Sox Rough Up Shields, Defeat Rays 7-3

By Pete Rampino in Featured, Red Sox ⋅ May 9, 2009 at 8:35am ⋅ Post a comment

Tampa Bay’s James Shields just can’t pitch at Fenway Park. Coming into Friday’s game, Shields had a career record of 0-4 at Fenway with a 9.56 ERA. The story was more of the same on Friday night as Shields was once again dominated by the Sox offense. Shields pitched five shutout innings and then he reached the 6th inning where he was roughed up for five earned runs and was chased from the game after the inning. The Sox would tack on two more runs off of reliever Grant Balfour on their way to a 7-3 win.

The sixth inning was the magic inning for the second night in a row as the Sox, down 3-0, scored five runs off of home runs by Jason Bay (2-4) and J.D. Drew (1-4). Over the last two games, the Sox have scored 17 runs combined in the sixth inning. Brad Penny turned in his fourth quality start of the season with 6.1 IP, 3 ER, and 2 strikeouts en route to his third victory. The bullpen shut the door on the Rays offense with 2.2 innings of shutout ball and allowing only one hit.

Sox Stud of the Game

Jason Bay, LF: Bay continues his hot streak at the plate by going 2-4 with his ninth home run and three RBI. Bay has 4 HR and 12 RBI in his last five games.

Sox Dud of the Game

David Ortiz, DH: Ortiz was the only Boston player who did not record a hit as he was 0-4 with a walk. His first home run still eludes him this season.

Game Notes

W: Brad Penny (3-1)
L: James Shields (3-3)

Dustin Pedroia went 4-5 at the plate to raise his average to .336. He is now hitting .485 in the month of May.
Kevin Youkilis missed his fourth straight game with tightness in his left side.
Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford continues to have success against Boston by going 3-5. He is hitting .441 against the Sox this season.

Tags: Brad Penny, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Grant Balfour, J.D. Drew, James Shields, Jason Bay, Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays

Discussion

2 comments for “Sox Rough Up Shields, Defeat Rays 7-3”

Sox Rough Up Shields, Defeat Rays 7-3: Tampa Bay’s James Shields just can’t pitch at Fenway Park. Co.. http://tinyurl.com/ow4u6w

Posted by Sports of Boston | May 9, 2009, 9:36 am
[...] by slamming the gound without even watching the ball leave the park. Penny improved to 3-1 with the 7-3 win, but allowed another eight hits and two walks and only fanned two, leaving his ERA at 6.90 for the [...]

Posted by Red Sox Finally Take Series From Rays, Close in on East Lead | Sports of Boston | May 11, 2009, 6:32 pm