As for the game, Chris Sale (14-4, is making a case for not only the American League Cy Young award but for AL MVP as well. He was absolutely amazing tonight as he tossed 8 shut-out innings while striking out 13 Tampa Bay Rays who are no slouches when it comes to hitting balls out of the yard. The inept Sox offense barely scratched out a couple of runs but they were just enough to shut-out the Ray 2-0 at Tropicana Field.
Eduardo Nunez led off the top of the first with a double into the right field corner. The returning Dustin Pedroia moved Nunez to third with a groundout. As usual they failed miserably to score as Andrew Benintendi grounded right to third and Mookie Betts check swinged a strike three to end the inning. Sale got the ball in the bottom of the first and struck out Pete Bourjos to start. Trevor Plouffe looked at strike three and Evan Longoria grounded out to second to end the inning.
Rafael Devers led off the top of the second by grounding out to second. Xander Bogaerts grounded out to third and Mitch Moreland flied out to center to end the inning. Logan Morrison led off the bottom of the second with a pop up to center. Steven Souza Jr struck out on a pitch up in his eyes and Wilson Ramos flied out to left to end the inning.
Sandy Leon started the top of the third inning by watching strike three go by. Jackie Bradley Jr grounded out to second but the red hot Nunez blooped a single to center.....only to get picked off first to end the inning. Good grief. Adeiny Hechavarria led off the bottom of the third by sticking his bat out and grounding out to second. Daniel Robertson whiffed and Mallex Smith popped up to short to end the inning.
The Sox started a rally when Pedroia led off the top of the fourth with a walk. Benny The Kid just missed hitting into a double play but the ball rolled into center for a base hit. Betts JUST missed a 3 run homer off the right field pole by inches and settled for beating out a double play ball that put runners on the corners. Devers then beat out a double play ball himself to score Pedroia with the game's first run. Bogaerts lashed a single to right but Moreland looked at strike three right down the middle to end the inning. Still, the Sox had a 1-0 lead.
Sale whiffed Bourjos to open the bottom of the fourth. Plouffe hit a routine grounder to third and Devers tried to bounce it to Moreland at first Cricket style.....it failed and it went down as an error. Longoria flied out to center and Sale blew away Morrison with a 98 mph fastball to end the inning.
Leon led off the top of the fifth with a routine ground ball to second. JBJ hit a comebacker back to Pruitt but Nunez got his third hit with a double down the left field line. Pedroia flied out to end the inning. Sale started off the bottom of the fifth with a strikeout of Souza Jr but Ramos got Tampa's first hit with a single to center. Hechavarria popped up to Betts and Sale used every bit of his 6 foot 6 height to snare a comebacker by Robertson for the third out to end the inning.
The Sox failed to get runners home in the top of the sixth when Benintendi watched strike three go by to start. Betts stroked a line drive base hit to right but Devers popped up to left. Betts showed some great base-running for once by going to third on the base hit by Bogaerts. Xander swiped second but both runners were stranded when Moreland struck out to end the inning. Sale returned for the bottom of the sixth inning and Smith popped up to left. Bourjos hit a seeing eye single and Moreland dropped a pop up, but Sale bailed Mitch out by striking out Plouffe. Sale got his 9th K by blowing away Longoria to end the inning.
Jose Alvarado replaced Pruitt for the top of the seventh inning. Leon flied out to left but JBJ beat out an infield single to chase Alvarado. Sergio Romo was brought in to pitch and JBJ made a boo-boo hn he trotted around the bases on a line drive to left off the bat to Nunez. Somehow the ball died at the wall and JBJ was doubled off first to end the inning. To be fair, that ball looked gone when it left the bat. The good ol Red Sox still leading the league in runners getting thrown out on the bases. Sale got in trouble when he walked Morrison on 4 pitches to begin the bottom of the seventh. Corey Dickerson pinch hit for Souza and dropped down the bunt...but right to Sale who gunned down Morrison at second for the out. Dickerson made it to second on a wild pitch to the backstop but Sale struck out Ramos. Hechavarria also whiffed to end the inning.
Pedroia popped up in foul ground to begin the top of the eighth inning. Benintendi singled to right and swiped second, but Betts struck out. Devers grounded out to end the inning as Sale emerged from the dug-out to start the bottom of the eighth. Robertson popped up on Sales 105th pitch. Smith struck out on Sale's 110th pitch and Bourjos watched strike three go by to end the inning. Sale had gone 8 innings, giving up 2 hits while striking out 13. That's absolutely incredible.
The Sox finally scratched out an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning against Ryan Stanek. Bogaerts led off with a single and Moreland singled him to third. Naturally the incompetent offense almost failed when Leon struck out, but JBJ stepped up with a base hit to center to score Bogaerts with the insurance run. The other runners were stranded when Nunez popped up and Pedroia grounded out to end the inning. Still the Sox tacked on an insurance run and now led 2-0.
Craig "The Buzzard" Kimbrel was brought in to close it out in the bottom of the ninth inning. Lucas Duda pinch hit for Plouffe and whiffed. Kimbrel blew away both Longoria and Morrison to end the game. The Sox had won 7 in a row and this game 2-0.
Hero of the Night is easy. Chris Sale earned his 14th win by striking out 13 in 8 shut-out innings. He may fade in September but what he's done to this point of the year is the reason why the Sox are in first place.
The Good:
Eduardo Nunez was 3 for 5.
Andrew Benintendi was 2 for 4.
Xander Bogaerts was 3 for 4 with a run scored.
Jackie Bradley Jr was 2 for 4 with an rbi.
Craig Kimbrel earned his 28th save by striking out the side in the 9th.
The Bad:
Sandy Leon was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts.
The Ugly:
Dustin Pedroia was 0 for 4 but walked and scored a run.
Mookie Betts was 1 for 4.
Rafael Devers was 0 for 4 but drove in a run.
Mitch Moreland was just 1 for 4.
Final Thoughts:
Lets give the current leader in the Cy Young race a big hand for saving the Red Sox collective bacon this season. With Eduardo Rodriguez, Rick Porcello and David Price unreliable...Sale has been the rock that held everything together. His performance tonight against a power hitting Rays team (never thought I'd ever say that) was amazing and picked up the team still struggling to score runs. The pitching has carried the team this year and it doesn't look like the offense will ever recover, this season anyway. Beating the Rays in Tampa was huge considering the AL East race will be on display in the next two weeks. Pedroia has taken a lot of criticism this year for throwing Matt Barnes under the bus and later his involvement with the David Price/Dennis Eckersley incident, but if he can continue to hit .300, maybe he'll be forgiven. In other news, Carson Smith had a dominating rehab appearance for Pawtucket so he could be close to returning. If he does come back it looks like the odd man out is Heath Hembree. Hembree hasn't pitched that bad this season so it shows how loaded the bullpen could be when they have all their guns loaded. The win improved the Sox to 64-49, 4 games ahead of the New York Yankees who lost to JA Happ and the Toronto Blue Jays tonight. Who would have thought after the Yankees traded for Sonny Gray they would go 2-5 while the Sox with Nunez, Reed and Devers would go 7-0? Tomorrow night Rick Porcello (5-14, 4.70 ERA) goes up against Jake Odorizzi looking to make it 2 wins in a row for Rick and 8 in a row as a team. The team could use the win for big momentum going into the weekend series with the Yankees.
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