The Red Sox and Mariners are set to face off in the second game of their three-game series, with Aaron Cook taking on Hector Noesi.
We'll keep you night owls (or Fenway exiles) up-to-date on all the action as it goes down in Safeco.
Red Sox 5, Mariners 0, Final -- Eight pitches lets Aaron Cook finish the inning in rapid fashion, and the game in an incredible 81 pitches. The complete game shutout keeps the Sox level with the Rays and Orioles, and gains them ground on the Yankees.
Red Sox 5, Mariners 0, Mid 9th -- Will Middlebrooks second hit is a quick ground ball--not quite so convincing as the first, but it does get the Sox started positively in the ninth. A double from Mike Aviles and a Daniel Nava walk load the bases with two outs, but Dustin Pedroia's line drive hangs up in the air long enough that Ichiro settles underneath it for the out.
Red Sox 5, Mariners 0, End 8th -- Aaron Cook gives up his first solid hit of the night, on a quick ground ball into right field, but once again doesn't let it increase his total batters faced. A Dustin Ackley ground ball goes to Dustin Pedroia, and the double play is started to keep Cook at 25 batters faced through eight innings.
Red Sox 5, Mariners 0, Mid 8th -- Oliver Perez is the one to hold the Sox in check this time, getting a couple fly balls and a strikeout, but Aaron Cook doesn't seem ready to give this one up anytime soon.
Red Sox 5, Mariners 0, End 7th -- Seven innings into his outing, Aaron Cook has thrown a total of 64 pitches. He's allowed just the one hit--an infield single to Ichiro Suzuki which was quickly erased by a double play ball. The one batter he's faced over the minimum came thanks to Mike Aviles' error. 13 groundouts, four fly ball outs. It's been an unbelievable night.
Red Sox 5, Mariners 0, Mid 7th -- Kelley continues to keep things quiet in the top of the seventh, picking up three quick outs as the lineup turns over, including a strikeout of Mike Aviles.
Red Sox 5, Mariners 0, End 6th -- A fielding error keeps Cook from having another 1-2-3 inning, but he has no trouble stranding the leadoff baserunner at first.
Red Sox 5, Mariners 0, Mid 6th -- More hard-hit fly balls, more runs for the Red Sox, as David Ortiz doubles to Ichiro and Jarrod Saltalamacchia makes it four homers off of Noesi, jacking a two-run shot to dead-center. Noesi is given one more batter, but when Gonzalez grabs a base hit to right, he's pulled for Shawn Kelly, who grabs the three outs needed in a hurry.
Red Sox 3, Mariners 0, End 5th -- Cook doesn't have any problem maintaining Boston's momentum in the bottom half of the fifth, striking out Jesus Montero and getting a couple more quick ground balls to send it to the sixth.
Red Sox 3, Mariners 0, Mid 5th -- Those long fly balls? They finally leave the park. Will Middlebrooks starts it out by taking an outside slider and hooking it well into the stands in left. Cody Ross immediately follows it up with a shot into the upper deck of the same location on a middle-middle fastball. The next two outs came quickly, but trying to get the third, Noesi ran into a third homer, this time from Daniel Nava to right field. Just goes to show that sort of pitching won't keep producing resutls forever.
Red Sox 0, Mariners 0, End 4th -- Aaron Cook has a five pitch inning, even with an infield single by Ichiro as Casper Wells immediately follows with a ground ball that turns into a double play. A third ground ball makes it three outs, and eight ground ball outs for Cook on the whole.
Red Sox 0, Mariners 0, Mid 4th -- Dustin Pedroia gets hit to lead off the inning, but once again Noesi lives by the skin of his teeth, with David Ortiz flying out to deep left field and Adrian Gonzalez flies out to center to end the inning.
Red Sox 0, Mariners 0, End 3rd -- Aaron Cook enjoys another quick inning, with two ground balls and a strike out. Not a bad day at the office so far.
Red Sox 0, Mariners 0, Mid 3rd -- The Sox get another baserunner as Ryan Kalish shoots a quick ground ball through the hole to left field. Another line out--this time from Mike Aviles--and a ground ball from Daniel Nava keeps them from making anything more from it.
Red Sox 0, Mariners 0, End 2nd -- Unlike Noesi, Cook's balls-in-play serve as a good sign. Three quick ground balls have the Sox and Mariners through two innings in all of twenty minutes.
Red Sox 0, Mariners 0, Mid 2nd -- Three straight hard-hit fly balls are a good sign for the Red Sox, with Will Middlebrooks even getting to the back of the track in dead center. Unfortunately, nothing gets out or down, leaving the Sox still scoreless.
Red Sox 0, Mariners 0, End 1st -- Aaron Cook responds in kind with a quick bottom of the first, earning a pop-up from Ichiro and ground ball from Casper Wells before Kyle Seager hits a lazy fly to the left field foul line, where Daniel Nava makes a nice basket catch for out number three.
Red Sox 0, Mariners 0, Mid 1st -- The Red Sox get off to a relatively slow start against Hector Noesi, though it's not entirely to his credit. A one-out walk from Dustin Pedroia ends up unfortunately wasted as David Ortiz' hard-hit line but low line drive goes right to the second baseman, leading to a double play.