 Boston one win away from World Series-championship
Nederlands
 ST. LOUIS, Missouri (USA) -
The Boston Red Sox is one victory away from the World Series-title.
On Monday-evening (October 28), the BoSox won Game 5 of the best-of-seven final vs. St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1.
Jon Lester and Koji Uehara combined on a 4-hitter and were backed with nine basehits.
Dutch National Team-player Xander Bogaerts started a 2-run rally in the seventh inning and scored the go-ahead run.
Boston now leads the World Series 3-2 and needs one more victory to claim the championship.
The Series now returns to Boston, where Game 6 will be played on Wednesday-evening.
Boston again played without Shane Victorino tonight.
Due to stiffness in his lower back, Victorino was scratched from the starting line-up 90 minutes before the start of Game 4 on Sunday and he was sidelined again tonight.
Jonny Gomes, who took over in leftfield for Victorino on Sunday, contributed with a 3-run homerun to lead Boston to a victory.
Gomes again was the leftfielder in Game 5.
Tonight, the Red Sox opened the score in the first inning.
St. Louis-starter Adam Wainwright began with a strikeout, but then gave up back-to-back doubles to Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz, that brought in a run.
But Ortiz stranded, as Wainwright then struckout Jonny Gomes and Daniel Nava.
Wainwright then also struckout Xander Bogaerts, Stephen Drew and David Ross in the second at bat and also retired the side in the third.
In the fourth, the righthander gave up a lead-off single to Ortiz.
But after a flyout, Wainwright was supported with an inning-ending double play.
In the fifth, Wainwright got some more traffic on the bases, but again gave up no additional runs.
He gave up a lead-off single to Xander Bogaerts, who then advanced on an one-out single by David Ross.
But the two were left behind when Wainwright added two more strikeouts.
Boston-starter Jon Lester retired the side in the first inning.
He then gave up a lead-off single to Carlos Beltran in the second inning, but like Wainwright, he also was supported with an inning-ending double play after he had struckout Yadier Molina.
In the bottom of the third inning, Lester gave up a lead-off single to David Freese, who then advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Pete Kozma.
But Lester also had a strong outing and ended the at bat by striking out his colleague Adam wainwright and then also Matt Carpenter.
In the fourth, Lester began with another strikeout, but then gave up a homerun to Matt Holliday that tied the score.
Wainwright and Lester both retired the side in the sixth inning.
The second out in the top of the sixth was David Ortiz, who lined out to centerfielder Shane Robinson.
By doing so, Ortiz ended a streak of reaching base in nine consecutive plate appeances.
With that, Ortiz tied a World Series-record, which he now shares with Joe Gordon (1939-1941) and Billy Hatcher (1990).
The BoSox then re-took the lead in the top of the seventh inning.
It was Aruban Xander Bogaerts, who set a 2-run rally into motion that gave Boston a 3-1 lead.
After Wainwright had struckout Daniel Nava, Bogaerts singled and Stephen Drew walked.
Bogaerts then scored the go-ahead run when David Ross followed with a ground-rule double.
With two outs, Jacoby Ellsbury singled to bring in Drew, but Ross was eliminated at the plate when he also tried to score.
But the throw from centerfielder Shane Robinson to catcher Yadier Molina was in time to tag out Ross and end the inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, Jon Lester retired the side.
In the top of the eighth inning, Carlos Martinez took over the pitching for Wainwright.
With one out, he gave up the third basehit in the game by David Ortiz, but then two outs followed.
Ortiz also collected three basehits in Game 4.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Cards left a runner in scoring position.
With one out, David Freese doubled, then closer Koji Uehara was brought in with two outs to face pinch-hitter Matt Adams and he struck him out to end the inning.
Cardinals-closer Trevor Rosenthal took the mound in the ninth inning and did a great job by striking out Xander Bogaerts, Stephen Drew and David Ross.
But Uehara continued the strong Boston-pitching in the bottom of the ninth at bat.
The Japanese righthander struckout Matt Carpenter, got pinch-hitter Jon Jay to ground out and end the game when Matt Holliday flied out.
With this, Uehara retired all four batters he faced and earned a save.
(October 28)
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