Shortstop Nick Green Pitches for Red Sox

Down 9-0 after four innings, the Boston Red Sox soon figured out that pulling out a win against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday wasn’t going to be possible. To save their short-handed bullpen, manager Terry Francona turned to shortstop Nick Green to pitch the final two innings for the Red Sox.

And all things considered, Green ended up doing a great job. In his two innings of work, he walked three but gave up no hits and no runs. After the ballgame, Green said he hadn’t pitched in nearly a dozen years. The last time the 30-year-old pitched was in junior college.

Said Green: “I didn’t know what to expect.”

Junichi Tazawa, the rookie starter for the Red Sox, wishes he had Green’s success. Instead, the native of Japan gave up nine earned runs in four innings to raise his ERA to 6.65.

With the win, the White Sox evened their record at 64-64 and are now 4 games behind the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central. The Red Sox, on the other hand, now trail the New York Yankees by 6 games in the AL East and lead the Texas Rangers in the AL Wild Card race by only 1.5 games.