It was a special night for baseball on Monday night as Nomar Garciaparra made his first trip to Fenway Park since being traded back in 2004. The night also marked the Fenway debut of John Smoltz in a Boston Red Sox uniform.
In the end though it was Nomar’s A’s who came out on top 6-0 behind a brilliant pitching performance by rookie Brett Anderson in front of 38,294 fans.
The loss drops the Red Sox to 49-33 but they maintain their one game lead in the AL East over the Yankees, who lost to the Blue Jays. The A’s improve to 35-46 on the season.
The early part of the night belonged to Nomar early on as he received a 1 minute and 14 second ovation from the crowd during his first at-bat of the game in the 2nd inning. He finished the night 2-for-4 with an RBI before giving way to a pinch-runner.
The rest of the night belonged to Anderson who baffled Red Sox hitters all game long. He threw the first complete game shutout of his career allowing just 2 hits along the way. He walked just 2 and struck out 9 Red Sox batters.
Nerves may have played a part for Smoltz in his debut at the Fens. He gave up a few hits early on but then settled in for a couple of innings. He then got touched up for 4 runs in the 4th as he struggled with his command. Smoltz went 6 innings, allowing 5 runs on 10 hits and a walk with 3 strikeouts.
Both Daniel Bard and Ramon Ramirez had good outings on the evening. They both went an inning with Bard striking out 2 and Ramirez allowing a hit. Takashi Saito, on the other hand, struggled as he gave up a run on 4 hits.
Jason Bay and Nick Green had the only hits of the night off of Anderson. The Red Sox really didn’t hit too many balls hard off of Anderson either.
After an emotional night at Fenway, these two teams are back at it again tomorrow night. Dana Eveland gets the start for the A’s and he’ll be opposed by Josh Beckett.
