The Boston Red Sox defeated the Boston College Eagles 6-3, to go 2-0 in their Saturday collegiate double header on Saturday at JetBlue Park.
Felix Doubront overall looked good in his two innings of work for Boston. The fifth starter candidate got hit hard a few times, but it didn't result into anything, as he pitched two scoreless innings while relinquishing just one hit and striking out one batter.
After a relatively pedestrian first inning, the banging then began in the second inning. Ryan Lavarnway (single), Josh Kroeger (walk) and Alex Hassan (walk) all reached base quickly. Mike Aviles connected in his second at bat with a two-run double off the replica green monster in left field. Pinch hitter Juan Carlos Linares grounded out to bring home another. Aviles scored on a passed ball. Sox led 4-0 through two.
Junichi Tazawa was, well not very good coming off an injury-plagued season in his Spring opener. Tazawa gave up two earned runs on four total hits through his two innings of work. Not exactly the performance you want to have against the college kids.
After Alex Hassan singled home Ryan Lavarnway in the third, the Sox tacked on one more in the fourth as Linares singled home pinch runner Pedro Ciriacco, who came in for Aviles. Sox led 6-2, through four innings.
The Eagles tacked on a run in the fifth off Red Sox minor league reliever Doug Mathis, who gave up just the one run through two innings of work.
The Red Sox couldn't do anything at the plate in the fifth and sixth innings, so the job was handed off to Chorye Spooner to close out the game. Spooner went 1-2-3 in order to do so, as the Red Sox win this one, 6-3.
NOTES
Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz did better than the numbers indicated. Youkilis did what he did best in this one, get on base with three walks to show for it. Ortiz nearly had a game breaking double, but was robbed by a beautiful fielding play by the Boston College right fielder...Felix Doubront got off to a pretty strong start to possibly claiming the fifth starter role. Doubront pitched two shutout innings and showed relatively good control of his off speed pitches... Also making a play for a starting role on the Red Sox was shortstop Mike Aviles, who had two great swings that resulted in doubles off the replica Green Monster. Aviles did better than his competitor Nick Punto, who was hitless on the night.