A
AALARD
Guest
MLB: Boston 2, Seattle 1
SEATTLE, Bill Hall hit a go-ahead homer in the seventh Friday and the Boston Red Sox avoided the kind of ninth-inning meltdown they had Thursday to hold off Seattle 2-1.
Jonathan Papelbon worked his way out of trouble in the ninth, one night after Boston surrendered five ninth-inning runs before finally defeating Seattle 8-6 in 13 innings.
Hall's 10th homer of the season came off Mariners' starter Jason Vargas (6-5). That made a winner out of Scott Atchison (2-1), who worked 1 1/3 innings in relief of Josh Beckett.
Beckett, making his first appearance since May 18 after recovering from lower back problems, allowed a run on five hits over 5 2/3 innings.
Papelbon came on to protect the one-run lead in the ninth and quickly retired the first two batters. Jack Wilson then doubled and Boston Manager Terry Francona ordered Papelbon to intentionally walk Ichiro Suzuki, thus putting the winning run on base.
That move paid off when Papelbon struck out Josh Wilson swinging to end the game. It was Papelbon's 22nd save.
SEATTLE, Bill Hall hit a go-ahead homer in the seventh Friday and the Boston Red Sox avoided the kind of ninth-inning meltdown they had Thursday to hold off Seattle 2-1.
Jonathan Papelbon worked his way out of trouble in the ninth, one night after Boston surrendered five ninth-inning runs before finally defeating Seattle 8-6 in 13 innings.
Hall's 10th homer of the season came off Mariners' starter Jason Vargas (6-5). That made a winner out of Scott Atchison (2-1), who worked 1 1/3 innings in relief of Josh Beckett.
Beckett, making his first appearance since May 18 after recovering from lower back problems, allowed a run on five hits over 5 2/3 innings.
Papelbon came on to protect the one-run lead in the ninth and quickly retired the first two batters. Jack Wilson then doubled and Boston Manager Terry Francona ordered Papelbon to intentionally walk Ichiro Suzuki, thus putting the winning run on base.
That move paid off when Papelbon struck out Josh Wilson swinging to end the game. It was Papelbon's 22nd save.