Great eighth (six runs) lifts Sox

June 19, 2006|Chris Snow, Globe Staff

ATLANTA -- With just one Rudy Seanez pitch, delivered at 86 miles per hour with next-to-no movement, except for the arc it traced on its way out of the ballpark, this looked like a 2-4 road swing through Minnesota and Atlanta. Jeff Francoeur's three-run rip on a Seanez slider in the bottom of the seventh inning last night turned a 3-2 Sox lead into a 5-3 Atlanta edge, and it looked like that would be the ball game, as David Ortiz (swinging) and Manny Ramírez (looking) quickly sat down to begin the eighth.

And then it happened, a two-out, eighth-inning explosion that comes along maybe once or twice a season. Trot Nixon walked. Jason Varitek walked. Coco Crisp singled in Nixon, snapping a personal 0-for-11 skid. Mike Lowell, pinch hitting, worked a full count and shot a two-run double to the gap in right-center. Alex Cora, pinch hitting, laced a single to center, scoring Lowell. Kevin Youkilis homered to left, a two-run blast. Mark Loretta singled and Ortiz was hit by a pitch before Ramírez made his second out of the inning to end it.

The totals: 11 batters and six runs scored, all with two outs. The result: a 10-7 Sox win against a crumbling Atlanta team that has now handed over seven consecutive games and 17 of 20 to opponents. The Sox, according to statistician Chuck Waseleski, hadn't scored as many as six runs in an inning after falling behind after seven innings since April 2001 at Tampa Bay.

``We bounced right back with a vengeance and that's awesome," said manager Terry Francona. ``That's a losable game and it hurts. And it winds up being a great inning. There was no letup."

However, the win didn't come without an interesting bottom of the eighth, in which Mike Timlin was roughed up for two runs on four hits, handing off to Jonathan Papelbon with two on. He got the final out of the eighth on one pitch and cruised to his 23d save as the Sox pulled a game ahead of the Yankees, who lost, 3-2, on 21-year-old Ryan Zimmerman's two-run, walkoff shot off Chien-Ming Wang at RFK Stadium.

The Sox now have 22 come-from-behind wins, second most in baseball to the Brewers (24). The Yankees, meanwhile, have 20 blown-lead losses, second most in baseball to the Devil Rays (25). The Sox are 9-4 in games decided after the seventh. The Yankees are 7-12.

The win allowed the Sox to return home this morning (they were due in sometime after 4 a.m.) with a sweep of the Braves, after being swept out of Minnesota.

``This was a great win for us on a road trip we could have buried ourselves on but didn't," said Curt Schilling, who received two no-decisions on the trip, with the team losing his start in Minnesota and winning his start here last night.

The ``W" belonged to Seanez, of all people, even though he pitched the poorest of the six Boston pitchers.