Boston Red Sox
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| Recommended Angels 5, Red Sox 4 -- Los Angeles wins the battle of the bullpens
06:44 AM EDT on Monday, October 6, 2008
BOSTON -- After Josh Beckett turned in the shakiest playoff outing of his career Sunday night at Fenway Park, the Red Sox asked their bullpen for a masterful performance. They got it.When Beckett was pulled after five innings and 106 pitches, he left a long road for the bullpen to travel. Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima, Justin Masterson and Jonathan Papelbon answered the call by throwing six innings of shutout baseball. The Angels managed only four hits over that span as the relief corps gave the offense every chance to grab a win and close out the Angels.
But that didn't happen. The Angels' bullpen matched Boston's zero for zero through the 11th. And then, finally, the Red Sox' pen faltered. Javier Lopez got the call for the 12th inning and a single by Mike Napoli, a sacrifice bunt by Howie Kendrick and an RBI bloop sing;e by Erick Aybar closed the 5-hour-and-19 minute marathon with a Los Angeles win.
"I thought we did an awesome job," said Delcarmen, who threw 1 2/3 innings of shutout relief. "Javy gave up a bloop hit to Aybar. What can you say? Hopefully we can do the same thing as a bullpen [Monday]."
Lopez threw for the first time in the series and said he was simply the unlucky last pitcher in a long line of hurlers. The 12 pitchers in the game combined to throw 437 pitches. "I feel like I made a good pitch there. Aybar battled me," said Lopez. "I thought all inning I got ground balls like I needed to."
Asked how he felt about being the last man out on a night when the Sox emptied their `pen, Lopez said, "Obviously, it's frustrating. We battled all night long. You never want to be that guy, but today I am and that's the way it is. The good thing is we're back out there [Monday night].''
Now the question is, just who's available -- on either side -- for Game Four. Papelbon threw two innings and 31 pitches, but Los Angeles of Anaheim closer Francisco Rodriguez tossed 33 pitches in his one inning of work.\ Manager Terry Francona will watch his relievers closely, but has no choice except to run them out to the mound yet again.
"We would've loved to win tonight, but they won 100 games for a reason," said Lopez. "They're a great team over there but we battled too. The good thing about baseball is we'll be back out there again tomorrow. Or I guess it's tonight, right?"
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