Offense By Committee: Sox Score Runs In Unexpected Ways, Knock Off Royals

Carl Crawford and Darnell McDonald homered, and Jason Varitek tripled.

That is how three of the six Red Sox runs scored today. Think about that for a minute.

To say the least, Sunday's game was a curious one, the likes of which we can probably not expect to see too often, but one for which we can be thankful given the psychologically significant series win that came from it.

For the first four innings, though, things were pretty ugly. The Sox were facing Danny Duffy, a poor-if-young starter against whom they had scored six runs in under four innings earlier in the year, and doing absolutely nothing against him. Managing just three baserunners through the first four innings--two of which found themselves out after baserunning gaffes--the Sox couldn't put up anything on Duffy until the fifth.

Cue Jed Lowrie infield single, followed by Jason Varitek triple.

And then came the sixth with McDonald's shot.

And then there was the seventh, and Crawford's longball.

Lester, who had successfully worked around an error and a small zone through the first six innings, finally ran into trouble in the seventh inning, giving up a triple, a walk, and an RBI single to start the inning and allow the Royals on the board. But the Sox had just the answer for the suddenly hot Royals, bringing in Daniel Bard to quickly shut down the rally. Four hits--including a big double from Ryan Lavarnway that bounced off the top of the wall (and I do mean the top--it bounced up) missed being a homer by just inches--provided three more runs in the eighth, allowing the Sox to take a comfortable win off the Royals.

They'll head into Texas tomorrow for a possible playoff preview against the Rangers. Oh, God, that means a lot of lefties, doesn't it?