The 2009 Hit Show?

The Rays played in their 2nd game of the season today vs the Boston Red Sox @ Fenway Park. We were dominated by Josh Beckett on Tuesday, striking out a total of 14 times in the game. This game though was quite a bit different.

We put up a run in the third but wasted a chance to put some more runs on the board with an untimely double play by Evan Longoria in the third inning, and almost did the same in the 5th inning with another double play by Longo, until Carlos Pena hit a 2 run shot that sparked a 4 run inning.

After walking 3 of the first 5 batters of the game, Scott Kazmir settled down and didn’t walk another batter all game. He ended up pitching 6 innings, and giving up one run while striking out four and walking 3. Dan Wheeler, JP Howell and Grant Balfour ended the game in that order with only Howell giving up a run, but the combo combining for 1 ER ball and striking out 4.

The real eye opener of the day, especially after Tuesday’s strikeout fest was the Hit Show the Rays put on. Jason Bartlett, Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria and Akinori Iwamura all had 2+ hits with Aki and JB getting 3 a piece. Joe Maddon switched Bartlett and Aki in the order, swapped for the top and bottom of the order, and both produced 3 hits in the 1 and the 9 hole respectively.

Box obtained from MLB.com.

FIELDING
Outfield assists: Kapler (Youkilis at 2nd base).

FIELDING
E: Youkilis (1, throw).
Outfield assists: Ellsbury (Kapler at 3rd base).
DP: 2 (Lowrie-Pedroia-Youkilis 2).

HBP

: Lowell (by Howell).

Pitches-strikes

: Kazmir 111-68, Wheeler 15-10, Howell 16-11, Balfour 16-11, Lester 94-60, Delcarmen 17-10, Ramirez, R 13-10, Saito 16-9, Lopez, J 20-13.

Groundouts-flyouts

: Kazmir 2-11, Wheeler 0-2, Howell 0-0, Balfour 1-2, Lester 8-2, Delcarmen 3-0, Ramirez, R 0-2, Saito 0-3, Lopez, J 1-1.

Batters faced

: Kazmir 25, Wheeler 3, Howell 6, Balfour 4, Lester 23, Delcarmen 3, Ramirez, R 3, Saito 4, Lopez, J 6.

Inherited runners-scored

: Balfour 3-0.

Umpires

: HP: Bob Davidson. 1B: Jeff Nelson. 2B: Mark Carlson. 3B: Tim Tschida.

Weather

: 45 degrees, cloudy.

Wind

: 12 mph, L to R.

: 3:10.

Att

: 37,552.

April 8, 2009

Box score official statistics approved by Major League Baseball Office of the Commissioner