Boston Red Sox once again fail to deliver as Tampa Bay Rays victorious 3-2
If the inevitable has not happened yet, it may possibly do on Wednesday provided Tampa Bay Rays outperform the struggling Boston Red Sox. The second of three matches to be played at Fenway Park, Boston culminated with another 3-2 defeat of Boston Sox on
Tuesday, April 12, compounding the team’s difficulties and added to its woes. It was David Price of Tampa Bay Rays who shone brightly in the second encounter between the two teams this season. He allowed five hits in just over seven innings.
Tampa Bay started their innings with Sam Fuld facing Jon Lester who was pitching for Boston. Lester was fast to play and with the end of first inning, Fuld, Johnny Damon, or B. J. Upton was able to strike any hit and score. Boston followed where the eminent
Carl Crawford faced David Price who was pitching for Tampa Bay. He was unable to go for any hit followed by Dustin Pedroia who failed to go for any hit either. Adrian Gonzalez faced the same difficulty. At the end of first inning, the score was level 0-0.
The second inning did not bring any major change either as from Felipe Lopez to Sean Rodriguez to Ben Zobrist and Kelly Shoppach, none of the Tampa Bay batters could put into practical use even the minor mistake Jon Lester of Boston could make. The second
inning remained scoreless for both teams as Price did not allow any Rays’ batter to go for a major hit.
Game remained scoreless until the third inning when Darnell McDonald opened the account for Boston. He took on Price and homered to left, scoring the first run for Boston. The Red Sox maintained their lead until the fifth inning where things were to change
decisively, something that Boston should have anticipated, if not dreaded. It was Fuld who struck Lester, ground into fielder’s choice to first, as Shoppach scored, Dan Johnson to third and Elliot Johnson to second. Damon followed with a two-run double that
became a determining feature of the game.
The 3-1 lead was reduced to 3-2 in the sixth inning when Jed Lowrie struck Price, doubled to deep right center where Pedroia scored. But it proved insufficient as in the following innings, the Tampa Bay pitchers rendered Red Sox batters unable to go for
any other hit and score. The game resulted in the Rays victory in the ninth inning 3-2 when even David Ortiz, could not execute Kyle Farnsworth’s fastball to perfection.
Boston was the team that attracted widespread attention owing to the resiliently contesting players that the side boasted to possess. All the same, the game pundits were also predicting something that was beyond ordinary – some even placing bet on its ability
to win the World Series.
Addition of stalwarts like Carl Crawford and Gonzalez was cited to substantiate the argument. But none materialised. What this will do is to shake the complacency of teams intending to invest big sums on big names. The Red Sox team manager was visibly frustrated.
"We need a night like they had last night," Lester said. "We need a night where we show up and just pound the baseball and we do everything right. ... We're just not putting everything together. One night it's the pitching. One night it's the hitting. Some
nights it's both. Nothing right now is clicking for us."
If statistics were to be seen, if the performance of the teams was observed, one would unfailingly see that the relatively weaker teams, if not underdogs, have been rather remarkably good. The teams that did not sink money into big players did not endure
much loss. They rather profited from this seemingly disadvantageous and unfavourable decision. But the opposite happened and the teams succeeded. So in the days to come, every team will think twice prior to strategising for the future and invest carefully
so as to make the maximum out of their investment.
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