(20) in the eighth inning of a baseball game, Monday, Aug. 22, 2016, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Ortiz scored to make it 2-0 when right fielder Steven Souza Jr. made an errant throw attempting to get Ortiz at third base after fielding Mookie Betts’ single.
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Boston Red Sox rookie outfielder Andrew Benintendi, who starred at Madeira High School, has had a memorable start to the week. “It looked like Price had good stuff”. No, but with a foundation of David Price, Rick Porcello, Wright and the improving Drew Pomeranz, he doesn’t need to be a star.
Despite the shot into the left-field stands, Goldschmidt said afterwards that he hasn’t had much luck hitting homers in tie games, so he was merely trying to put the ball in play.
Throw in six hits and eight runs over those five innings and what you end up with is a 10-5 loss on Sunday to the Detroit Tigers.
The defensive gem enabled Price to extend Tampa Bay’s scoring drought against Boston to 25 innings dating to a series at Fenway Park before the All-Star break.
Monday, Snell managed to work just two outs into the fourth inning and allowed two earned runs on four hits and five walks. Archer remains one of the best young pitchers in baseball but he has had a tough follow up this season after being among the league’s best past year and while guys like Jake Odorizzi haven’t pitched their best either I think a lot of the fall lands on Archer as the team’s ace.
Prior to the game, Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell said he was looking for ace pitcher David Price to “lead the way” as their team enters the final leg of an 11-game, four-city road trip. “I knew I was probably going to have to jump at some point and chose the right time”.
Price (12-8) won at the Trop for the first time as a visitor, taking a one-hitter into the eighth and striking out eight against his former team.
“I had a lot of good things happen”, said Price, the 2012 AL Cy Young Award victor who helped the Rays make the playoffs four times before being traded in 2014. The one thing that hurt him most this year was the home-run ball. It doesn’t happen a whole lot.
Tuesday night’s game at Tropicana Field pits two starting pitchers at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Benintendi, who drove in a run with a fourth-inning sacrifice fly, robbed Souza of what would have been a two-run homer with a running catch that almost sent him tumbling over a short wall.
“Pretty stunned”, Souza said.
Benintendi (Arkansas Razorbacks) struck out in his last at-bat Friday night, then went 0 for 3 with three strikeouts Saturday. Kiermaier lined a single up the middle and came home to score as Longoria hit a towering homer to left to cut the Red Sox lead to 6-2. RHP Koji Uehara (right pectoral strain) threw 33 pitches in his first mound session and will be evaluated in a week. Rays OF Kevin Kiermaier returned to center field after missing two starts with hip tightness. Of course, he’s got a 5.18 ERA and 1.37 WHIP in 107 2/3 innings, so the Sox would be justified in sending him back to the bullpen as well.
In his three starts since he began filling in for the injured Steven Wright, Buchholz has thrown 16⅔ innings while allowing five runs.
Archer is 1-9 in his career with a 5.82 ERA against Boston, having lost nine straight decisions, the longest stretch for any pitcher since Mike Moore lost 10 straight from 1987 to 1992.
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The Rays will follow with right-handers Chris Archer, Matt Andriese and Jake Odorizzi while the Red Sox future rotation is a little less certain.
