Dateline: Running Cedar
On a truly perfect spring afternoon at Running Cedar the Red Sox continued their homestand against the Expos. The Expos only had five players, but the Red Sox graciously supplied fielders on an as-needed basis. Garrett looked good as he strolled to the mound. The Expos had a few walks and ultimately drilled a long shot to left to score some runs and before the dust had cleared they were off to a 4-0 lead. The Red Sox quickly battled back as a leadoff walk to TJ, a walk to Kyle, an infield hit by Justin loaded the bases. All three were to score and four more walks scored Garrett as well. It was now 4-4.
Michael F took to the mound in the second. The leadoff man hit a long shot to center where Kyle raced over and made the catch. Red Sox fans and players rejoiced. Michael then proceeded to strikeout two more batters and hold the Expos to zero runs. The Red Sox went down quietly in the second and the score remained tied.
In the top of the third, Michael returned to the mound. He threw a lot of strikes, but gave up three runs. With the bases loaded and two outs, he settled down to strike out their last batter. In the bottom of the third, the Red Sox jumped on the Expos reliever as TJ and Kyle led off with walks. Justin picked up his second hit of the day to load the bases. Garrett walked to score TJ. Matt walked to score Kyle. Ben hit a sharp smash to score Justin. Jack continued the offensive barrage with another big hit to score Garrett. The Red Sox again had the lead at 8-7.
In the top of the fourth, Matt came to the mound and gave up two quick walks. He settled down, but after a couple of wild pitches a run scored to tie the game. In the bottom of the fourth, the Red Sox took the lead again on a nice single by William and a hard smash to deep right field by Chris to move William to third. TJ’s second hit scored William and Justin’s third hit on the day scored Chris. After four it was 10-8 Red Sox.
With time running out the Expos had one last chance. Matt struck out the first batter and induced the second to hit a soft grounder back the mound which Matt threw to Ben for an exciting out at first (by a step). The next batter struck out to end the game.
Coach Grossman was available rather briefly as the Red Sox play again quickly on Tuesday in a repeat match against the Blue Jays. He said “I really liked how our guys looked today. They came to play and it showed. Our bats are starting to really come alive. I’m looking forward to next week.” Coach Goldstein was pleased as well, “I really thought we were more focused today and we should be fine in the weeks to come.”
As this reporter mentioned earlier, the Red Sox play the Blue Jays in a repeat matchup in a key intra-league matchup. Tickets are starting to sell briskly as word has spread throughout the league that the Blue Jays recently tied the Astros, the 2nd place team in the National league.
