With Kevin Youkilis out that only means one thing, Dustin Pedroia gets to shine in the clean up spot and boy did he ever. Pedroia lead the Red Sox to a 4-3 win in Kansas City.
The offence has been struggling the past couple of game with the lose of Youkilis and David Ortiz and Pedroia was the needed spark as he went 3-for-4 with three RBI. He knocked in two runs in the top of third to put the Sox up 3-1 on a single. Pedroia's thrid RBI came in the top of fifth inning on a single to score Jed Lowrie, he attempted to get to second base and was picked off. Pedroia ended his batting with a double in the top of the eighth.
Pedroia has been electric in the clean up spot with a .491 (27-for-55)batting average as the clean up man. Not only is his batting average so high in the spot but he has five homers and 15 RBI.
The game was a Pedroia show but Josh Beckett was on the mound looking for his tenth win of the season and he finally got it. By no means was this the best start of the season but it was good enough for the win. Beckett only struck out four batters while giving up seven hits and three runs all earned and one home run.
Beckett went out of the game after pitching seven and handed the ball to his rear unstoppable duo of Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon. Both guys reached milestones as Daniel Bard after pitching a scoreless eighth got his 29th hold of the season. This is the most by any reliever to wear the Red Sox uniform in 123 games.
Papelbon came into the game in the ninth a was unstoppable with two strikeouts to get his 29th save of the season and his 24th consecutive. The 24 straight is a career high for Papelbon but it is also the second longest streak in the American League.
It was also the Major League Debut of Ryan Lavarnway who went 0-for-4 on the night.
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