“Axe” made his first start wearing #33 after Brett Myers took #39. Credit: Yahoo!
After dropping the first two games of the 4-game set in Baltimore, the Sox needed a couple things to go their way on Wednesday night for them to get in the win column on their current 7-game road trip: Dylan Axelrod had to step up and do his thing and the offense had to be much more timely than they’d been in the last couple games.
Luckily for us, both of those came to fruition.
After getting shut out Tuesday night, the offense came alive quickly against Joe Saunders as he made his first start as a member of the Baltimore Orioles. Alex Rios and Alexei Ramirez both had big 2-RBI base knocks, as the Sox took a 4-0 lead before the O’s even came to bat.
The Sox added four more runs periodically throughout the contest, as several hitters had pretty nice games …
- Adam Dunn: 1-3, 2 BB
- Dayan Viciedo: 2-4, RBI
- Alexei Ramirez: 3-4, 2 R, 2 RBI
- Gordon Beckham: 3-4, 3 RBI
The most important part of the Sox jumping out to an early lead was the “vote of confidence,” if you will, that it gave Dylan Axelrod. He didn’t have to pitch defensively from the get-go, which proved to be key. “Axe” pitched one of his best games in the big leagues, going 7.1 innings and only letting up 3 hits and 1 ER. But what was most encouraging was that he looked veryconfident in doing so. He attacked hitters, stuck to his game plan in each & every at bat, and came out on top.
Ventura didn’t have too many tough decisions to make. Credit: Yahoo!
Axelrod doesn’t have the pure stuff or ability to get by with much luck, but when he executes as much as he did Wednesday nights, he’s perfectly capable of being a productive major league starter. With probably about three starts left to be filled while Gavin Floyd is on the disabled list, most assume manager Robin Ventura will just take it game-by-game to see which option is best. Axelrod certainly helped his case to get at least one more start with his rather dominant start at Camden Yards. Mr. Peanut definitely “had it” tonight.
After Axelrod departed from the game, Donnie Veal pitched a perfect inning and Nate Jones came on to make the last out.
It will be interesting to see what Ventura does nonetheless because the next time this spot comes up is against the Minnesota Twins, and we all know lefties match up better against them … so don’t rule out Hector Santiago getting some consideration for that ball game.
The Sox’ll go for the series split tomorrow behind Jose Quintana, who looks to keep building upon his impressive rookie campaign against the O’s Zach Britton, who beat the Sox in his 1 start against them back in 2011. “Q School” has never faced the Orioles.