The Red Sox have extended their lead to 4-1 after three innings in Game 2 of the ALDS thanks to some good--or lucky--placement.
While John Lackey settled down very nicely in the top of the third, striking out two batters in a 1-2-3 frame, David Price couldn't keep the Red Sox from tacking on another couple of runs. To be fair to Tampa's top southpaw, however, it was not entirely a matter of bad pitching. While he did miss a spot to David Ross to start the inning, Ross' high fly ball that scraped the Monster in left was a textbook Fenway double. And the RBI double from Jacoby Ellsbury?
Well, this is just baseball being baseball:
Jacoby Ellsbury has two hits contributing to three Boston runs tonight, and neither one of them has been hit hard enough to more than stun a bird. The third of those runs, by the way, came after Shane Victorino moved Ellsbury to third with a single and then took out Ben Zobrist on a Dustin Pedroia fielder's choice.
David Price is still hanging in there. And, frankly, that may have been his best-pitched inning of the night. But the ed Sox are up 4-1 and John Lackey seems to have shaken off the rust from his 10-day layoff.