The mortal battle for the AL East basement once again swung to Toronto as the Sox toppled the Blue Jays bullpen in tonight's 5-1 win.
Toronto held a 1-0 lead until the 7th inning, when Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit his 14th homer of the season. The Sox kept their foot on the gas and Dustin Pedroia knocked in two runs to give Boston the lead. Next inning, Adrian Gonzalez hit an RBI double and Will Middlebrooks produced a sac fly to give the Sox more of a cushion.
Alfredo Aceves completed a no-nonsense for the save to finish things off.
Worth mentioning: Daisuke Matsuzaka had another strong start. He had a rough first inning (stop me where you've heard this before), but then settled down. Dice went 5 2/3 scattering six hits and a walk against five strikeouts. He threw an even 100 pitches and pitched well enough to earn a win, except the offense came too late.
Could it be that Daisuke could factor in significantly to this rotation? With Lackey out for the year, Bard a basket case, Aceves in the pen, and Buchholz now facing a real health issue (more to come on that tomorrow morning), the Sox need all the help they can get. All those problems don't even factor in the underperforming Jon Lester, or the on-again-off-again health of Josh Beckett. A healthy, effective Daisuke Matsuzaka might be more of a necessity than we expected in the offseason.
