Red Sox lefthander Jon Lester outdueled the Phillies’ Joe Blanton but that classic duel became a distant memory as 1st baseman Ryan Howard clubbed a game-tying solo homer in the ninth to send the game to extra innings.  But after reliever Kyle Kendrick retired the side on 10 pitches in the twelfth inning, Manager Manuel brought him back for the thirteeth and paid for it dearly.  Centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury broke the 2-2 deadlock with a single to rightfield of of Kendrick driving in Boston’s 3rd run on Friday as the Red Sox beat the Phillies by a 5-2 score with 3 thirteenth inning runs.

Depsite the loss, the Phils maintained their 4 game lead over the Mets who blew 6-3 and 8-7 leads in dropping their inter-league series opener with the crosstown inter-league rival Yankees in a 9-8 slugfest.

Kendrick was added to the Phillies roster earlier in the day on Friday replacing lefthanded reliever Scott Eyre who the Phillies announced was placed on disabled list with left calf strain.

The Phillies scored first in the game in the second inning as leftfielder  Raul Ibanez led off with a single to rightfield and centerfielder Shane Victorino followed with a double to leftfield putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with none out.  3rd baseman Pedro Feliz grounded out to 3rd base as Ibanez scored the run.  But Lester quickly retired the side in the second enroute to retiring 18 of the final 19 batters he faced, 14 of them consecutively, in the game.  Lester threw 111 pitches giving up the run on 2 hits while walking 2 and striking out 11. 

Phillies hitters struck out a total of 20 times for the game with 2nd baseman Chase Utley, rightfielder Jayson Werth and 1st baseman Ryan Howard accounting for 10 of them, Howard collecting 4 himself.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox took a 2-1 lead as 3rd baseman Kevin Youkilis reached Blanton for a leadoff game-tying rightfield homer in the fourth inning and rightfielder J.D. Drew put the BoSox in the lead with a 2 out homer off Blanton to leftfield in the sixth.

Blanton pitched a typical Blanton game, bending but not breaking.  He threw 112 pitches giving up 2 runs, both on homers, 5 hits while walking 2 and striking out 7.   Blanton and the bullpen kept the Phils in the game, but the offense couldn’t produce.

When both starters left after seven innings, both bullpens, particularly the Phillies’ pen, tightened up the rest of the way until the thirteenth inning. 5 Phillie relievers, including Kendrick, struck out another 7 hitters and allowed but 3 BoSox hitters to reach through the twelfth inning.

After Kendrick made short work of the Red Sox in the twelfth, manager Charlie Manuel brought him back for the thirteenth even though he had  Chad Durbin and lefthander Jack Taschner still available for duty in the bullpen.  As a result, Kendrick was tagged with the loss in his 1st MLB appearance of 2009.

AP Sports Writer Rob Maddi describes Howard’s game-tying ninth inning homer and recaps the Red Sox thirteenth inning for Yahoo sports:

With Jonathan Papelbon unavailable after saving consecutive wins against the New York Yankees the last two nights, the Red Sox turned to [Ramon] Ramirez to protect a 2-1 lead. Ramirez struck out Jayson Werth before Howard connected, sending a long drive to the seats in right for his 19th homer.

Pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs nearly won it for the Phillies in the 11th, but his long drive to right hooked foul at the last second. Manager Charlie Manuel came out to discuss it, but there was no replay.

“He said he stayed on it all the way and it was foul,” Manuel said, referring to his conversation with first-base umpire Jim Joyce.

 Jason Bay and pinch-hitter Julio Lugo started Boston’s winning rally with consecutive one-out singles off Kyle Kendrick (0-1). After Kendrick walked [Jason] Varitek to load the bases, Ellsbury lined a single to right.  Nick Green followed with a sacrifice fly and Mike Lowell added an RBI single to make it 5-2.

Takashi Saito (2-0) got the only batter he faced, Jimmy Rollins, to bounce into a double play to end the 12th.

Daniel Bard pitched a scoreless thirteenth to notch his first save.  He walked 1 hitter and hit another in the while striking out 2 as the potential tying run came to the plate.  But Bard fanned Victorino to strike out the side to end it.

After the game, Phillies Nation informs that the Phils announced that Kendrick was sent back down to Triple A with Sergio Escalona being called up in his place.

For all of the scores of Friday’s games, click here.

In Saturday’s game 2, young lefthander Antonio Bastardo, who has looked so good in winning his first 2 MLB starts, is opposed by Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka as the Phillies try to knot the series at 1-1.

In Sunday’s series final, young undefeated lefthander J.A. Happ is opposed by Josh Beckett.

For all of Saturday’s and Sunday’s games, click here and here.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 6:25 pm and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.