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Loretta Delivers a Ninth Inning Knockout Punch

by Andy Liakos
2006-04-17

Oh happy day.or at least it is in Boston. The Red Sox squeezed out a ninth inning win today against the Seattle Mariners when Mark Loretta went long with a walk-off homerun. Boston found themselves in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, one man on, and down 6-5. And them came Mark Loretta with a monster two-run shot, his first of the season, and as that ball sailed past the wall, so did the Sox to a 7-6 win.

At the plate, David Ortiz once again proved why he is undoubtedly the Red Sox reigning MVP as he hit two homeruns today, while his would-be third was robbed by centerfielder, Ichiro Suzuki. Today marked the 21st time Big Papi has hit two homeruns in a single game, totaling 125 long-balls and 500 hits in a Boston uniform. Varitek knocked in Nixon for a run, and Trot looks to be recovering just fine from his left groin strain, getting three hits today, including a double to start off their eight inning rally.

Lenny DiNardo took the mound today for Boston as a replacement for the injured David Wells. He started off a little shaky, giving up one earned run in each of the first two innings. But he settled down nicely, and ended up retiring 10 of the last 11 batters that he would face. I think the kid looked good, and this just once again shows the true depth of the Red Sox bullpen and their starting rotation. Tito seemed very happy with DiNardo's performance, and it looks like he'll be around for a long while. Trot is back and looking good, David Wells should heal up nicely, Coco's finger shouldn't be a problem much longer, and now all that's left to do is get Manny back in the zone. Manny is just Manny, and for the last ten years, there has not been a more powerful and consistent threat at the plate. The Red Sox are kicking ass without him, so look out AL East when Manny gets back into form, which hopefully won't be too much longer.

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