Daniel Bard pitched six scoreless innings before running out of gas in the seventh inning today. Bard’s fastball had lost some of its zip and he was struggling with pitch location after getting the first two outs in the seventh. After walking Rodriguez, Bard gave up a single to Jennings and then walked Pena to load the bases. It was obvious that Bard had nothing left in the tank and he had thrown over 100 pitches in just the second start of his career. Bobby Valentine elected to let Bard stay in the game and sent the pitching coach to the mound. Evan Longoria came to the plate with the bases juiced and walked on four straight pitches to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.
James Shields pitched 8 1/3 shutout innings and gave up just four hits to the Red Sox. Ross was the only Red Sox player to get two hits in the game for Boston, Pedroia and Gonzalez had the other two hits.
Red Sox 0 Rays 1 BOX SCORE
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