[Game 2: RAYS 7, Boston 2] Bats good, Kazmir too
By Scott Caruso | April 9th, 2009 | Posted in Game Recap
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  |
R | H | E | |
|
Tampa Bay
|
0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 13 | 0 | |
|
Boston
|
0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 1 |
As sloppy and ugly as Game 1 looked, Game 2 looked crisp, clean, and very Rays-like, as the team pounded out 13 hits in a workman-like romp over the Red Sox in the season’s second game. Jon Lester’s dreams of an AL Cy Young Award were, for the first game anyway, put on hold.
El Gato Fuerte: After whiffing yet again in his first at bat (that was 5 straight to start the season, for those counting), Carlos Pena’s third at-bat of the game was a big one, as he clobbered a Lester fastball deep into the centerfield seats. It was a very Pena-like home run and something that – of course – we all hope to see much more of in the coming weeks and months.
I’m going to see if I can find out of any other position players that began a season with 5 straight strikeouts; it may take me some time pouring through stats though. I’ll get back to you.
Of Pitch Counts and Kid K: We’ve come to expect Scott Kazmir to have a terribly high pitch-count, and he didn’t disappoint yesterday, needing 111 of them to get through 6 innings of work. The point, though, is that he got through 6 innings, allowing just 1 run and 5 hits. The 3 walks weren’t pretty, but they all came early before he settled down.
Evan Sometimes Almighty: A monster bomb and a rope of a double were sandwiched outside a pair of double-play groundouts. At least he didn’t strikeout.
J.P. Howell… made a mess, but the Mad Australian Grant Balfour cleaned it up, snuffing out a Red Sox rally with a big-time strikeout with the bases loaded. If you had Balfour in the predicitions pool about who was going to have the season’s first save, congratulations!
9th Place? Apparently Akinori Iwamura doesn’t believe in hitting 9th in the order, becuase he smoked a couple of balls in going 3-for-4. Most importantly, he came around and scored once for each of the three hits he got.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:56 am
It is funny that with all the good last night, the worst thing that sticks in my mind was CC’s bunt attempt. Somebody has to show CC how to bunt. Every kid in little league is taught how and some never learn and it seems CC was one of those. They need to work with him, he flicks the bat instead of squaring up and letting the ball come to him and deadening it.