The Sox finally find the key to beating the Phillies' starting pitching: hit a line drive right at them so they have to come out of the game. Sox were'n't getting much of anything done against Hamels until Gonzalez hit him on his non-throwing hand, getting him out of the game. Sox hitters feasted on the Phillies relief pitching getting 5 runs between the 5th and 8th inning. Those runs came courtesey of a 3 hit day from Ellsbury, two solo home runs from Varitek, and another solo shot from Pedroia. Gonzalez hasn't been looking bad if you just looked at the box scores but it seems like over the last week he hasn't been seeing the ball well at all. He went 0-4 this game and just seems lost right now.
Lester pitched like the ace we needed to stop the skid. Only 2 hits and 2 BBs over 7 innings. Bard pitched a clean 8th but Jenks ran into trouble in the ninth giving up 2 runs on a home run to Howard. It seemed to me that Jenks would have been able to finish the inning but Tito brought in Papelbon to get the two out save.
Overall, losing the series to the Phillies isn't that big of a deal. Fortunately we didn't get swept. But with the losses to the Pirates and the Padres, the Sox will need to make up some games against the Astros, the worst team in MLB. Anything less than a sweep will make this road trip a failure in my mind. And failure is not an option!
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