I Scored!

 July 6, 2002

The first thing you notice when looking at this scorecard is the number of filled diamonds in the first inning. That collection of black really draws your eye. That’s great to see. So many runs in the first always makes for a great day. Well, almost always. Check out the pitchers box. Yup. It was a Pedro Martinez start. Dang. When Pedro is on the mound, you want to see him pitch. A five run lead in the first? Might as well just go home. The Sox are going to win, and Pedro is probably only going five. Which, is exactly what happened in this case. Pedro dominated over his five innings. He allowed four baserunners, and struck out 8. This is always a fun little exercise to do with Pedro starts. He gave up one hit in his five innings. The Tigers starter gave up seven runs in almost four innings. So, Mike Maroth had a 17 Earned Run Average for the game. Pedro had a 1.80 “Hit Average.” It’s just sickening.

How did the offense get all those runs? Lots of hits. And, more than that, timely hits. They scored eight runs on ten hits. They only left four men on base. That’s some nice efficiency. The star of the game? I could give it to Doug Mirabelli and his three-run homer. But, he did strike out twice. I’m going to give it to Trot Nixon. He scored twice, including a solo home run. But, naturally, on a day like this everyone had a good day.

Well, almost everyone. Johnny Damon didn’t even need to be there. He went hitless on the day. The only thing he did even slightly productive was drive in a run on groundball. At least he ran hard enough to beat out the double play. But, he was clearly the goat of the day.

So, the bats got going early. Unfortunately, leading to an all-to-short Pedro Martinez outing. But, the Red Sox won the game. Besides, five innings of Pedro is always better than no Pedro at all. He struck out eight batters, and the Sox scored eight runs. What a combination.

And the scorecard shows you how it happened.