4 things the Sox did right

Photo Courtesy of the Globe
Conor Federick (@ConorJF1016)
Contributing Writer

4 runs - that counts as doing 4 things right, am I right? But seriously, there were a few things that went right that led to the Red Sox to even up the series at 2 games a piece.

1.) Pulling Clay Buchholz and the right time. Look, Felix Doubront has been outstanding and John Farrell pulled Clay Buchholz at the right time. Clay was not 100% and he went out there and gave us 4 solid innings (although I was wondering if he'd lose it at some point). Instead of leaving Buchholz in and give that a chance to happen, John Farrell went to the vullpen at exactly the right time and didn't give a bad situation any chance to develop.

 2.) Pulling Craig Breslow before the game got away. I was just as worried as anyone when Farrell went to Breslow after Doubront gave up a double with two outs in the 7th. I don't know what's wrong with Breslow, but he has not looked like the same guy who was so important in getting us here. Whatever the case may be, Farrell brought on Junichi Tazawa at the right time before the game got away from us and Taz responded by getting them out of the 7th.

 3.) Bringing in John Lackey as the set up guy. My Twitter feed showed that a lot of people had questions about this move, but John Farrell again looks like a bloody genius with this one. Lackey pitched a great bottom of the 8th, which set the stage perfectly for Koji Uehara. Once Lackey got through the 8th, was there really any doubt that Koji would step up and close it out? Answer is no, there was no question.

Putting Jonny Gomes in the lineup. It seems like every hitter so far has picked their spot to be the hero, even Stephen Drew with his rangey, Hall of fame-esque glove and the sacrifice fly last night to tie the game at 1. But the real hero? Yes, Jonny Gomes. He hit the go-ahead 3-run home run that sealed it. And if you don't follow me on Twitter or you just missed it, I foresaw the home run. Well, maybe not a homer, but I did say Gomes would get a big hit in that spot. Don't believe me? Well here's the tweet from before Jonny Gomes' 6th inning AB.



Still a brilliant move by John Farrell and Gomes came through.

Thoughts? Hit me up on Twitter (@ConorJF1016) or leave a comment. FEAR THE BEARD.

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