BOSTON -- Red Sox reliever Brad Ziegler got his first matchup against his former teammates in a tight spot -- bases loaded and nobody out in the eighth inning.Ten pitches and three strikeouts later, he walked back to the dugout with a three-run lead intact.I was doing what I could just to stay relaxed and calm on the mound, Ziegler said after Boston beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-3 on Saturday night.Even warming up, seeing the scenario unfold, trying to not get the adrenaline too high, the side-arming righty said. If it does, I tend to start missing with my pitches and not throwing them where I want. I was able to do that.Ziegler, acquired last month from Arizona, saved what could have been a rough inning after Matt Barnes walked three straight batters.He struck out the side in a crucial moment, Boston manager John Farrell said. A big lift in that particular inning.Brock Holt hit a two-run homer and Sandy Leon had a solo shot for the Red Sox. Rookie Andrew Benintendi and Dustin Pedroia each had two hits and drove in a run for Boston, which won its second straight after losing four of five.Michael Bourn had two singles and an RBI for the Diamondbacks. They had won four of five.Bases loaded nobody out, youre down three and you want to at least get a couple there, Arizona manager Chip Hale said. But he did a nice job. Weve seen him do it (with us).Robbie Ross Jr. (2-2) worked an inning of relief for the win after starter Clay Buchholz gave up three runs over 4 1/3 innings in a spot start. Craig Kimbrel worked the ninth for his 19th save.Archie Bradley (4-8) allowed six runs -- four earned -- in 5 1/3 innings.Demoted to the bullpen twice this season, Buchholz made his first start since early July on the eve of his 32nd birthday because knuckleballer Steven Wright was scratched on Thursday after jamming his pitching shoulder diving back into second during an interleague game.Trailing 3-1 in the fifth, the Red Sox charged ahead with three runs that were keyed by right fielder Socrates Brito misplaying a flyball for an error. Leon hooked his homer around the Pesky Pole, Benintendi had an RBI double off the Green Monster after Holt reached on the error and Mookie Betts grounder bounced over third baseman Jake Lamb for an RBI single.Holt homered over Bostons bullpen to make it 6-3 and chased Bradley in the sixth.Arizona had moved ahead by scoring twice in the fourth and once in the fifth.Buchholz held the Diamondbacks hitless until Bourns one-out single in the fourth. Bourn later scored on a groundout and Rickie Weeks Jr. added an RBI single, making it 2-1. Bourn had an RBI single in the fifth.TRAINERS ROOMDiamondbacks: Hale said the club hopes to learn more about RHP Rubby De La Rosas injury after he was sent for an MRI on Friday. The righty has been on the DL after elbow inflammation since May 26.Red Sox: 2B Pedroia was back in the starting lineup after leaving Fridays game with flu-like symptoms. ... CF Jackie Bradley Jr. was out, both nursing a sore big toe after fouling a ball off his foot a couple of games ago and resting after playing 110 of the clubs 114 games. ... Farrell said Wright threw again Saturday, but hes not completely symptom free and the next step will be on Monday.THAT WAS NICEPedroia went behind second base in the seventh to snag Jean Seguras grounder and flipped it from his glove to SS Xander Bogaerts, who fired to first to complete a DP.UP NEXTDiamondbacks: RHP Zack Greinke (11-3, 3.67 ERA) looks to continue his solid run in the series finale on Sunday. Hes 8-0 with a 2.47 ERA in his last 10 starts.Red Sox: RHP Rick Porcello (15-3, 3.40) hopes to continue his startling success this season in Fenway Park on Sunday. The righty is looking to become the first Red Sox pitcher since Dave Boo Ferriss in 1946 to win his first 12 decisions in a season at home. Ferriss went 13-0 at Fenway that year. Custom Football Jerseys Online . Haas said he "felt a lot of pain" in his right shoulder when he slammed his racket to the ground in frustration after losing his serve at 3-3 in the first set. Discount Custom Football Jerseys . 8 Kansas to a 64-63 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The freshman from Vaughan, Ont. http://www.customjerseysfootball.com/ . Durant finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds, Jackson matched his career high with 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting and Lamb scored 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, lifting the Thunder to a 94-88 win over San Antonio and snapping the Spurs 11-game winning streak. Wholesale Custom Football Jerseys . Halladay signed a one-day contract with the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday that allowed the veteran right-hander to retire as a member of team with which he broke into the majors and spent the bulk of his distinguished 16-year career. Wholesale Custom Jerseys From China .com) - The Pittsburgh Penguins placed forward James Neal on injured reserve Tuesday. Pakistan cant win this Test series.Recent results suggest it, logic confirms it and history guarantees itConsider their lead-in as a form guide: a two-Test hammering by New Zealand in conditions far closer to those in Australia than those of the UAE. In Christchurch and Hamilton, the much-lauded Pakistan seam attack was outseamed by those pesky Kiwis and their batsmen were befuddled by the moving ball. Only three Pakistan batsmen - Babar Azam, Azhar Ali and Sami Aslam - managed to pass 50. None of them made it to a century. Yasir Shah, one of their most potent and reliable weapons, was neutralized in the first Test, didnt play the second and left the country wicketless.Even Misbah-ul-Haq admits, We also have a little bit of disadvantage of not playing well in the previous few games.Of course Pakistan cant win. Too many players over the hill.Consider the age factor: six of those who took to the field in New Zealand have celebrated their 30th birthday while only one Australian, David Warner, has blown out those many candles. Younis Khan and Misbah probably barely remember passing that milestone, for it was so long ago. Australia is no country for old men, as they say, and Mitchell Starc will surely be testing the aging reflexes of the old codgers with a barrage of head-high missiles.Misbah knows this, too. Youth brings a lot to the team and give you energy. They might be more determined to perform well.First Test at the Gabba? One-nil advantage to Australia, guaranteed.Consider the record: for 28 years, visiting teams have flung every weapon in their arsenal at the walls of fortress Gabba, only to fall back, defeated by Australias impregnable defences. Such is their aura in Brisbane that there were cries of disbelief when Cricket Australia moved the first Test of the summer to the WACA.As if they had stuck pins in voodoo dolls dressed up as Australian players and doomed them to defeat before the series had begun. But for this series, all confidence has been restored and Australia have the added advantage of playing back-to-back Tests with the pink ball.The enormity of the task isnt lost on Misbah. It is not only the Gabba conditions but also the pink ball, day-night Test match. The players are not that much familiar with the pink ball and these conditions. That could be a challenge, especially under lights. It is always a challenge when you come to play in Australia, our sort of cricket, because these conditions are totally different from the rest of the world. Theres a bit more bounce and pace here.As if this Pakistan side could possibly achieve what has eluded all teams from the sub-continent. Consider the history - no Asian team has ever won a series in Australia. Ever. Pakistan has won a miserly total of four Tests here. Two of those victories were in dead rubbers and none have come since 1995. They blew their chance of winning a series on Australian soil in 1999-00. They didnt succeed in the late 70s. They couldnt win with Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, with Imran Khan or Javed Miandad. Surely, only in bizarro world could this team break that hoodoo.Misbah can hardly be ignorant that history is against him.And yet…Is there any team that can turn logic on its head better than Pakistan? Time and again, they have proved to be predictably unpredictable. They can collapse when the game is in the bag and conjure victory when defeat seems more than a foregone conclusion. Their fans are used to wondering which Pakistan has turned up on any given day. In many ways, Misbahs Pakistan has evolved, gaining more consistency and, subsequently, improved results. But they retain the ability to surprise, to shock and, occasionally to infuriate. It is what has often made them one of crickets more entertaining sides.But, that New Zealand drubbing?It is, perhaps, dangerous to take too much from the series loss in New Zealand. It would have been years since any of the older Pakistan players had encountered the kind of surfaces prepared for those two Tests; for the younger players it may have been akin to batting and bowling on Mars. Their sole warm-up match was rained off and the squad was shaken emotionally and physically by the shaky isles, thanks to the huge earthquakes that interrupted their tour.The bowling attack that struggled to take twenty wickets shouldnt be solely judged on results in New Zealand. It is an attack that covers many bases and allows coach Mickey Arthur to tweak and shuffle, based on conditions and oppositions.The right-armed Khans - Sohaiil and Imran - the former pitching it up and swinging it, the latter hitting the deck hard and extracting movement off the deck; the tricky lefties - Mohammad Amir, the wunderkind-become-comeback-kid, whose figures would be so much better but for dropped catches; Wahab Riaz, the bowler of fearsome spells to rattle the calmest batsmen; and Rahat Ali, who employs both more subtlety and more swing.dddddddddddd And, of course, there is Yasir, who can both stifle and dismantle whole sides. It is, on paper at least, a formidable attack.And, of course to deepen the blow in New Zealand, Misbah was absent for the second Test.Hes not absent now: If we just look back, leave these three games out and look back at the last six years weve been playing really well. A set of good players performing well, developed well as a team, and I think that if we can get back to those disciplines and lift our performances we have a chance. What about the age factor?Before the series in England, Pakistan were famously put through their paces by their army. Misbah and Younis scored the highest in those fitness tests and made the runs - and the push-ups - to prove it. In New Zealand, the team was tested again. They all improved their results. As for the two old guys? They finished in the top four.And Misbah is banking on the nous that comes with miles on the odometer. In Test cricket I believe experience can play a big role because youve been in those situations so many times and you know how to control the game and how to go there and deliver.I believe that its important for any player, no matter in which part of your age you are, its important that you should just go there, express yourself, give your 100 per cent.And the important thing is a love for the game, passion. If you have passion you want to perform, you want to take challenges and that is the only way you can go there and perform.So at the moment, especially me and Younis we are enjoying those challenges and working hard, training hard and that is how we are still going. But, but… the Gabbatoir?For an endlessly wandering squad that never has true home advantage, how much fear can a venue instill? While several teams have planted their flags on the summit of Test cricket rankings this year, only Pakistan have reached the top - albeit briefly - without playing at home. And while they have made the best of their base in the UAE, Misbah has revealed in the past the considerable toll that their nomad existence has taken.And, perhaps, offsetting Australias daunting record is the relative inexperience of this fledgling side. Misbah and Younis have 43 centuries between them - five more than all the Australian players combined. Pakistan is a settled side; Australia is in transition forced upon them by turmoil.That hasnt escaped Misbah. Theyve got some new faces in the team, obviously talented but that can be exploited at this level in Test cricket. We know that we have to play well and up to our potential to be competitive against Australia side, no matter how many new players they have in their line-up.And the weight of history?It could be argued that the most pertinent period for Pakistan wasnt in the late 1970s or around the turn of the century. From the murky nadir that was 2010, Misbah has led his side out of scandal and corruption, restored a reputation that seemed ruined forever and overcome countless obstacles to achieve what no other Pakistan side has ever done in becoming the number one Test side in the world. Whats one more little record to shatter?Misbah isnt one to have his future dictated by the past. If we look back we took almost six years to develop this team and that team showed a lot to the world when we played in England and in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in our home conditions. So we had a lot of faith and confidence behind that.These players are experienced enough and they have the belief that they can do it and weve had some unbelievable successes in the past. I think those victories and those performances always give you confidence that you can do those sort of performances, even here in Australia. No doubt the conditions are tough but once you have confidence and belief I think you can change the history.No, its impossible that Pakistan could win a match, let alone the series.But in 2016, when the ludicrous has seemingly become logical, they have their best chance in years. ' ' '