Lester a One-Hit Wonder (Like Dexy’s Midnight Runners)
5/25/10: Red Sox 2, Rays 0
If Monday’s defeat of Wade Davis and the surging Tampa Bay Rays wasn’t enough to convince you that the 2010 Red Sox are for real, last night’s 2-0 run prevention masterpiece against staff ace James Shields may have done the trick. The Rays, second in all of MLB in runs scored per game coming into last night, were completely stifled by Jon Lester and the Red Sox bullpen.
Here’s some fodder for the “Varitek has superior pitch-calling powers” camp: Alex Speier tells us that the Red Sox have had 13 no-hitters or 1-hitters since 1998, tied for most in baseball, and that Jason Varitek was behind the plate for all of them. I went back and calculated the percentage of games that Tek has started behind the plate since 1998, and by my count, it’s 65% (1293/1991). So, this does appear to be slightly more than coincidence. However, this is probably skewed by the fact that Varitek was often on the bench for games started by Tim Wakefield, and Wake is typically one of the weaker starters in the rotation.
Notes & Takeaways:
- Not so fast: Darnell McDonald was not DFA’d yesterday, it was Scott Atchison who ended up as the loser in the zero-sum game of roster management. Apparently Jacoby Ellsbury isn’t quite as spry as management initially thought.
- Pete Abraham notes that the Sox have thrown out 8 of 20 would-be base stealers in the past 28 games, and the team’s increased focus on holding runners proved especially critical against Carl Crawford and the Rays last night.
- The Providence Journal tracked down Rocco Baldelli, now working in the Rays system as an instructor. He still hopes to return to the field (shades of Gabe Kapler’s career path).
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