Sunday, April 23, 2006

Toronto 8, Sox 1

Behind a fill-in starter in the dreaded day-game-after-an-extra-inning-night-game Saturday, the Sox fell behind early and never got anything going. Terry Francona let most of the regulars watch the carnage from the bench.

Coming off a tough, 12-inning loss the night before, Francona rested Jason Varitek, Mike Lowell and Alex Gonzalez. Jonathan Papelbon was unavailable yesterday. Manny Ramirez played five and a half innings and Trot Nixon played six.

Lenny DiNardo, making his second start in place of injured David Wells (knee), gave up seven runs on 10 hits in three innings of work. He started the fourth but was pulled after giving up two singles to start the inning. Reliever Jermaine Van Buren gave up a two-run triple to Vernon Wells and let Toronto runners steal three bases behind him before J.T. Snow helped him out of the inning by leaping to snare a shot by Bengie Molina.

However, Van Buren then settled down, pitching a perfect fifth and giving up only a single in the sixth, to Reed Johnson, who was quickly erased on a double play.

The Sox's lone display of offense came in the fourth, when Manny Ramirez singled and Trot Nixon doubled him home. Toronto, however, had 13 hits. Vernon Wells had three of those hits, Troy Glaus doubled in two runs and Molina hit a two-run homer.

The only bright spot may have been the defensive play of SS Alex Cora. Cora turned a couple of nifty double plays when the game was out of hand.

The Sox are 1-4 against Toronto this season, and the Blue Jays have scored an average of nearly seven runs in those 5 games.

The Sox hope Matt Clement (1-1, 7.00) can reverse those trends today. He faces Josh Towers (0-3, 9.24), who took the loss in the Sox's only win against Toronto this season.

After Saturday's game, the Sox recalled RHP Manny Delcarmen from the Pawsox and optioned Van Buren to Pawtucket.

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