While most of the nation was transfixed on the first NFL Sunday of the new season, the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays played baseball — a whole lot of baseball.
Sunday’s tilt between the American League East rivals spanned more than four hours and required 13 innings to complete. In the end, it was Rusney Castillo who sent the visitors home happy, singling with the bases loaded in the top of the 13th to drive in both runs in a 2-0 Red Sox win.
“It was a long game,” Dustin Pedroia, who scored the first of those two runs, told NESN sideline reporter Guerin Austin after the game. “But we grinded it out. A little personality win for us, so it was nice.”
As you probably can gather from the final result, pitchers ruled the day at Tropicana Field. Tampa Bay starter Drew Smyly struck out 11 in just six innings of work, and Boston’s Rich Hill, making his first start since 2009, dominated the Rays for seven shutout frames.
Hill, who previously pitched for the Red Sox from 2010 to 2012 and had spent all of this season at Triple-A, allowed just one hit, walked one and struck out 10.
“He actually threw today?” acting manager Torey Lovullo joked during his postgame meeting with reporters, as aired on “Red Sox Extra Innings LIVE.” “That’s a long time ago.
“Great outing. He gives up the base hit, which was questionable in itself. Gives us seven solid innings the first time he’s started a major league game (in six years). It’s just a great story. You can see all the hard work he put in, everything he did behind the scenes to get back here, it paid off. Fastball command, the secondary stuff was there. Any time he needed the big pitch, he seemed to make it.”
Catcher Sandy Leon struggled at the plate (0-for-5, four strikeouts), but Hill credited the veteran backstop for guiding him through his best outing in ages.
“Sandy did a great job behind the plate, first of all,” the Milton, Mass., native told reporters. “I followed his lead. The command was there with the fastball, I was able to keep the ball down. (I was able to) command my breaking ball the way that I wanted to, and that enhanced the fastball. You get a lot more swings and misses with the fastball (if you have) good command of the curveball.”
Pedroia agreed.
“His curveball, slider, whatever that thing is, was nasty,” the second baseman said. “He was attacking the zone in complete control. They didn’t hit many balls hard. He looked great out there.”
Some additional notes on just how strong Hill’s outing was:
Thumbnail photo via Jeff Griffith/USA TODAY Sports Images
