Sox Bats Beat Up Shields, Rays

By KC Downey in Featured, Red Sox, Top Story ⋅ May 4, 2008 at 9:47am ⋅ Post a comment

Manny Ramirez broke the longest RBI drought of his Red Sox career with one hit and two RBIs in the Sox 12-4 win over the Rays. James Shields, who dominated the Red Sox in a complete-game shutout last week in Tampa Bay, was clobbered in 3 2/3 innings. He allowed seven runs (all earned) on ten hits and three walks to go along with three strikeouts. Josh Beckett was much better, going eight strong innings and allowing four earned runs on seven hits and one walk.

Sox Studs:

David Ortiz went 3-5 as he continues to bust out of his season-long slump. He finished two doubles and two RBI’s. He’s now hitting .216.
The Red Sox starting lineup had 15 hits in all, and all nine starters had at least one hit.

Diamond Duds:

Mike Lowell went 1-5, dropping his average to .220. He did hit a double, so he’s slowly busting out. More doubles and homers will show that a hitter will eventually turn the corner. 1-5 is bad, but a double is good to see.

Where’d the bats come from?

The Sox have scored 19 runs in the first two games of this series after scoring just three runs in the three previous games combined. Credit a heavy dose of some bad Tampa Bay pitching for the Sox bats waking up. I know they’ve been good overall, but the Sox seem to own them at Fenway.

Other Notes:

Jacoby Ellsbury reached base three times in five at bats by way of two hits and one walk.
Josh Beckett threw exactly 100 pitches (68 for strikes) in eight innings.
Former Sox bench warmers Eric Hinske and Carlos Pena went a combined 2-8 with one run scored.