The Red Sox finally took a 6-4 win off the Minnesota Twins Sunday afternoon as Franklin Morales threw six solid innings in his return to the rotation.
It was a slow start for both sides in the first couple of innings, though Franklin Morales had to throw a good few pitches to escape the first. Nick Blackburn, meanwhile, worked around singles from Carl Crawford in the first and Will Middlebrooks in the second.
The Sox would break the scoreless tie in the third, as Mike Aviles and Jacoby Ellsbury led off the inning with a single and double respectively, scoring on a ground ball out from Carl Crawford and single from Dustin Pedroia.
The Twins would get one back in the fifth, scoring as Alexi Casilla scored on a sacrifice fly after a leadoff walk, but the Sox responded loudly in the bottom half of the inning. After another Carl Crawford base hit, Adrian Gonzalez took an outside fastball and went with it, hitting an opposite-field shot over the Monster that made it 4-1, Red Sox.
Boston was able to add a pair of runs between the seventh and eighth on sacrifice flies that must, at the time, have seemed like luxuries. Ultimately, though, they'd need the 6-1 lead they were given heading into the ninth. With Craig Breslow inexplicably replaced by Vicente Padilla in the ninth after recording just the last out in the eighth, the Twins quickly rallied. A leadoff homer from Josh Willingham made it 6-2, and after a walk to Justin Morneau, Ryan Doumit got ahead 3-0. Padilla would grove the next three pitches over the plate, the first two being taken for strikes, the third being launched deep to right for a two-run shot.
Thankfully, Alfredo Aceves was up to the task of a legitimate save this time around. Now working with just a two-run lead, Aceves recorded three runs where Vicente Padilla could record none, leaving the Sox 6-4 winners and saving them from the embarrassment of a sweep.
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