By Maureen Mullen
CSNNE.com
BOSTONThe Red Sox certainly didnt make things easy on themselves, but a win is a wineven if it takes 13 23 innings and 5 hours and 17 minutes to secure.
With two outs in the 14th, Carl Crawford doubled to left. Guillermo Moscoso then issued an intentional walk to Jed Lowrie, opting to face J.D. Drew, who was 1-for-6 with four straight strikeouts, matching a career high for the fifth time. But Drew lined a Moscoso pitch into center field, scoring Crawford for the 9-8 win.
Seemingly on their way to cruising into a nice, comfortable winwhat would have been their third straight over the As going back to their two-game set in Oakland in April -- the Sox instead went the challenging route.
Jonathan Papelbon blew a four-run lead in the ninth as he and catcher Jason Varitek were both ejected in the ninth, after each had heated discussions with homeplate umpire Tony Randazzo.
The As batted around in the ninth, scoring four runs to tie the game.
Papelbon faced six batters before being tossed. He need 21 pitchers before recording his first out, on his third batter. He gave up a lead-off single to Mark Ellis and a walk to Daric Barton before striking out Landon Powell. Dustin Pedroias third error of the season, on Coco Crisps grounderappearing to be a made-to-order game-ending double-play ball -- scored Ellis with the As first run of the inning. Cliff Penningtons double to left scored Barton.
Boston Red Sox
It was then that Varitek and Randazzo exchanged words behind the plate, with Varitek getting run. It was the fifth ejection of his career, and the first since May 28, 2009, in Minnesota. Varitek was replaced by Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
Pinch-hitter Conor Jackson singled to left, scoring Crisp and Pennington to tie the game, at which point Papelbon and Randazzo got into a heated exchange, with Papelbon getting his first career ejection.
With one out, Bobby Jenks entered, giving up a single to Ryan Sweeney, sending Jackson to third. But Josh Willingham struck out, his third of the game, for the second out of the inning, bringing Hideki Matsui to the plate. Matsui was in the midst of an 0-for-18 skid, the worst of his MLB career. On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, an 87-mph slider from Jenks, Matsui swung and missed. But as the ball skipped away from Saltalamacchia, Jackson crossed the plate. Saltalamacchia recovered in time, though, to throw Matsui out at first, ending the inning with the score tied, 7-7.
Alfredo Aceves, the Sox seventh pitcher of the game, went four innings, giving up one run on three hits and two walks with two strikeouts. He earned the win, improving to 3-1, with a 3.38 ERA.
Moscoso, who entered in the 14th, took the loss, falling to 2-1, with a 3.21 ERA.
One of the casualties of the game was Josh Becketts fifth win. He went six innings (plus two batters in the seventh), giving up three runs on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts, a wild pitch, and a hit batter. He threw 102 pitches, 58 for strikes. His ERA climbed from 1.80 to 2.01 in the outing. In 12 starts, he now has six no-decisions, despite nine quality starts.
The teams combined to use 16 pitchers.
With the win, the Sox improve to 7-3-1 in home series, 11-7-2 overall.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Alfredo Aceves
With the Sox down to one pitcher in the bullpen, Dan Wheeler, Aceves pitched the final four innings of the game to earn the win. Although Aceves, who entered in the 11th, allowed the first two batters he faced to reach baseNo. 9 batter Cliff Pennington on a walk and Conor Jackson on a doubleand let the As score the go-ahead run (albeit, temporarily, as the Sox tied the game again in the bottom of the inning.), he went four innings, allowing just the one run on three hits and two walks with two strikeouts. He earned the win, improving to 3-1, (3.38 ERA), the 12th straight decision he has won while pitching in relief.
He comes in his first inning, and walks a guy that scores, said manager Terry Francona. And then after that, he was lights out. As the game progressed, it gets hard to see the ball. You could tell. Guys were taking some funny swings, on both sides, with the shadows and everything.
He did a really good job. Were fortunate. Hes stretched out. Hes on one day short of what would be his day to start, but hes stretched out where he could do something like that, and ended up saving us the game.
HONORABLE MENTION: Carl Crawford
Crawford went 4-for-7, with two runs scored and three RBI, raising his average from .235 to .246. His two RBI in the eighth inning accounted for the Sox' final runs in regulation. Then with two outs in the 14th, he doubled to left field and scored the winning run on J.D. Drews single to center.
Crawford, who matched his season high in hits and RBI, has driven in or scored the winning run in four of the Sox' five walk-off wins this season.
THE GOAT: Jonathan Papelbon
Although his team held on through 14 innings for the win, Papelbons implosion in the ninth inning made it much more difficult than it had to be. Staked to a four-run lead, he gave up four runs in the ninth.
Papelbon recorded just one out, giving up four runs (three earned) on three hits and a walk with one strikeout. His ERA ballooned from 3.28 to 4.32 in the outing.
Papelbon, who has acknowledged in the past that he has a different approachor a different level or adrenalinein non-save situations, entered the game with an ERA of 2.38 in save situations, 4.50 in non-save situations.
Incurring the first ejection of his career, from homeplate umpire Tony Randazzo, Papelbon was not able to see his outing through more than one-third of an inning.
I probably overreacted a little bit but its hard to say that because Im in the heat of a battle, Papelbon said. And then all of a sudden Im a base hit away from the game being tied up. Could I have done things or gone about things different? Yeah, of course. But in the heat of the battle thats a lot easier said than done. And looking back on it now, do I wish I had gone about it in a little bit better of a manner? Yeah. But between the white lines emotions always tend to get intensified and it is what it is.
THE TURNING POINT
While the debacle of the ninth inning could have proven to be the turning point if the Red Sox had lost, they held on to grind out a win the 14th inning. With two outs, Carl Crawford doubled, his fourth hit of the game, matching a career high. Jed Lowrie received an intentional walk from Guillermo Moscoso, who entered the game to start the inning, bringing up J.D. Drew, who was 1-for-6 with four straight strikeouts at that point, matching a career high. But, Drew broke his string, and deposited Moscosos second pitch, a 90-mph fastball, into center field, scoring Crawford and giving the Sox the win.
STAT OF THE DAY: 5
The 9-8 win was the Sox fifth walk-off win of the season. It was also the As fifth straight loss, their longest losing streak of the season. Jason Varitek incurred the fifth ejection of his career.
QUOTE OF NOTE
Obviously arguingballs and strikes. Actually you can't really do that and I lost my cool there I lost my cool a little bit on thestrike zonefor Pap We still got to maintain our poise out there andI lost mine today You know, it's hard to go into detail but I just felt like there were a few pitches with Papthat changed the course of that entire inning. I could've handled things a little different It's simple. I lost my cool on those things that happened in that inning where I thought Pap had made some pitches. -- Jason Varitek on his ninth-inning ejection, the reasons for it, and how he handled the situation.
Maureen Mullen is on Twitter at http:twitter.commaureenamullen