Patriot’s Day Red Sox Delight – 4/16

David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox doubles in a run in the sixth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park April 15, 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts. Both teams wore the number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day

When David Ortiz agreed to the one-year deal with the Boston Red Sox, there were some grumblings here in Red Sox Nation that he may be past his prime at the age of 36. People were worried that he couldn’t match the production of years past.

The baseball operations people may have felt the same way about Big Papi because they lowballed him during arbitration negotiations and didn’t offer him anything reasonable for a two-year deal. So what did he do, he came into spring training in the best shape of his life.

Well if he was holding a grudge against anyone in the front office of the Red Sox, I like the way he’s showing to them he’s no where near done producing. After another three hit performance in the 6-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, Big Papi is now hitting .444 on the season with one home run and 10 RBIs. Five of his 13 hits on the season are of the extra base variety with four of them being doubles.

His third hit and second double of the afternoon turned out to be the difference as it knocked in Kevin Youkilis with the fifth run of the afternoon for the Red Sox. His first hit of the afternoon, a double in the second, was the start of a three-run inning. He would come around to score on a mammoth blast over the Green Monster by Cody Ross, who seems to be taking to Fenway quite nicely.

Mike Aviles added an insurance run in the 7th with a solo home run, his second in as many days.

Felix Doubront once again struggled with his pitch count. He left the game after five plus innings and 96 pitches. He also was given a four run lead and squandered it again. However with that said, he did look pretty good at times as he finished with a career-high seven strikeouts.

At times, he was making the Rays hitters look silly. He had good life on his fastball and his curveball and changeup were pretty much unhittable. Some bad defense played a part in him giving up three runs in the 5th and personally, I think the blame on the home run he allowed to Fenway favorite Luke Scott in the 6th goes to skipper Bobby Valentine.

With Doubront’s pitch count well over 90 pitches at that point, Valentine elected to keep him out on the mound to face the lefty Scott. Obviously it didn’t turn out that way. Not to question Valentine but former manager Terry Francona would have taken him out and given the bullpen a chance to save the win for him.

Scott Atchison struggled a little out of the bullpen but Vicente Padilla bailed him out with 1.2 innings of one-hit ball. Franklin Morales continued to be solid out the bullpen and Alfredo Aceves was lights out in picking up his second save of the season.

Hopefully the nice pitching and hitting continue this afternoon.

To see today’s lineups, as well as the batter/pitcher matchups as well as links from the day, please click on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

James Shields (L), Daniel Bard (R)

After picking up their third straight win, the Boston Red Sox look for the sweep of the four-game set with their AL East rivals the Tampa Bay Rays this morning at Historic Fenway Park.

First pitch is scheduled for 11:05 a.m. and the game will be broadcast in the Red Sox television market on NESN. If you live in the Rays television market, you can catch the game on Sun Sports. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to it on the Red Sox radio network.

After taking the loss in his first career MLB start, Daniel Bard looks to continue the winning ways for the Red Sox this morning. In his first start against the Blue Jays, he allowed five earned runs in five innings of work all though he pitched better than his line indicated. Bard made eight appearances against the Rays in 2011 and was 0-1 with a 1.13 ERA (1 ER/8 IP). Overall in his career, he’s made 18 appearances and is 0-1 with a 1.00 ERA (2 ER/18 IP).

James Shields makes his third start of 2012 for the reeling Rays. In his previous two starts, Shields is 1-0 with a 5.54 ERA. He made five starts against the Red Sox in 2011 and was 2-3 with a 3.29 ERA. Overall in his career, Shields has made 21 career starts against the Red Sox and is 7-12 with a 4.61 ERA. Ten of those starts have come at the Fens where he is 1-9 with a 6.75 ERA.

Here are today’s lineups:

4-5		4-5
1. Desmond Jennings	CF	1. Mike Aviles	SS
2. Carlos Pena	1B	2. Dustin Pedroia	2B
3. Evan Longoria	3B	3. Adrian Gonzalez	1B
4. Luke Scott	DH	4. David Ortiz	DH
5. Ben Zobrist	RF	5. Cody Ross	CF
6. Matt Joyce	LF	6. Ryan Sweeney	RF
7. Jeff Keppinger	2B	7. Nick Punto	3B
8. Jose Molina	C	8. Jarrod Saltalamacchia	C
9. Sean Rodriguez	SS	9. Darnell McDonald	LF
James Shields	SP	Daniel Bard	SP