In baseball sometimes you just
run into great pitching and last night the Sox ran into a great pitcher at the
top of his game. Yu Darvish came within
one out of a no-hitter as the Rangers down the Sox 8-0 in the home opener of
the 3 game set.
David Ortiz was able to sneak in
a single that beat the shift with 2 outs in the 9th to break up the
no-no. Before that, Darvish stuck out 12
Red Sox hitters and even flirted with a perfect game for the first 6 and 2/3
innings.
On a bizarre play in the 7th,
Ortiz popped up a shallow fly ball into right field that Roughned Odor and Alex
Rios seem to mis-play. No one touched it
and it ended up falling in between both of them. It certainly looked like a hit but it was
scored an error on Rios for reasons unknown.
Maybe a little home town scorer advantage working right there but either
way, Darvish was dialed in and he was just outstanding. In the 2nd inning, Darvish mowed
down 6 consecutive batters on strikes.
The Red Sox generally hit Darvish
pretty well. In his previous 2 starts against
Boston, he was 0-1 with a 5.93 ERA so this was somewhat surprising. Although, when Darvish is on the hill, he’s a
threat to pitch a no-hitter every time out, the guy is that good.
The Sox left 4 men on base and
were 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position.
Besides Ortiz’s hit, Xander Bogaerts and Mike Napoli were able to work
walks. Other than that, nada, nothing,
zip on the offensive side.
Clay Buchholz was again
ineffective as he went only 4 and 1/3 innings giving up 6 runs on 10 hits while
walking 2 and striking out 3. He was up
in the strike zone and was hit pretty hard all night. This is the type of team that if you’re up in
the strike zone, they’re going to pound the ball and with Darvish going, they
wouldn’t need much. Buchholz’s ERA on
the season is now up to 6.44 and though he and the Red Sox keep saying he’s
fully healthy, the results are just not there.
Chris Capuano wasn’t very good
either as he went 1 and 2/3 innings giving up 2 runs on 3 hits while striking
out 2. He’s been hit a lot lately and
though I thought a rotation spot was in his near future; his performance as of
late has made me rethink that a lot.
Edward Mujica pitched a perfect
inning with a strikeout and Craig Breslow was able to work around a hit and
strike out one in his outing.
One day after getting back to
.500, the Sox fall back under but that’s baseball. The Rangers’ ace was on his game and let’s
just hopes the Red Sox ace, Jon Lester is just as good Saturday night and the
Sox can even the series. The other
Rangers’ starters are not as good so hopefully the bats will come alive and
they’ll start hitting the ball.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
David Ortiz. The only Sox hitter with a hit and really, he
should have had 2 but one was ruled an error.
He was the only player to reach base twice all night.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Jackie Bradley Jr. JBJ was very overmatched Friday night. He went 0 for 3 with 3 strikeouts and looked
completely lost against Darvish.
PLAY OF THE GAME
The 1st inning RBI
double by Adrian Beltre to put the Rangers up 1-0. They would add more but they wouldn’t really
need it as Darvish was a beast.
NEXT
Saturday, May 10th in
Texas vs. the Rangers.
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