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Hurricane Irene Can’t Finish Red Sox From Finishing Athletics in Game 1

We all knew we were in for some crazy action with Hurricane Irene forcing a double header Saturday. With the rains coming in and causing multiple delays, Boston still handled their business in Game 1, easily defeating the Oakland Athletics 9-3.

Dustin Pedroia started the scoring with an RBI single in the 1st inning; he was out trying to stretch his hit into a double, but not before the run had time to score. Jon Lester promptly gave up a lead-off home run three pitches into the 2nd, but Boston promptly scored three more times in their half of the frame, twice on a home run by Jason Varitek.

The funny thing about it was that Jacoby Ellsbury was “called out” on strikes, despite the obvious fact that the pitch in question only resulted in the second strike. Umpire Marvin Hudson promptly corrected himself and we’ll all enjoy the replays on SportsCenter’s “Not Top 10.” Ellsbury doubled in Boston’s fourth run on the next pitch.

A fielding error by Marco Scutaro followed by three stolen bases (including a double steal) led to an unearned run to make it 4-2 Boston, but two doubles, a walk and a sac fly in Boston’s half of the inning made it 7-2.

Mike Aviles added another run in the 4th after singling (one of three on the day) and stealing second before being knocked home by Scutaro. David Ortiz added another run to make it 9-2 in the 5th once the Sox made some noise following his lead-off double.

When Lester was warming up for the 7th, that’s when the rain started coming down. Two of his warm-up pitches flew to the backstop, and the tarp was brought out. Dan Wheeler came in for Lester 45 minutes later after the rain let up.

Once the 7th was completed, the rain started up again, and quite strongly at that. The second delay of the game lasted two hours and fifteen minutes. From there, it was a simple matter for Michael Bowden to finish off the last two innings. Oakland did make some noise in the 9th, loading the bases with two outs and then singling in one more run, but a deep fly out to right field finally ended the game from a rain-soaked Fenway Park.

Sox’ Stud of the Game: Jason Varitek

The captain’s home run really killed any chance Oakland had of developing any kind of momentum, and knocked in two of ‘Tek’s three RBIs over two hits in the game.

Sox’ Dud of the Game: Carl Crawford

Crawford was the only member of the team to not get on the base path in Game 1. Josh Reddick didn’t have a hit either, but at least he drew a walk and scored.

Terry’s Take:

“Our production out of our catching has been tremendous.” – Terry Francona on Varitek’s home run and the catching at large this season.

Game Notes:

W: Jon Lester (14-6)
L: Guillermo Moscoso (6-8)

• Guillermo Moscoso was forced from the game after four innings and 93 pitches.
• The 13th rain-delayed game of Boston’s season resulted in 3:00 of delays over two intervals.
• Game 2 is set to begin at 6:50pm.
• Oakland has two off days left in the season, not including the extra day between season’s end and playoff’s beginning or Sunday. Re-scheduling the game for a later date would be quite tedious travel-wise, so look for them to go well past midnight if need be.
• Fenway Park Weather

Tags: Carl Crawford, Dan Wheeler, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jason Varitek, Jon Lester, Josh Reddick, Marco Scutaro, Michael Bowden, Mike Aviles, Oakland Athletics, Red Sox, Terry Francona