Regroup therapy

Wells gives Sox, bullpen chance to clear their heads

August 29, 2005|Globe Staff

You come into the game in the ninth with an eight-run lead and set down the side in order, like newly arrived Red Sox rookie Abe Alvarez did yesterday afternoon in the Fens, you expect to be taken for granted. But had the sellout crowd of 34,658 known that yesterday would be the second time in the last 21 games that the Sox bullpen did not give up a run -- don't choke on your granola, you read that right -- the fans might have been on their feet, wildly cheering at the end of yesterday's 11-3 win over the Detroit Tigers.

If you wanted to be smart about it, you could argue that a Sox reliever did give up a run, recovering closer Keith Foulke being touched for one while pitching an inning of a rehab assignment for the short-season Single A Spinners yesterday in Lowell. But in a season that has had few sweat-free days for the Sox relief corps, and few as rough as Saturday's 12-8 defeat in which the Sox blew a six-run lead for the first time in two years, the 42-year-old lefty, David Wells, took the heat off the pen with seven strong innings, then was content to let Chad Bradford and Alvarez take care of the last six outs.

Wells flirted with trouble throughout the afternoon, but when Magglio Ordonez's Wall-ball double brought home a run in the first, it was the only time he allowed Detroit to take the lead all afternoon.

''David Wells stepped up and pitched a great game," said center fielder Johnny Damon, who with a walk, two singles, and three RBIs led a top-to-bottom 14-hit attack in which Bill Mueller and David Ortiz (three hits apiece) each had home runs. Mueller, who has an 11-game hitting streak, has eight home runs. Ortiz has 33.

''He didn't give back runs as rapidly as we did [Saturday] and that's huge for us," Damon said. ''It takes a lot to score runs. Some days it seems pretty easy, but when you keep giving up runs, it takes the wind out of your sails."

With the help of two terrific diving stops by third baseman Mueller, Wells held the Tigers, who had stacked their lineup with nine righthanded hitters (two switch hitters), to only two hits in 11 cracks with runners in scoring position.

The Tigers had a chance to tie the score at 4 in the fifth when first baseman Kevin Millar booted Ordonez's ground ball, which kicked into foul territory, but Millar quickly ran it down and threw home, where catcher Jason Varitek launched his body across the plate to tag out Chris Shelton trying to score. The Sox then scored four in the sixth to break it open, Varitek and Tony Graffanino each doubling home a run and Damon singling home two more.