Game 111: Diamondbacks at Red Sox - #WalkOffCity taking over Boston

Ben Whitehead
Contributing Writer

It’s hard to put into words how this Boston Red Sox team continues to win games. Thursday night’s magical comeback, as manager John Farrell termed it, turned Fenway Park into a madhouse. The Red Sox (66-44) trailed 7-1 going into the eighth inning before scoring seven runs over the final two frames to sweep the Seattle Mariners. The walk-off win was Boston’s second of the day – defeating Seattle in 15 innings in the previous game which ended beyond midnight – and the 11th of the season, the most in the Majors. It also has earned Boston the moniker #WalkOffCity on the interwebs, a play on #DunkCity, the term used to describe Florida Gulf Coast’s basketball team during its run in the NCAA Tournament. FGCU is in Ft. Myers, Fla., the home of Spring Training for the Red Sox.

Tonight, the Sox welcome the Arizona Diamondbacks (55-53) to the friendly confines. Arizona has made a few trips to Fenway previously with the Red Sox holding a 5-4 advantage, most recently sweeping the D-backs in June 2010. Jon Lester takes the ball for Game 1 of the series and looks to continue his recent string of success since the break. Lester is 10-6 with a 4.27 ERA on the year and is 2-0 since the All-Star Game, having given up two earned runs in 13.1 innings with 16 strikeouts.

Here is the lineup for the Red Sox tonight (first pitch – 7:10 pm EDT):

1. Ellsbury, CF
2. Victorino, RF
3. Pedroia, 2B
4. Ortiz, DH
5. Napoli, 1B
6. Nava, LF
7. Saltalamacchia, C
8. Drew, SS
9. Holt, 3B

 Lester, P

Hashtag Walk-Off City
Here’s the Red Sox Twitter feed having some fun with #WalkOffCity




Rotation set for the weekend
After Lester tonight, new addition Jake Peavy will make his Red Sox debut Saturday. Felix Doubront will start the series finale Sunday afternoon and in all likelihood, John Lackey will start the road-trip opener at Houston Monday with Ryan Dempster to follow Tuesday. If and when the Red Sox get Clay Buchholz back, Farrell will have a decision to make: either bump someone from the rotation to the pen for long relief (likely Dempster) or move to a six-man rotation, providing an extra day of rest for each starter before the playoffs.

Mini-season 11 complete
Yes, we are through another 10 games. And yes, the Red Sox came out with another winning record. In mini-season 11, Boston went 6-4, upping it’s total of winnings mini-seasons to nine. There has been one even (5-5) record and one under .500 (3-7). Here’s how the Sox have done in their 10-game mini-seasons:

1) 6-4
2) 7-3
3) 7-3
4) 3-7
5) 7-3
6) 6-4
7) 6-4
8) 5-5
9) 7-3
10) 6-4
11) 6-4

Also, the Sox wrapped up July with a 15-10 record, their third winning month this season. The Tampa Bay Rays went 21-5 to climb within a half-game of Boston at the end of July, which has since been pushed to one full game after last night’s walk-off. Here is the month-by-month breakdown:

Month – record (overall record)
April – 18-8
May – 15-15 (33-23)
June – 17-11 (50-34)
July – 15-10 (65-44)

Let us know what you think about tonight’s game by commenting below.

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