| Wakefield’s Record, Drew’s Shocker, Bay’s Bash | 07.03.09 at 7:35 pm ET |
A pretty fascinating first inning at Fenway Park. Some highlights:
1) Tim Wakefield sailed through a scoreless first, allowing only a lazy fly ball to Jose Lopez that scraped the Wall for a double. As long as rain doesn’t wipe tonight’s game from the record books (apparently a possibility, though it’s hard to tell on a beautiful night at Fenway), Wakefield now stands alone in Red Sox history, having made 383 starts with the club — one more than Roger Clemens.
2) The Red Sox appear to be taking an aggressive early-count approach against Mariners ace Felix Hernandez. Five of the six Sox hitters in the bottom of the first swung at the first or second pitch. Most stunningly, leadoff man J.D. Drew flew out to center on the first pitch of the game, a 94 mph fastball. The last time that Drew put the first pitch of the game in play while hitting leadoff was June 26, 2000, when he singled on Denny Neagle’s first pitch of the game. Since then, Drew had batted leadoff in 38 games and had seen at least two pitches in each of his first at-bats of the game.
3) King Felix gave up a run — two, actually — in Fenway. Entering tonight, Hernandez had made two starts in Boston, logging a total of 15 shutout innings, most notably the dazzling one-hit complete-game he threw in 2007.
4) Jason Bay, who carried an 0-for-17 slump into tonight’s game, ripped a ground-rule double over the head of Ichiro Suzuki in deep right field to plate the first run. That probably tastes much better than the five strikeouts he endured on Wednesday. Apparently, American citizenship suits Bay. (Bay did take a moment before the game to note that a) he is honored by his American citizenship and b) he has NOT renounced his Canadian citizenship. He is a dual citizen, and remains proud of his Canadian heritage.)
5) One bonus fact from the second inning: shortstop Nick Green, like Bay, snapped an 0-for-17 streak by doubling against Hernandez.
Sox lead, 2-0.







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