Red Sox 7, Indians 2

This wasn't much of a game. The Sox were on the right side of a starting pitcher imploding in Ubaldo Jimenez. He gave up 5 walks and 2 hits in the 2nd inning before being pulled for Cody Allen. Mike Napoli hit a bases clearing double to make it 7-0 in the 2nd. The Sox didn't score another run in the remaining 7 1/3 innings and the Tribe couldn't overcome such a huge deficit.

With such a substantial lead in the second inning, Felix Doubront managed to muddle through 5 innings, gave up 4 hits, 4 walks and 2 earned runs with 7 strikeouts. After five innings his pitch count had already climbed to 104. He gave one run back in the second when he allowed a leadoff single to Nick Swisher. Swisher would advance to third on a single by Brantley and score on a Mike Aviles sacrifice fly. Doubront really struggled in his last inning of work in the 5th. He was in a bases loaded one out jam because of two singles and a walk. He allowed a run to score from third on a passed ball and then gave up another walk to reload the bases with two outs. Doubront got the next out to end the inning and limit the damage to 1 run.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: C+

The Sox Bullpen had it's work cut out for it with 4 remaining innings to eat, but had a 5 run cushion as well. Clayton Mortensen ate two of those innings without giving up a run. He looked a little shaky in the 6th allowing a leadoff single and a two out walk, but he got the out and then pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 7th. Alex Wilson came on for the 8th and 9th innings. This was Wilson's second appearance in the majors, he made his debut last Thursday in the 3-2 loss to Baltimore where he pitched one inning, allowed a leadoff walk, got two outs on a double play and struck out the last batter. The exact same thing happened in the 8th last night as Wilson gave a leadoff walk to Reynolds, Brantley hit into a double play and then he struck out Mike Aviles. In the 9th Wilson got two ground outs before giving up a single and recording another ground out to mercifully end this game.
BULLPEN GRADE: B+

It feels strange to complain about the Red Sox offense that chased the starter from the game after 1 2/3 and put up 7 runs in the second inning, but I feel like Jimenez did a lot of the work for them. It's hard not to score some runs when he walks 5 batters in an inning. Mike Napoli was essential to the run scoring in the second, coming up with a leadoff double and followed up with a back breaking 3-run bases clearing double off of Cody Allen. After the second inning it was like the Sox mentally had already finished this game despite the fact that there was still 7 innings to play. They struck out 15 times against the Cleveland bullpen and couldn't get a hit off of Nick Hagadone, Rich Hill or Bryan Shaw. The only reason base runners made it past first base for the remainder of the game was due to walks and subsequent wild pitches.
HITTING GRADE: B