The Red Sox ended their road trip with a disappointing 5-2 loss to the Devil Rays. Of course, the Sox were up against Scott Kazmir, who for some reason owns us.
The game was a pitching duel until the 7th, when the 0-0 score was busted open by a trio of Tampa Bay longballs.
We actually got 7 baserunners off of Kazmir (6 singles, 1 double, 1 walk), but were unable to score. A major hindrance to our offensive production were Ortiz and Manny.
Coming into this game, Ortiz was 5 for 29 (.172) against Kazmir, with 9 strikeouts. Manny is 4 for 31 (.129) with 10 strikeouts and an absolutely pathetic .258 slugging percentage. Combined against Kazmir yesterday, they were 0 for 6. Ortiz grounded into 2 rally crushing double plays.
I feel as though either Ortiz or Ramirez should have been given the day off, at least to start the game. Preferably Ortiz. We played a 12 inning game the night before, Ortiz is nursing a bad shoulder AND bad knees, and he cannot hit against Kazmir. Having both Ortiz and Ramirez in the lineup (and in the most pivitol part of our lineup) was devastating to our offensive effort.
Taken as a whole, the road trip was good. We took 3 from Cleveland, which is an accomplishment. We didn't sweep Tampa, but we actually haven't swept a 3 game series in Tampa since 2001.
During yesterday's game, NESN spent a lot of time focusing on the side action at Tropicana field. The mascots, the Devil Girls, and the cartoonish way that Devil Rays games seem to be presented. And then an ad came on for the Red Sox Nation cards, and the whole President of Red Sox Nation BS. Are we much better than the Tampa Bay D-Rays? I'm not so sure.
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