Erik Bedard was one pitch away from escaping the sixth inning unharmed. He couldn’t do it.
With the Red Sox again going 1-2-3 in the top of the inning, Bedard ran into the first truly difficult inning of his outing, though not really through hard contact. A pair of one-out ground balls—one of which never left the infield—cost Bedard a couple of baserunners. He struck out Nelson Cruz, and picked up two strikes against Mike Napoli, but just couldn’t finish the job. The Texas catcher took advantage of a two-seam fastball that missed, and made Bedard pay to the tune of three big runs.
With C.J. Wilson’s domination continuing, this one seems like a bit of a long shot for the Sox right now.