Final, Rays 9-2: In his first major league plate appearance since Oct. 4, 2009, Joey Gathright drew a walk and Jose Iglesias followed with his first career hit.
Those are nice moments for those two fellows, and Darnell McDonald gives the die-hards on hand something to yell about by driving in Gathright with a base hit, but it means very little in the end.
We’ll head down to what figures to be a quiet clubhouse and get you all the reaction on the site later on. Thanks for following along, and look for us tomorrow for the Josh Beckett-James Shields matchup.
Mid 9th, Rays 9-1: It’s remarkable how much of the Red Sox season hangs on the ability of Josh Beckett to make a triumphant return from a sprained ankle.
With the rest of this game nothing more than a formality, that’s where we’re at. Of course, even if Beckett loses, Boston has a two-game lead in the wild card race. But the Rays haven’t been that close since the end of June, and we still have a David Price-Tim Wakefield matchup to look forward to.
Tommorrow is huge.
End 8th, Rays 9-1: Michael Bowden is on the mound to pitch the ninth and Joey Gathright is in left field. Pawtucket is hoping to hold the Rays here in the top of the ninth and then mount something special in the bottom half.
Mid 8th, Rays 9-1: Andrew Miller, the other candidate to start this game, has come on and pitched pretty well in mop-up duty.
He just struck out the last two men in a 1-2-3 eighth and has four Ks in 1 2/3 innings. Maybe he gets that second start against Baltimore, the more likely scenario than the one I proposed in the prior post. I’m just playing a hunch though with the Aceves thing.
End 7th, Rays 9-1: On the plus side, the rain has stopped. But that’s it in terms of positives.
If you read this blog on a daily basis, you know I’m rarely right, but here’s a prediction for you:
Alfredo Aceves is going to pitch one of the two games against Baltimore on Monday. It just doesn’t seem as if Erik Bedard will be ready anytime soon.
However, I think Aceves may piggyback Josh Beckett a bit tomorrow night. If Beckett goes five and has a lead, the Sox will take it and not push the envelope with his ankle. But with the pen being what it is, they would need someone to bridge the gap, and the only guy I can think of is Aceves.
Aceves is one guy who can do that and come back and start three days later, although it might limit him to four innings or so that day. As for who is piggybacking Aceves that day, it has two names: Wish and Prayer.
Massive changes for the Red Sox in the field. Jose Iglesias is at short, Conor Jackson at third, Lars Anderson at first, Darnell McDonald in center and Mike Aviles in right (moving from third).
Mid 7th, Rays 9-1: After a Casey Kotchman RBI single off Andrew Miller, the book is closed on Matt Albers.
1/3 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 HR.
Albers has given up 23 runs in 17 innings since July came to an end, and he has allowed his fair share of inherited runners to come in as well.
In what will likely become their sixth straight win over the Red Sox, the Rays have outscored their AL East rivals by a shocking 41-11 margin.
Fenway has emptied out as a cold rain sweeps across this place. Not the liveliest night of the year, that’s for sure.
9:36 p.m.: Terry Francona keeps saying he will not run away from Matt Albers, but when can you go to this guy with any degree of confidence?
Albers cannot get major league hitters out right now. Simple as that. He gives up a walk, a two-run homer into the wind from B.J. Upton and then another walk one out later.
Albers is responsible for the man on first as Andrew Miller jogs in. Wondering why Francona didn’t give Scott Atchison another inning or even two more. Anyone? At this rate, Darnell McDonald will pitch the ninth.
End 6th, Rays 6-1: That was a great time for Carl Crawford to get a big hit, but he lines to center on the first pitch he sees from Jake McGee.
That’s it. That’s all.
Matt Albers is on in relief. Does that help with the indigestion?
Also, Mike Aviles is in at third base. Kevin Youkilis just ain’t right. You wonder how long he will last. Hopefully until the end, but he’s not his usual self. And with Jed Lowrie still bothered by that sore left shoulder, Aviles becomes a very important piece.
9:26 p.m.: There’s an early April feel to this one, for two reasons.
One, the Red Sox are losing, and looking kind of bad in doing so. Two, it’s windy and raining.
Actually, that wind, which is stiffening flags here at the park, has just helped the Sox out a bit. David Ortiz hit a lazy fly to left that was blown all the way back in toward the infield, falling in for a single (could’ve been a double if Ortiz moved his legs like he should).
A Josh Reddick walk one out later gives Boston two on and forces Joe Maddon to make his first pitching change. Lefty Jake McGee will come on to face Carl Crawford.
Mid 6th, Rays 6-1: Franklin Morales had actually been establishing himself as not only the best left-handed option out of the bullpen but someone who was starting to see more sixth- and seventh-inning action in tight situations.
He just took a step back in the sixth, hitting one man ahead of a booming two-run homer by Casey Kotchman, who just hammers the Red Sox.
Morales also walked a man before finally escaping. He did have a pickoff, his second in as many games.
Kotchman has four of his 10 home runs against Boston and a total of 11 RBIs in 15 games vs. his former team.
End 5th, Rays 4-1: That escape by Jeremy Hellickson in the third inning is beginning to loom incredibly large.
He has thrown two outstanding innnings since and as the Red Sox continue to burn through the bullpen options (Franklin Morales is the fourth pitcher of the night), he is in good shape to go six or maybe even seven.
Hellickson got Marco Scutaro to fly to center before striking out Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia in the fifth.
Mid 5th, Rays 4-1: Jarrod Saltalamacchia has another impressive throw to nail a runner and finish the top of the fifth.
Evan Longoria had singled with two outs and took off on Scott Atchison’s 3-1 pitch to Ben Zobrist.
The throw was low and on the proper side of the bag, perfect for Marco Scutaro to tag Longoria sliding past.
Coffee time.
End 4th, Rays 4-1: Jeremy Hellickson gives up two fly outs that travel a total of almost 400 feet, but they ain’t nuthin’ but outs.
And with a soft grounder to second, Hellickson is through the fourth in just eight pitches. He really needed that.
Scott Atchison is on to pitch for Boston. The Sox have a ton of arms in the pen, but you have to still think about usage if Josh Beckett is limited in any way tomorrow.
It shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Just something to think about. Thinking is good.
Mid 4th, Rays 4-1: If Adrian Gonzalez wins a Gold Glove Award, those that vote for him with a sincere knowledge of his defensive capabilities will not be doing so because he makes more diving stops than other first baseman.
Gonzalez has his share of those, but he does all the other things that the position calls for so well. He is never shy about throwing to third to catch runners trying to take an extra base after a play at first. He turns the 3-6-3 DP as well as anyone and makes a boatload of 3-1 assists that most don’t make.
And now he shows us again how well he plays the bunt. Gonzalez, who made a big catch on a squeeze attempt by Texas (I think) a couple of weeks ago, just thwarted a safety squeeze by John Jaso by racing in, pouncing on the bunt and flipping backhanded to home plate to get Johnny Damon coming down the line.
It’s a great play that keeps this a three-run game. If Boston comes back, put a star next to that one. Heck, just put a star next to it right now.
Jeremy Hellickson begins the fourth with a pitch count of 74. There will be 745 pitching changes in this game.
8:29 p.m.: Terry Francona said he wasn’t worried about pitching Kyle Weiland since he knew he had many guys to back him up. Still, he was probably hoping for more than three innings.
Weiland walks the first man of the fourth, Johnny Damon, before Dustin Pedroia commits a rare error to make it a first-and-second, no-out situation.
That prompts Francona to call on Trever Miller for his Red Sox debut. There are three lefties due up here so Miller is in for all three.
Meanwhile, the Pedroia error just reinforces how sloppy Boston has been for over a week now. It’s a team-wide problem that has to be cleaned up soon.
End 3rd, Rays 4-1: I don’t think I’m overblowing this when I say that the roar that lifted from the fans at Fenway before the final pitch of the third inning was the kind you hear in October.
At the very least, it was unlike most we see in the third inning of games. There’s an obvious sense of the importance of every single pitch, just like there is in the playoffs.
The Sox loaded the bases with one out for Adrian Gonzalez, who grounded to first to drive in one run. The Rays wisely elected to walk David Ortiz and pitch to the banged-up and slumping Kevin Youkilis.
Youkilis worked a 3-2 count. If anyone was sitting down as the next pitch was thrown, I’d be surprised. Alas, Youkilis grounded it to third and a big opportunity went down the drain. The roar became a whimper.
Youkilis is 6-for-35 (.171) since coming off the disabled list earlier this month.
Mid 3rd, Rays 4-0: I’m not predicting anything or trying to stir the pot, but if the Red Sox blow it and miss the playoffs, the play that allowed Tampa Bay to score its first run will be one of those shown on a video montage of the team’s collapse.
Not that Boston did anything wrong, it was just one of those plays that happen to teams in a tailspin. Let’s rehash.
With runners on first and second and two outs, B.J. Upton hit a dribbler toward short that followed almost the exact same path as his broken bat, one of several that Kyle Weiland has produced already.
Marco Scutaro could not make the play and avoid the bat at the same time, and it rolled into left field for an RBI single.
Now, because Upton runs well and the ball was not hit hard, it’s probably a bases-loaded situation anyway, especially when you consider Scutaro’s marginal arm. Still, it just looked like one of those that take place when one team owns another.
So did the three-run homer by Evan Longoria that followed, an opposite-field blast that gives Jeremy Hellickson a nice lead. That’s probably a grand slam if Scutaro comes up with the ball and throws late to first, which is what I think would’ve happened.
End 2nd 0-0: David Ortiz had an interesting trip around the bases in the second. Unfortunately, for the Red Sox, he fell 90 feet short of paydirt.
Ortiz hammered the first pitch of the second inning from Jeremy Hellickson deep but foul down the right-field line.
Two pitches later, Ortiz kept it in the field of play, ripping one into the corner that Matt Joyce played well to limit Ortiz to a single.
A wild pitch during Kevin Youkilis’ at-bat, which resulted in a strikeout, moved Ortiz to second. A balk during Carl Crawford’s two-out plate appearance moved him to third. And there he stood when Crawford popped to second to end the inning.
Some people look at the changing of the leaves as the surest sign that fall is upon us. I look to the front row of the press box at Fenway Park, where the windows are being shut by some of my hearty colleagues. It’s getting chilly tonight.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: As the rain picks up a bit, Kyle Weiland survives a mini-scare.
In between weak grounders to first was a drive by Johnny Damon that took Josh Reddick to the track in right.
It died, and Weiland is through two in rapid fashion.
Joe Maddon talked about how the offense has been the Rays one issue this year. If it panned out the way they had hoped when Manny Ramirez was in there (remember that?) and a few other things worked out, we might be talking about the Red Sox chasing Tampa Bay.
End 1st, 0-0: With a very light rain beginning to fall at Fenway, Jeremy Hellickson matches Kyle Weiland with a 1-2-3 first, although he needed to throw more than twice as many pitches.
Hellickson got all three outs in the air.
Joe Maddon said before this game that he has a good feeling about Hellickson. Terry Francona lauded the righty for maturity beyond his years, and for a dastardly changeup.
Hellickson should be a fixture in the Rays rotation for years to come.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Since it was so recent, I probably don’t need to remind you how Kyle Weiland’s last outing began, but I will anyway.
Weiland loaded the bases with no outs and was behind 3-0 on the cleanup hitter, Ben Zobrist.
Well, Zobrist will have to wait until the second inning to get his hacks in this one. Weiland just sliced through the top third of the Rays order on eight pitches.
B.J. Upton struck out on three pitches.
7:12 p.m.: Kyle Weiland gets a quick out to start this one off. Stick with us all night for you in-bame updates and analysis.
6:15 p.m.: Apologies for the lack of updates for the past 90 minutes or so, but Joe Maddon just held court for about 89 of those. We’ll have more from him in a bit.
Maddon did say that closer Kyle Farnsworth and Matt Moore, the team’s top pitching prospect, are both unavailable out of the bullpen.
He also added plenty on his team’s mindset entering this one, drawing many comparisons to the 1995 Seattle Mariners, who caught the California Angels (Maddon was on that staff) with what ranks as the greatest comeback in baseball history based on playoff probabilities (check coolstandings.com for that).
Look for more from Maddon on the site soon. Here is his lineup against Kyle Weiland:
Desmond Jennings, LF
B.J. Upton, CF
Evan Longoria, 3B
Ben Zobrist, 2B
Johnny Damon, DH
Matt Joyce, RF
Casey Kotchman, 1B
John Jaso, C
Reid Brignac, SS
4:27 p.m.: A few quick updates from the desk of Terry Francona, who was in a great mood for his pregame press conference.
Francona said that Clay Buchholz threw again today and is on track to throw a full-fledged bullpen session Saturday. We could see Buchholz in that final week out of the bullpen, which would be huge, although Francona said there is no timetable right now.
That remains the case for Erik Bedard, who continues to just throw, but not with any increase in intensity. Just like you do in your backyard.
Francona added that David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez probably would be sitting if the race was not so tight and the Rays weren’t in town.
“For me, these are important games,” Francona said.
Actually, Francona seemed really, really excited for this series. You can tell he loves the atmosphere when the game really mean something. We will have more on this in a separate story on the site soon.
Back in a bit.
3:14 p.m.: Greetings from Fenway Park, where we are dodging rain drops but hoping that they pass soon enough. And they should, if anyone with a meteorology degree (I hear Penn State is a great place to get one) is accurate.
I also have Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town” running through my head. Reason being? Someone said “The boys are back” as I glanced at the lineup card, which features perhaps the most complete Red Sox batting order in a week or so.
Here it is:
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
David Ortiz, DH
Kevin Youkilis, 3B
Josh Reddick, RF
Carl Crawford, LF
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Marco Scutaro, SS
Only Gonzalez (2-for-6, .333) and Crawford (3-for-9, .333) have averages over .300 against Jeremy Hellickson. The rest of the lineup is a combined 9-for-41 (.220).
8 a.m. ET: The Red Sox begin one of their biggest September series in a long time when they open a four-game set with the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday at Fenway Park.
Boston owns a four-game lead on Tampa Bay in the wild-card race, although the Rays did not help their cause by dropping two of three in Baltimore this week.
In order to chip away at the deficit, Tampa Bay will have to hope it can win a couple of favorable pitching matchups in the series, the first of which takes place in Thursday’s opener.
Red Sox rookie Kyle Weiland will match up with Jeremy Hellickson for the second time in five days. Weiland gave up three runs in four innings the first time they met, although Tampa Bay didn’t win that matchup until an Evan Longoria base hit in the 10th.
Hellickson owns a 3.93 ERA in three starts against Boston this season. He will face a lineup that may be without Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz. Gonzalez left Wednesday’s game against Toronto with left calf tightness and Ortiz has missed two straight games with back pain.
First pitch for the opener is 7:10 p.m.
