The story of the night was Kason Gabbard. Gabbard threw an absolute gem tonight as he went all 9 innings, allowing just 3 hits in a 4-0 complete game victory over the Kansas City Royals. Gabbard established career highs in strikeouts with 8 and innings pitched with 9 as he threw a complete game shutout. Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia provided all the offense the Sox would need with homeruns.
Kasekase (thanks Texy for the nickname) was perfect through the first three innings. Five of the nine batters he faced were retired via the strikeout, three of the swinging variety and two looking.
Royals starter Brian Bannister was equal to the task as he retired the first eight batters he faced. With two outs in the 3rd inning, Julio Lugo broke up Bannister’s no-hitter with an infield single on a close play at first base. Replays later showed that Tony Pena Jr’s throw actually beat Lugo to the bag. With J.D. Drew at the plate, Lugo was picked off first base by Bannister. Lugo had been leaning towards stealing second but Bannister’s quick throw got him.
Gabbard’s perfect game was lost in the 4th inning as he hit the leadoff batter, David DeJesus with a changeup in the hand. Gabbard than induced a 4-6-3 double play by Mark Grudzielanek. He then got Mark Teahan to ground out to Kevin Youkilis at first base.
The local nine finally got on the scoreboard in the 4th inning. Drew led off with a line drive out to left field. Pedroia then took a high fastball from Bannister planting it in the Green Monster seats for a 1-0 Sox lead. Bannister got Big Papi for the second out of the inning. Manny followed with a monstrous blast to the right of the light bank in left-center above the Green Monster for a 2-0 lead. Youk ended the 4th with a line drive back to Bannister.
Kasekase would lose his no-hitter in the 5th inning and get himself into a little jam. After retiring Billy Butler, Gabbard gave up a single to Emil Brown. He then issued a walk to Esteban German. Gabbard rebounded with a strikeout of Alex Gordon for the second out of the inning. Gabbard then plunked Royals catcher John Buck with a fastball in the ribs to load up the bases. With Pedroia playing towards second base, Pena Jr. hit a slow chopper over the head of Gabbard that he fielded and barely got the speedy Pena Jr. at first to end the Royals’ best chance of the night.
The local nine added two more runs in the 6th inning. Drew struck out to lead off the inning. Pedroia followed with a single to centerfield. Big Papi brought home Pedroia with a two run blast that went around Pesky’s Pole in rightfield, giving the Sox a 4-0 lead. Manny flew out to left and Youk struck out looking ending the 6th inning.
Gabbard worked a perfect 7th inning and allowed only a single to Reggie Sanders in the 8th inning. In the 9th inning, he got DeJesus on a fly ball to center and Grudzielanek swinging for his 7th strikeout of the night. With the sellout crowd of 37,099 at the Fens on their feet, Gabbard got Teahan to strikeout swinging for his 8th strikeout and a complete game shutout win.
With the win, Gabbard moves to 3-0 on the season, with all three wins coming at the Fens. Tim Wakefield takes the hill tomorrow for the Sox as he looks to knuckle over the Royals.
Notes and musings:
Curt Schilling threw 31 pitches in his simulated game today. He will now go to Pawtucket for a rehab start on Saturday and then make another on July 26th for the Pawsox against Toledo. The Sox will be in Cleveland so Schill will do his side stuff with the team. He will have a normal bullpen session this Wednesday in anticipation of Saturday’s rehab appearance of 3 innings or 45 pitches.
Amalie Benjamin was at the press conference introducing a few of the players for the “Futures At Fenway” games to happen on August 11th. The Portland and Lowell clubs will play a doubleheader.
Red Sox top pick Nick Hagadone was supposed to make his pro debut last night but was rained out. He had his start pushed to Friday but today it was announced he will start for Lowell on Wednesday.
Curtis Leskanic has joined the Red Sox as pro scouting consultant. He retired after the 2004 World Series with the Sox.
The Red Sox are 5-5 on Mondays.
The Sox are hitting .239 with runners in scoring position since the start of the Oakland series in June.
Tony Pena Jr. hasn’t had a walk since May 5th.
The Royals lead the league with 56 hit batsmen.
Manny is second in the league with 36 career homeruns against the Royals among active players. Frank Thomas is first with 37.
6 of the last 7 losses by the Sox have been by one run.
Here is what a few of the auction items from yesterday went for. Dinner with the Schillings went for $32, 500. Hunting with Tim Wakefield, Mike Timlin and Doug Mirabelli went for $15,000. The meet and greet with Jason Varitek went for $11,000. There are 4 items left to bid on at Redsoxfoundation.org, two of them are the golf cart and the Dice-K meet and greet.
Mike Lowell singled in the 7th to extend his hitting streak to 6 games.
A cell phone went off during Francona’s post game press conference and he just sat there with a puzzled look and said, “I guess he didn’t see the sign back there.” Francona hates being interrupted by cell phones during his press conferences.
