Red Sox - 000 000 000 - 0 5 0 Rays - 000 011 02x - 4 7 0Shields (9-5-0-3-5, 110; 2.60 ERA) pitched his third shutout and fourth complete game of the season. It was also the 12th time in his 14 starts that he pitched at least seven innings.
Shields's four CG are more than the totals of 22 MLB teams (including the Rays, who have one non-Shields CG); only three teams have pitched more complete games this year than Shields (Phillies 6, Rangers 5, Mariners 5). ... Shields's three complete-game shutouts are also more than the totals of the Red Sox, Royals, Blue Jays, Athletics, Yankees, Cleveland, and White Sox combined. ... Five teams -- Blue Jays, Yankees, Astros, Reds, and Cubs -- don't have three shutouts of any kind this season.
Jacoby Ellsbury walked to start the game and, with one out, Adrian Gonzalez (3-for-4) singled him to third. Kevin Youkilis (0-for-4, with 2 GIDP) struck out, but David Ortiz walked to load the bases. Carl Crawford, making his first plate appearance at the Trop since leaving the Rays and signing with the Red Sox, grounded out first-to-pitcher.
Ellsbury and Gonzalez singled in the third, but Yook GIDP to end the inning.
J.D. Drew singled to start the fifth, but Marco Scutaro flew out and Ellsbury GIDP.
Gonzalez singled with one out in the sixth, and Yook GIDP.
Scutaro walked with one out in the eighth, but was stranded there as Ellsbury flew out and Dustin Pedroia struck out on one of Shields's many devastating changeups in the dirt.
Wakefield (7-4-2-5-2, 119) allowed a home run to Justin Ruggiano in the fifth. Tampa scored another run in the sixth on two walks, a fielder's choice, and two passed balls. It was the most pitches Wakefield had thrown in a game in almost eight years (September 18, 2003, 119, also against the Rays).
Terry Francona's top priority in the eighth inning should have been keeping the Rays from adding to their 2-0 lead (since Boston had only one more inning to bat). Calling on Tommy Hottovy was not a wise move. Matt Joyce doubled, Evan Longoria was hit by a pitch, and Casey Kotchman singled (scoring Joyce). Alfredo Aceves took over and got out of trouble, but a single by John Jaso scored Kotchman.
Very dangerous. This team is very dangerous right now. I have seen this before.The Red Sox are 6-0 on this road trip. They have begun a road trip 7-0 only twice since 1967.
David Ortiz
1977: This was the memorable 9-0 west coast trip from July 29 to August 7. Boston beat California 6-5 (10), 3-0, 1-0; beat Seattle 3-2 (10), 12-4; and swept Oakland 3-1, 1-0, 2-1, 5-2).
2002: After taking four in Tampa Bay (May 3-6: 3-2, 7-5, 2-0, 5-3), the Red Sox flew out to Oakland and swept the A's (May 7-9: 9-7, 12-6, 5-1), giving them a 24-7 record and a five-game lead over New York. The Sox then lost their next two games, in Seattle.
In 1939, the Red Sox won the first 12 games of a 22-game (!) road trip (July 4-23); they finished with a 17-5 record.
Sidebar: In 1939, 144 of Boston's 152 games were played in under 2:35! ... From August 11, 1937 to September 30, 1939, 356 of the Red Sox's 358 games lasted less than 3:00! (The streak probably continued into 1940, but the times of many games in April are unknown.)
A SoSHer pointed out (in the thread linked above) that 51 of the 65 games this season have been part of winning or losing streaks of three games or more. It does look odd when you break the season up into winning and losing streaks:
LLLLLL W L W LLL WWW L WWWWW LL W LL WWW LLL WWW LL WWWWWWW L W L WWWWW LLLL WWWWWWWWW
Tonight's game will be the Rays' third game in as many cities in three days. After playing in Seattle and Anaheim, the Rays played a weekend series in Baltimore. They travelled to Detroit for a make-up game on Monday and then flew home for the Red Sox series.
Johnny Damon, who reached base in his 38th consecutive game last night, setting a new club record:
This is what every major league team has to do. I don't think you'll ever be happy with certain road trips ... But it's been one of the more grueling ones that I've been a part of in all my years.AL East: Rangers/Yankees and Orioles/Blue Jays at 7 PM.
44 comments:
Ellsbury, CF
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, 1B
Youkilis, 3B
Ortiz, DH
Crawford, LF
Saltalamacchia, C
Drew, RF
Scutaro, SS
Damon, DH
Zobrist, 2B
Joyce, RF
Longoria, 3B
Kotchman, 1B
Upton, CF
Jaso, C
Ruggiano, LF
Brignac, SS
Jacoby Ellsbury has been named the American League Player of the Week for June 6-13. In six games, Ellsbury batted .467 (14-for-30) with 3 doubles, 1 home run, 4 RBI and 10 runs scored.
It's the third consecutive week a Red Sox player has won the award (Carl Crawford (week ending May 30th) and David Ortiz (week ending June 6th).)
Used newspaper box scores to get the 1940 games' times that retrosheet didn't have. The May 11th game against the Yanks was the first 3+ hour game that year. So you can add 20 to your count--376 of 378.
As for total games part of 3+ streaks, I searched 10 Red Sox game logs from thru the years and the average is right around half of all games. So 51 of 65 is definitely way high.
We got the Whiners' Feed tonight.
One graphic - Shields has pitched 7+ innings in 11 of his 13 starts this year.
Totally great to see Rays fans giving CC a standing O. Way mroe classy than the Jays fans who boo any former player, no matter what.
Of course, being classier than Jays fan... a low bar.
For all of Crawford's speed, it seems like he doesn't make that many catches out there.
29th multi-hit game for Bert - in 66 games played
The Salty Sift?
nice pop up, guy
Don and Jerry hellbent on blaming Wake on that all along. What did those Rays people say?
3 hits for Ad.
Youk's been pissing me off all night--at least that DP he hit hard. Part of me wants to believe he's just as pissed and will get the GW hit.
The man is a hitting machine.
blaming wake for what?
we have weei on with muted tv, anyway
keeps millaring those ...
The Scutaro throw to first. Don said "Wake slow to get over there..." and I'm like, No he wasn't... Then on the replays, we see Wake almost at the bag, and Scutaro's throw WAY behind him (just throw it to the bag, son!), and D & J are still like, "Scutaro looked up and was surprised Wake wasn't there yet."
I saw the whole play as "Scutaro made a really bad throw." It woulda been bang-bang on a perfect throw, but still.
I thought it was so quiet here because of the Stanley Cup game 7. But that is tomorrow night.
i guess i could blame wake foe not being 14 feet tall ... but that's about it. i don't think castig or OB said anything other than the throw was wild.
Is it time for Aceves yet?
D & J would not waver despite replays. But that is their tradition.
1-0 game in the 6th, 1 out, DP chance? No.
Most announcers, probably. Joe Morgan was infamous for it.
Yanks put up 6 and counting in the 2nd. The only good news is Texas is the offense they have to face.
McCarver, too. To an amazing degree.
hottovy up
Hitting machine was EB, btw.
What a fast game
shields threw as many pitches to crawford (12) as he did in 4 of the previous 6 innings.
23-7-15 12-6-6
aceves up with hottovy
Time for run(s).
I was driving home listening to xm. Rays announcers were blaming Wake for that play at first too. They were saying that he needed to break for first right away.
tying run at the plate.
Francona has reached the conclusion that a 2 run lead was insurmountable anyway and the rest of the pen was dangerously overworked yesterday. It's Hottovy or nothing now, I guess.
That run is absolutely shocking. Hottovy has looked so sharp and he's been *money* all year, or at least for the 5 minutes previous to today's game that he's pitched for the Sox.
By the way, I'm being sarcastic.
yeah - bringing in the last guy on the bullpen depth chart in a 2-0 game when you MUST keep it at 2-0 to give your guys a last-inning shot is not a good idea.
that pitchout was a strike. fucking ump
How is that NOT a strike??
ump was running for cover, that's how.
well, yook can't GIDP this time
worst night in Youk history
shields's 4th CG this year!
and third shutout.
One of those spammers copied a comment I made on this blog tonight, and posted it as a comment on my blog.
Post a Comment