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Ellsbury propels Red Sox to sixth straight win

Apr 23, 2008 - 4:13 AM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia provided quite the pick-me-up for the Boston Red Sox.

Ellsbury, looking to solidify himself as the everyday center fielder, homered twice and scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning on Pedroia's fourth hit of the night to lead the shorthanded Red Sox past the Los Angeles Angels, 7-6, on Tuesday night at Fenway Park.

"He's a little Damon-esque," Boston manager Terry Francona said in comparing his new leadoff hitter to former Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon. "He has the ability, with two strikes, to throw that emergency hack on you and stay alive. He also has shown the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark."

Ellsbury and Pedroia combined to go 7-for-10 at the top of the order for the Red Sox, who overcame a four-run deficit to win their sixth straight.

"We swung the bats good," Pedroia said. "We don't quit. I know they had a lead. We just tried to put good at-bats together and fight our way back in the game."

The 24-year-old Ellsbury laid down a perfectly placed bunt on the first base side off Darren Oliver (1-1) with one out in the eighth and scored on Pedroia's third double of the game - off Scot Shields - for the go-ahead run.

"I ran to second like I was going to score the whole way and I saw (third base coach) DeMarlo (Hale) wave me in and I knew I'd be scoring from there," Ellsbury said.

"Jacoby started it," Pedroia added. "That bunt was awesome. He's very exciting to watch. Sometimes you sit back and just see his speed, it takes over a game. I hit that ball just hard enough to get it by (Chone) Figgins at third and he scored easily. His speed definitely took over the game and both his home runs were nice too."

Shields was brought in to face Pedroia, looking for an inning-ending, double-play ground ball.

"It was a ground ball that got through," Shields said. "I was trying to get a ground ball there and that's just the way it goes sometimes."

Mike Timlin (1-0) recorded the final out of the eighth for the win and Jonathan Papelbon threw every pitch over 95 miles per hour in a perfect ninth, striking out two for his eighth save.

The Angels were paced by Jeff Mathis with a homer and three RBI and Erick Aybar with a career-high three doubles and a run scored.

The Red Sox were playing the game with just one healthy catcher, Kevin Cash, as Jason Varitek was unavailable for the third straight game with flu-like symptoms.

And earlier in the afternoon, ace Josh Beckett was scratched due to neck stiffness, forcing the Red Sox to turn to emergency starter David Pauley, who was called up from Class AAA Pawtucket.

The righthander was staked to an early 1-0 lead when Ellsbury connected for his first career leadoff homer in the opening frame, a line drive that just cleared the short wall in right off Angels starter Jered Weaver.

But after retiring the first six batters, Pauley immediately got into trouble in the third. Doubles by Maicer Izturis and Aybar were sandwiched around an RBI single by Mathis to tie the game at 1-1.

After a walk to Figgins loaded the bases with none out, Pauley got Gary Matthews, Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero to pop out, but a two-out single to center by Garret Anderson plated two runs and put the Angels up, 3-1.

Los Angeles made it 5-1 on Mathis' long homer over the "Green Monster" seats in the fourth.

"There was a lot of baseball left," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "I don't know about anybody letting their guard down. You know you have a lot of outs to get. Tonight, we weren't able to get them. Those guys made for a lot of pitches and ended up getting some big hits down at the end."

The Red Sox got a run in the fourth before Kevin Youkilis' two-run homer capped a three-run fifth to tie the game at 5-5.

Ellsbury gave Boston the lead by drilling a 1-2 pitch from reliever Darren O'Day for his second homer of the game with two outs in the sixth.

"Everybody thought there would be some home runs in there," Francona said of Ellsbury. "I don't want to start putting numbers on it because I don't think I ever wanted to think about that. His big thing is to mature as a player and he'll grow into whatever type of player he is."

Casey Kotchman's leadoff homer against Hideki Okajima in the eighth tied the game again, 6-6.

"We created enough," Scioscia said. "We scored six runs, but we weren't able to get some pitches in some zones in some situations that ended up being important and those guys were able to get back in the game. They've got an offensive team there that's tough from top to bottom."