With another short but sweet start from Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Red Sox were able to whittle the magic number down…
Alex Wilson was pitching against Texas in a 2007 tournament while at Winthrop University when he felt a "pop" in his right elbow.
The next thing he knew had a Tommy John operation to repair a torn ligament, which required 18 months of rehabilitation.
Wilson, who checks in at 6-1 and 204 pounds, transferred to Texas A&M where he rode the bench in 2008.
Surprisingly, the Cubs picked him in the 10th round of that year's draft but he declined to sign - which may have been the Red Sox' good fortune.
Even an uninspiring performance by Jon Lester was enough to get the job done against an Orioles team that has all but thrown in the orange towel, as Boston beat Baltimore, 11-5, on Saturday.
It was the Red Sox bats that locked up the 12th consecutive series win against the Orioles, behind a shaky outing six inning stretch where Lester gave up ten hits. But as he continued to miss his spots (only 62 strikes over 102 pitches), the offense was busy at work against an already depleted Orioles pitching staff.
Both Clay Buchholz and Jason Bay weren't feeling quite right last night, but somehow emerged as the heroes of Friday night's series opener against the Baltimore Orioles.
Buchholz's six strong innings, combined with Bay's 34th home run of the year, lifted the Red Sox past the Birds, 3-1.
A few years back, I was introduced to a simple site on the Internet that gave me a different and useful lens on the baseball season. Doug's Stats (www.dougstats.com) looks much like it did the day I stumbled on it in 2003. It hasn't gotten a Web 2.0 facelift, there are no fancy charts or running commentary. In fact, most of the stats can be gotten from any sports site with a "stats" tab in their MLB section. But there was one link on the front door of Doug's home on the Internet that grabbed my attention.