G10: Rays 1, Red Sox 0

Red Sox - 000 000 000 - 0  3  0
Rays    - 000 000 01x - 1  5  0 

Brandon Lowe's home run off Chris Martin in the eighth inning gave the Rays their 10th consecutive win to start the season. It was Tampa Bay's fourth shutout of the season. The Rays won on Opening Day 4-0; their last three games have been shutouts: 11-0, 11-0, and 1-0.

The Red Sox wasted their best chance to score in the top of the eighth. It was the only inning in which they got a runner to second base; in fact, they loaded the bases with two outs, but Rafael Devers looked at strike three.

The game took only 2:06. The first four innings were played in 55 minutes. The Red Sox's last nine-inning game that took 126 or fewer minutes to play was on September 25, 2006, when they were two-hit by the Blue Jays in Toronto in 2:03. Since 2000, they've played seven games in 2:06 or quicker.

2:02   August 8, 2000 - loss to Angels 1-2
2:05   July 12, 2002  - loss to Blue Jays 0-5
2:06   Sept. 17, 2002 - win over Cleveland 4-2
2:06   June 16, 2003  - loss to White Sox 2-4
2:06   July 28, 2004  - loss to Orioles 1-4
2:05   July 10, 2005  - loss to Orioles 1-4
2:03   Sept. 25, 2006 - loss to Blue Jays 0-5

The last Red Sox game played in under two hours was on April 22, 1999, when they lost 1-0 to the Tigers in 1:59.

Nick Pivetta (5-3-0-2-6, 83) was excellent in his second start of the season. His only clean inning was the fourth. Randy Arozarena singled with two outs in the first and stole second. Luke Raley led off the second with a double, but Pivetta got two strikeouts and an easy tapper back to himself.

In the third, he allowed a single to left-center by Yandy Díaz and walked Lowe. Arozarena blasted a 2-2 pitch to deep left-center. Rob Refsnyder – playing center field with Adam Duvall out until some time in June with a fractured left wrist – sprinted to the track and made a wonderful sliding catch a foot or so from the base of the wall. Pivetta walked Díaz with two down in the fifth before ending his day with a strikeout of Lowe.

This game was the first time this season that the Rays did not score in any of the first four innings and it was the first Rays win by fewer than four runs. Maybe my prediction of a Boston sweep was off, but could the Red Sox pitching staff really dominate in this series? (Yes, it's possible, but don't bet your house on it.)

Boston hit a few deep drives off Jalen Beeks (2-1-0-0-2, 27) and Josh Fleming (4-1-0-0-5, 47), but other than that, they didn't do much. With a runner on first in the second, Alex Verdugo hit a long fly out to the track in left-center. Justin Turner's high drive to right-center was caught on the track by Raley, Tampa's right fielder.

Boston managed only two baserunners in the first seven innings: Yoshida's leadoff single in the second, a line drive to the opposite field, and Christian Arroyo's two-out single in the fifth, a slowish roller that found its way into right.

Plate umpire Jeremie Rehak made the Red Sox's third out in the sixth by calling strikes 2 and 3 on Rafael Devers on pitches below the strike zone. Those are bullshit calls in any situation, of course, but two egregious calls, on back-to-back pitches, in a scoreless game against a guy who already has four dongs this year and hit 65 in 2021-22. It's a shitty performance worthy of a fine.

Colin Poche walked Verdugo (cbbbb) to open the top of the eighth. Arroyo flied to right. Bobby Dalbec, called up to replace Duvall on the roster, fisted an inside pitch over Díaz at third and into left. Connor Wong lined Poche's first pitch to left for the second out. Kiké Hernández (0-for-his-last 22, without a hit since April 2 and batting .097) walked on four pitches, loading the bases for Devers. He took a huge hack at the first pitch and came up empty. He fouled two more pitches off before being seemingly frozen on a 93 mph fastball in the bottom half of the zone.

Matthew Kory (Sox Outsider) had more:

Yesterday, frankly, Devers failed. He came up with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning of a 0-0 game and took a fastball over the plate for strike three. The second pitch of the at-bat was even more egregious, when Tampa pitcher Colin Poche threw a 92 mph fastball exactly where he didn't want to. 

Devers dreams of getting mediocre fastballs thrown to him right there. According to Baseball Prospectus, Devers has a slugging percentage of .972 over the past two seasons against fastballs in that location. This wasn't on the corners. This wasn't a pitchers pitch. This was a straight up mistake, one that Poche probably regretted immediately after the ball left his fingers.

That was Devers' pitch to crush. And he missed it.

Lowe batted with one out in the eighth. He fell behind 0-2, took a ball, and then fouled off three pitches, the last one off the exposed inside of his right foot and causing a injury delay. He had some protection on the top of his cleat, which looked like a portion of a blue oven mitt, as opposed to some hard plastic that might actually prevent some pain. Back in the box, Lowe took ball 2 and ball 3, fouled another pitch off, and cranked Martin's 10th pitch over the fence right-center for his third dong of the year.

That one run didn't feel like the proverbial 10 at that point, but the Red Sox couldn't do anything against Pete Fairbanks in the ninth. Turner struck out looking after a called strike and a foul. Yoshida grounded out weakly 1-3. Raimel Tapia pinch-hit for Refsnyder and grounded to second to end the game.

NESN: The game went so quickly, Dave O'Brien had little opportunity to annoy me. However, the next game you watch on NESN, listen for how often OB refers to home runs. It's a lot. Soon all you will hear is OB saying "home runs" (or "pop in his bat").

I did applaud O'Brien in the bottom of the second, though. Some observers have been downplaying the Rays' start because their opponents were below-average teams. OB said that was nonsense. He said he looked over the A's 20-game win streak in 2002 and saw that only three of those 20 games were against a team over .500 and two of Oakland's opponents during that streak lost 100+ games that year. (Yep: Tigers and Royals.) OB said you never hear anyone shitting on that Oakland streak.

OB gets facts and stats wrong all the time, but he's on the money here. Which makes me think someone else looked it up and told him about it. But anyway . . . No team has started 10-0 since the 1987 Brewers. Are you telling me the Rays are the very first team in 36 years to start a season against a trio of bad teams? Of fucking course not. Yet no team has gone 10-0 in those 36 years until now. And no team in 140 fucking years has wiped the floor with their opponents as badly as Tampa Bay has murderized their foes this month. So fuck all that noise.

During inning breaks today, MLB.TV showed commercials for "Opening Week", which included on-screen graphics that stated either "Coverage Begins March 30" or "Coverage Continues". Today is April 10. Nearly half of all major league teams – 12 of 30 – have played 11 games. It's not Opening Week anymore! And it's not before March 30! How far into the season will MLB broadcast "Coverage Begins March 30"?

I like the new "Baseball Zen" clips. While I usually have them muted, they feature only sounds from the field, with no wild graphics or quick cuts. I thought (prayed) that MLB had shit-canned its moronic (and limited) "Flashback" clips . . . sadly, no.

MLB has possession of all recorded video of the sport to choose from – imagine all the rare and ordinary clips from decades and decades – and the first two Flashbacks I see this year were both Adley Rutschman being the first catcher to go 5-for-5 on Opening Day. Twice, in back-to-back breaks!

Can a clip from Opening Day 2023 be credibly described as a "Flashback"? According to a different MLB commercial, Opening Day 2023 hasn't even arrived yet!

Nick Pivetta / Jalen Beeks

First game of a four-game series.

Starting pitchers for the other three games:

0411: ________ / Shane McClanahan
0412: Chris Sale / Zach Eflin
0413: Corey Kluber / Jeffrey Springs

The Rays have won their last two games 11-0 and 11-0. The record for most consecutive shutout wins by 10+ runs is three, by the 1885 New York Giants (11-0, 24-0, 11-0).

Two other teams – 1936 Tigers (12-0, 14-0 (doubleheader!)) and 2019 Orioles (13-0, 13-0) – also have two such wins.

The Rays lead MLB in runs scored, with 75 in nine games. The Dodgers are second with 60 (in 10 games). Boston is third with 59 and their standard offensive numbers are fairly respectable.

Batting Average: Rays #2 in MLB (.289), Red Sox #12 (.259)
On-Base Percentage: Rays #1 in MLB (.379), Red Sox #8 (.341)
Slugging Percentage: Rays #1 in MLB (.588), Red Sox #3 (.473)
On-Base + Slugging: Rays #1 in MLB (.967), Red Sox #3 (.814)

Pitching, on the other hand, is a different story.

Earned Run Average: Rays #1 in MLB (1.89), Red Sox #21 (4.89)
Fewest Runs Allowed: Rays #2 in MLB (18), Red Sox #21 (47)
Fewest Walks: Rays tied #2 in MLB (20), Red Sox #19 (36)
Lowest WHIP: Rays #1 in MLB (0.94), Red Sox #23 (1.46)

Careful consideration of this information leads to one conclusion: the Red Sox will sweep the series on the strength of their pitching. Both teams will have identical 9-4 records on Friday morning.

(The Joy of Sox takes all reasonable steps to ensure that the information presented on this website is correct; however, The Joy of Sox does not guarantee its correctness or completeness. The above paragraph is intended for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to be used to make investing or gambling decisions. The Joy of Sox does not endorse or promote any form of wagering or gambling. Only gamble with funds that you can comfortably afford to lose. Always bet within your means and stop if sports betting is no longer enjoyable to you.)