Nothing but positive notes from Fenway tonight as the Red Sox offense unloaded on Rangers starter Justin Grimm and maintained through the relievers, ultimately scoring 17 runs on 19 hits. Among the hits, the Sox had four homers -- including Jackie Bradley, Jr.'s, first career bomb -- and nine doubles. Six players had multi-hit efforts.
The highlight of the game has to be David Ortiz's triple in the 2nd. Yes, triple. Papi slugged a one-out pitch to center field and raced out of the box, never hesitating while rounding the bases. Safe to say that Ortiz's running concerns are behind him.
The game was out of reach after the six-run 2nd was over and Grimm was chased from the game. Check out the box score for the full details -- lots of crooked numbers.
Ryan Dempster pitched well against his former team, most importantly going seven innings and not forcing John Farrell to waste important relievers in a blowout. He allowed three runs on five hits and a walk, striking out six. If I could lock in those numbers from him for every start, I would in a heartbeat. I was not expecting such consistency from Dempster in the AL East, but I suppose the AL East isn't what it once was.
It was good to see the offensive output out of the Red Sox, even if it came on some underwhelming pitching. It's not like this was Murderer's Row -- Daniel Nava and Mike Carp, considered fringe big leaguers not long ago, hit in the top two spots, and Stephen Drew, Jose Iglesias, and Jackie Bradley, Jr., rounding out the bottomg of the order, are not exactly proven sluggers. But everything clicked tonight.
Drew in particular has to be happy, as he knocked around Rangers pitching for four hits, scoring three runs and driving in two. Maybe Iglesias' success is starting to drive him to prove himself.
The one Rangers pitcher not to get shelled? Outfielder David Murphy, who pitched a scoreless 8th.
This won't happen again -- not against the Rangers, at least -- so enjoy it.