Red Sox - 000 211 021 - 7 12 2 Rays - 504 010 21x - 13 18 0The last-place Rays, losers of 11 consecutive games, came out swinging like world-beaters against Eduardo Rodriguez - and the Red Sox lefty did not make it out of the third inning (2.2-11-9-1-2, 75). Tampa Bay's 18 hits were a season-worst for Red Sox pitchers in a game.
The Rays batted around in the first inning, collecting six hits and five runs (Logan Morrison and Nick Franklin each drove in two). The Rays put two more men on base in the second and might have scored if not for Tim Beckham's stupid attempt to steal third base with two outs. Sandy Leon gunned him down easily.
Desmond Jennings homered on Rodriguez's first pitch in the third inning. A double and a single brought home another run before Logan Forsythe hit a two-run moon shot to left to make it 9-0. That, mercifully, ended Rodriguez's night.
Boston made some rustling noises here and there about coming back, but nothing much happened. Bryce Brentz (3-for-4) doubled in two runs with two outs in the fourth - and then made an absolutely boneheaded play by trying for a triple; he was thrown out by 15 feet. David Ortiz walked with the bases loaded in the fifth, making it 9-3. Hanley Ramirez had a chance to close the gap to 9-7, but he was called out on an 0-2 off-speed pitch, and the inning was over.
Marco Hernandez (3-for-4) drove in Boston's fourth run in the sixth. Leon (2-for-4) hit a two-run dong in the eighth. Travis Shaw had a sac fly in the ninth.
And as if what was going on on the field wasn't bad enough, NESN had terrible, bush-league camera work all night long on flies to the outfield. On Ortiz's routine flyout to right in the top of the seventh, NESN panned way up to the back of the bleachers as if they expected the drive to travel 650 feet. Is the pool of available camera operators (and the people who give them instructions) so limited that this is truly the best NESN can do?
Betts, RFThe Red Sox, losers of 5 of their last 7 games, and 7 of their last 11, have slipped to 4 GB the Orioles in the AL East. Maybe they can get back on track while facing the last-place Rays (who just got swept by Baltimore in a four-game series).
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Ortiz, DH
Ramirez, 1B
Bradley, CF
Brentz, LF
Leon, C
Hernandez, 3B
Baltimore will finish June with a home record of 14-3, their best mark in a single month since they went 15-3 in June 1979, on their way to winning the pennant.
David Ortiz still leads the entire planet in OPS, though, at 1.112.
1 comment:
The Red Sox have called up infielder Mike Miller and optioned pitcher William Cuevas back to Pawtucket.
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