Victory-no
Now that the other Drew brother plays on the Red Sox we can revive the puns. In the top of the first Desmond Jennings smoked a liner off Will Middlebrooks’s glove. Usually tipped balls make their way to the outfield but the deflection found Stephen Drew’s leather, just like they drew it up. Rimshot.
In the third Jennings exacted his revenge with a single off the wall that no infielder nor outfielder had a chance at. He thought he had a double but the ricochet went right to Daniel Nava. After Jennings Sean Rodriguez lined his shot into the left field corner where it died rather than caromed, giving him a double, an RBI, and his team the lead.
David Price didn’t rehash his second outing of this season, a five-inning affair in which he surrendered eight earned runs. Instead he regained his Cy Young form, lasting six innings with two walks and eight strikeouts. Only David Ross got to him; the catcher’s fifth-inning home run cleared the wall and tied the score 1-1.
The Rays threatened in the ninth when Joel Hanrahan allowed consecutive walks to Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist. Koji Uehara took care of the next three batters in nine pitches. The local nine threatened with two baserunners of their own in the bottom of the frame with a two-out single by Nava and a base on balls by Mike Napoli. Drew’s lineout to center to end the inning wasn’t in the playbook.
In the bonus frame Jacoby Ellsbury singled up the middle. The prospect of having the speedster on the basepaths caused Jose Lobaton to rush his throw to second on Ellsbury’s steal attempt. As the ball dribbled passed second Ellsbury made his way to third.
The laboratory of Joe Maddon’s mind devised the plan to bring Matt Joyce in as the fifth outfielder. That didn’t work with the combination of Ellsbury at third and Shane Victorino at the dish. Victorino sent a nubber to Yunel Escobar, the shortstop who was playing on the right side of the infield.
The flaw behind a fifth infielder is that if Ellsbury runs on contact you’d have to have them playing around the mound to get to the ball in time. But if such a maneuver allows Maddon to keep his appellation of “genius,” so be it. We’ll take the win.
| Game 10: April 13, 2013 ∙ 10 innings | ||
| Tampa Bay Rays 4-6 |
1 | L: Brandon Gomes (0-1) |
| 2B: Sean Rodriguez (1), Jose Molina (2) | ||
 Boston Red Sox6-4 |
2 | W: Junichi Tazawa (2-0) |
| HR: David Ross (1) | ||
