Red Sox 7, Phillies 5
WP – Jon Lester (3-3, 3.95)
LP – Joe Blanton (4-4, 3.74)
SV – Alfredo Aceves (9)
PHILADLELPHIA — All winning streaks must come to an end.
The Red Sox got to Joe Blanton early and often, beating the Phillies 7-5 in Philadelphia Saturday night. The loss snapped the Phils six-game winning streak.
It was not Blanton’s day as a pitcher, and even as a fielder. Blanton gave up four homers in five innings, as well as make two errors in the field that extended innings he got shelled in.
It was Blanton’s worst outing of the season, ending a streak of quality starts that has made Blanton a hot topic in this young season.
Boston jumped all over him in the very first at-bat. Mike Aviles led off the game with a solo homer to left field, giving the Sox an early 1-0 lead in the 1st inning.
Blanton gave up two more runs in the 2nd when Blanton mishandled Daniel Nava’s grounder and a double play ball by Jon Lester that made it 3-0.
The Phils got a run back in the 3rd on an RBI double by Shane Victorino to make it 3-1.
But Blanton gave up back-to-back home runs in the 4th inning to Will Middlebrooks and Jarrod Saltalamacchia to make it a 5-1 game.
The Phillies cut into the big lead in the bottom of the 4th thanks to an RBI single by Hector Luna and a two-run home run by Freddy Galvis to make it a 5-4 game. While Galvis was batting, Charlie Manuel had Pete Orr on deck to hit but Galvis’ home run allowed Manuel to pull Galvis back.
With that, Manuel opted to go with Blanton for the 5th inning, costing the Phillies dearly as he surrendered a two-run home run to dead center to David Ortiz, making it a 7-4 game.
The Phils blew a handful of scoring opportunities the rest of the way, the biggest coming in the 8th inning. After Jimmy Rollins legged out an infield single to drive in a run, the Phils managed to load the bases for Victorino with two outs. But Victorino flew out to left field, ending the scoring threat.
The Phils tried to get one more rally going in the 9th but it failed. Pence lead off with a single but Carlos Ruiz lined into a double play. Ty Wigginton then singled but Luna struck out to end the game.
2B: Victorino (6). HR: Galvis (3).
TTB 