Scary moment the focus after big Cubs rally

BOSTON — On throwback night, the Red Sox threw one back to the Cubs.

In fact, they threw the ball pretty much all over the place in the eighth inning, when the Cubs scored 8 runs to rally from a 3-1 deficit and post a 9-3 victory at Fenway Park as both teams wore vintage early 1900s uniforms.

The Red Sox did all they could to help the Cubs, committing 3 errors in the inning.

The Cubs needed a victory and a dose of good news on a night when they got some more bad injury news.

First, they learned that pitcher Matt Garza won’t be able to start Sunday night because of tightness in his right elbow.

Things got downright scary in the second inning, when Marlon Byrd was hit flush in the face with a pitch from Boston starter Alfredo Aceves.

Byrd was able to walk off the field with help from the trainer, but he had a nasty gash under his left eye. He was taken to a local medical center, where he was likely to spend the night for observation. The Cubs did not have a diagnosis of Byrd’s injury after the game.

“A good win, lots of good stuff happened, I can’t get Marlon off my mind,” said manager Mike Quade. “Hopefully people a lot smarter than me are making good decisions and taking care of him … This is serious stuff.”

Byrd was the second Cubs batter hit by Aceves. Kosuke Fukudome was hit leading off the game. Quade said he didn’t believe the Byrd beaning was intentional. That doesn’t mean he liked it.

“I don’t think it was intentional, but that doesn’t necessarily make it right,” Quade said. “I’ll worry about Marlon now and worry about the rest of that later.”

Cubs starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano hit Boston’s Kevin Youkilis in the backside with a pitch in the fifth inning. That prompted a warning from the umpires. Zambrano noted that there was a man on base and out one at the time.

“I was trying to pitch him in,” Zambrano said. “In that situation, I’m looking for a groundball and a double play. I don’t want to hit somebody with a man on base and Big Papi (David Ortiz) coming up and two lefties coming up and one out.

“If I’m trying to hit somebody, I normally hit somebody with two outs and nobody on. Unfortunately, it looked like I was trying to hit him on purpose because they hit Marlon. It wasn’t the case at all.”

Byrd is a popular teammate, and Zambrano said he was worried about him.

“I came up (to the clubhouse) every inning when I was pitching and asked the trainer, Mark O’Neal, ‘How was Marlon?’” Zambrano said. “He said he’s at the hospital. Tomorrow, we will know, and I will put him in my prayers.”

As far as pitching went, Zambrano gutted out 5⅔ innings and 122 pitches. He gave up a 2-run homer to Ortiz in the fourth that put the Red Sox ahead 2-1. The Cubs needed some innings from Zambrano because it will be all hands on deck Sunday night, when James Russell starts in place of Garza.

“Z was fantastic,” Quade said. “He worked his (butt) off through a tough lineup and gave us exactly what we needed. The bullpen picked him up. What an eighth inning, on a lot of different levels.”