Kyle McClellan dominates as St. Louis Cardinals defeat Boston Red Sox 10-3 – MLB Spring Review
Kyle McClellan put in a tremendous pitching performance as he tossed five scoreless innings with two strike-outs to help the St. Louis Cardinals humiliate the Boston Red Sox 10-3 in their Grapefruit outing on Sunday, March 20 at the City of Palms Park in
Fort Myers, Arizona.
With this impressive win, the Cardinals record went to 12-10 in the spring session.
Cardinals’ decision to utilise 14 batters in one inning proved successful as in the sixth inning they managed to post 10 decisive runs. This was basically the nail in the coffin for the powerful Red Sox team. It seemed that strategy out-smarted brute force
on this day.
First baseman Albert Pujols managed to hit a three run double in the sixth inning which started off the ten run inning for the Cardinals.
Kyle McClellan making his fourth start of spring proved his worth as he was facing the Red Sox opening day line-up. Cardinal’ manager Tony La Russa was pleased with the performance of McClellan.
"I thought his stuff was good, his location was off," La Russa said. "For this place, the wind goes the other direction, they took advantage of it a couple of times. But he still made a ton of pitches and got the ball on the ground a lot. We knew McClellan
was a quality pitcher, known for a couple years. But it was a good test."
Trever Miller and Bryan Augenstein did not allow any run in their short one inning spell. Augenstein also managed to get two strike-outs to his name. Joe Kelly received five hits and gave up three runs to the Red Sox in the eighth inning.
Red Sox Daisuke Matsuzaka had a decent performance even though he took the loss. He managed to strike-out four and only allowed two runs in just over five innings.
Andrew Miller was expensive for the Red Sox as he gave up six runs without any strike-outs. Scott Atchison also had a poor performance as he allowed four hits and two runs to the Cardinals.
Overall, the St. Louis Cardinals showed everyone that they can compete with top teams like the Boston Red Sox at full strength. The Cardinals beat the Red Sox in every department and their offence was far superior on the day. This tremendous victory will
boost the confidence of the Cardinals.
The Red Sox will be disappointed by their poor performance as their pitching line-up really let them down. However, being that this is spring training, the team has time to finalise an appropriate pitching rotation before the regular season begins. The Cardinals
will be looking to carry their winning momentum in to the beginning of the regular season.
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