Major League Baseball Update: James Shield’s the Rays from Red Sox’s resurgence
The fixture between the two American League Eastern Division sides was an important one. Suffice to say, both had a stake on the title and the playoffs. The match set was squared and the final fixture was the decider for the series. The game was played in front of Tampa Bay Rays’ fans in Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg. The Boston Red Sox were the visitors and with a fan base of 23,438, the bout began with the critics calling the game a contest of two deserved sides for the top tier of the division in the league.
The Tampa Bay side was looking for a win to trump down on the New York Yankees, who have been tied neck to neck with the side since a week now. Maintaining a lead was important but staying on the fringe was just as hard for the side. James Shield however, was the player to make his mark on the game as his restrictive ball throwing got the hosts the necessary win. The player has averaged 4.73 on the earning run average and last night’s performance got him to 13 wins in the season. He took out 8 hitters and conceded 7 hits and 3 runs.
Unfortunately, for the Red Sox, the story was all too different. The side faced a massive slump in mid-game. The team has been stuck on third place of the league table and the fight for the wildcard berth looks harder and harder, day by day. Last night proved all too difficult as the side’s versatile pitcher, John Lackey was not able to do his job right. The player who has an earning run average of 4.60 lost his 8th game of the season through 9 hits, 5 runs and 3 walks concession. The player struck out 7 hitters in his 6.1 innings of play.
The Red Sox got on the batting bag first when they came out to bat. However, the Rays started the scoring through Carlos Pena who opened the spectators’ eyes with a bat cracking, 433 feet home run, he bashed towards the right. This marked the first run of the game and it came in the bottom 4th, popping the Tampa Bay side to the top. However, much to the despair of the fans in Tropicana Field, their home team was put to the sword by the Boston hitting faction. Much was owed to Mike Lowell, who got the response under way when he scored the equalizer off Yamaico Navarro’s single to the shallow left, in the top 5th.
However, things didn’t end there for the visiting team. Darnell McDonald scored the next run when Marco Scutaro singled to the left and got the baseman to run to safety for the lead. The Rays were now on the receiving end and it was not going to get easier, as Shield was trying to secure and restrain the hungry batters. Boston however, didn’t delay as Adrian Beltre became the third player to score that night. This time, the hitter sprinted to the dugout in fashion off Daniel Nava’s single to the right as the Red Sox climbed to 3 runs in the top 6th, putting them in the driver’s seat.
Unfortunately, for the visitors, the Rays were looking for revenge; especially for the three runs they conceded in the last two innings. In addition, it was Carl Crawford who squared things in the bottom 6th. Ben Zobrist was already on the first base for the single he availed earlier. Crawford just made things look easy as he smashed a 422 feet homer to the right centre and got the Tampa Bay side to 3 runs. Evan Longoria then went in to score off Dan Johnson who singled to the centre. With 4 runs on the board, the hosts were back on top and the heat was on for both competitive ball clubs.
However, with the Rays’ bullpen doing their utmost best, the Red Sox were unable to do anything more against the league title contenders. Evan Longoria proved his mettle further more in the game when his single to the centre saw John Jaso through to the dugout for the team’s 5th run. The team were now safely on top with 2 in the bottom 7th and it took another two innings to put the opponents out of a series win.
The Rays won the series and went to the top with the New York Yankees to share the first spot.
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