power the Red Sox to an 11-0 rout of the Atlanta Braves in the rubber game of a three-game interleague set.
Boston got off to a blistering start, winning 36 of its first 51 games to take a 14-1/2 game lead over the archrival New York Yankees in the American League East.
But since then, the club has struggled a bit, dropping nine of its next 15 to see the surging Yankees cut the lead to 7-1/2 games on June 14.
But the Red Sox seemingly have found their groove again, outslugging their opponents, 28-16, en route to winning four of five. With a flash of power and another solid pitching performance from Tavarez (5-4), Boston made it five of six Wednesday.
"We swung the bats pretty good today," Ortiz said. "We finally got some offense the last two days. We're playing well."
The Red Sox wasted no time finding the seats in this one, as Drew - a former Brave - connected on the fourth pitch of the night from Atlanta starter Buddy Carlyle (1-2) for his second career leadoff homer.
"It's always good to get on top," said Drew, who left the game in the second inning after his right quadriceps muscle tightened up. "I got a ball right in the zone and hit it out of the park. That's always a good feeling for a leadoff hitter."
Dustin Pedroia continued the assault by lacing a double down the left field line and was plated one out later on a double by Ramirez.
Jason Varitek then was issued a two-out free pass to bring up Crisp, who entered Wednesday's contest 5-for-8 with two homers in the series. He smashed a three-run shot - 355 feet into the right field bleachers - to make it 5-0.
Boston extended the advantage in the second when Ortiz launched a towering two-run blast into the seats in right.
"It's good," Ortiz said of his homer. "It's even better with the other guys putting it together like we did tonight."
Ramirez homered in the seventh and Hinske added a two-run shot in the eighth for the Red Sox, who are off to their best start since 1986, when the club had an identical 46-25 record through its first 71 games.
"They're not the bashers for nothing," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "They can hit throughout the lineup. We got so far behind, so fast, it was hard to do much."
The power surge was more than enough for Tavarez, who followed a sensational effort by Tuesday's starter Josh Beckett with one of his own.
The 34-year-old Tavarez scattered three hits, struck out four and walked one. The righthander retired the first 10 batters and, aided by two double plays, faced the minimum number of hitters through the first six frames.
"It was my best start," said Tavarez, who is battling a hamstring injury. "Once I cross the line, nothing's going to cross my way when I go to pitch. I don't see (a lead of) 5-0. I never saw the scoreboard. To me, the game was 0-0 to the last hitter."
Atlanta, which entered with third-best batting average in the National League at .268, was stymied again at the plate. Playing without superstar Andruw Jones, who was benched amid an 0-for-18 slump, the Braves mustered just five hits to extend their scoreless streak to 19 innings.
"I know we're scoring runs," Carlyle said. "I didn't put the offense in a good situation, when I gave up seven runs in the first two innings."
Carlyle endured the worst start of his 27-game major league career, allowing seven runs and nine hits in 3 2/3 frames, striking out three and walking four. He allowed six runs against the Braves in his first stint in the majors on September 14, 1999, when playing for the San Diego Padres.
"It doesn't matter who you pitch to," Carlyle said. "When you pitch like (I did), they're going to hit them. There's really no excuse. I have to work on keeping the ball down a little bit better."
- ML
FINAL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
- - - - - - - - - - - -
BOSTON 5 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 11 15 0
ATLANTA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 (FINAL)
BATTERIES: BOS - JULIAN TAVAREZ, JOEL PINEIRO (8TH), MIKE TIMLIN (9TH) AND
JASON VARITEK, DOUG MIRABELLI (9TH)
ATL - BUDDY CARLYLE, OSCAR VILLARREAL (4TH), PETER
MOYLAN (7TH)
Jun 20 10:34 PM - ML
AT ATLANTA - SCORING UPDATE
TWO-RUN HOME RUN BY ERIC HINSKE (2) TO RIGHT WITH 2 OUT IN
THE 8TH OFF RAFAEL SORIANO SCORED DUSTIN PEDROIA.
CURRENT SCORE: BOSTON 11, ATLANTA 0
DUE UP FOR BOSTON: M RAMIREZ (.300, 3-FOR-4, HR, 2 RBI)
Red Sox vs. BravesJun 20 9:56 PM - ML
AT ATLANTA - SCORING UPDATE
DOUBLE BY DUSTIN PEDROIA SCORED WILY MO PENA.
SITUATION: 1 RUN IN, D PEDROIA ON SECOND, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: BOSTON 9
ATLANTA 0 TOP, 8TH
DUE UP FOR BOSTON: E HINSKE (.175, 1 HR, 5 RBI)
Red Sox vs. BravesJun 20 9:55 PM - ML
AT ATLANTA - SCORING UPDATE
SOLO HOME RUN BY MANNY RAMIREZ (11) TO RIGHT WITH 0 OUT IN
THE 7TH OFF PETER MOYLAN.
CURRENT SCORE: BOSTON 8, ATLANTA 0
DUE UP FOR BOSTON: K YOUKILIS (.335, 1-FOR-2, BB)
Red Sox vs. BravesJun 20 9:28 PM - ML
AT ATLANTA - SCORING UPDATE
TWO-RUN HOME RUN BY DAVID ORTIZ (13) TO RIGHT WITH 2 OUT IN
THE 2ND OFF BUDDY CARLYLE SCORED J.D. DREW.
CURRENT SCORE: BOSTON 7, ATLANTA 0
DUE UP FOR BOSTON: M RAMIREZ (.296, 1-FOR-1, RBI)
Red Sox vs. BravesJun 20 8:07 PM - ML
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
- - - - - - - - - - - -
BOSTON 5 5 4 0
ATLANTA 0 0 0 (BOT 1)
CURRENT PITCHERS: BOS - JULIAN TAVAREZ
ATL - BUDDY CARLYLE
DUE UP FOR ATLANTA: K JOHNSON (.285, 8 HR, 37 RBI)
W HARRIS (.385, 1 HR, 12 RBI)
E RENTERIA (.333, 10 HR, 36 R
Red Sox vs. BravesJun 20 7:53 PM
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