Rays Get Three Hits, Lose 3-1 to Red Sox in Series Opener

Well, that was fun. There's not much to say when your offense puts up that much of a stinker - three hits isn't going to win most games against the Red Sox. The Rays had a tough time hitting Jon Lester and if it wasn't for two consecutive wild pitches by Lester in the fourth inning, the Rays would have been held scoreless. The Rays also had a chance to score in the sixth inning, but BJ Upton was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second base on a single by Jason Bartlett. It was a typical Rays move - force the opposition to execute a play perfectly - but McDonald made a perfect throw from center and Victor Martinez was positioned well. 

There were a couple of questionable umping calls that went either way, but in the end, the Rays' offense was what let them down. Jon Lester is a heck of a starting pitcher and he was on his game last night: mixing pitches, throwing 94-95 MPH heat, and generating swinging strikes with his change-up, curve, fastball, and cutter. He stayed low in the zone for the most part and forced the Rays to hit into a large number of groundball outs. His control wasn't quite there (five walks) and although the Rays took advantage of that, they couldn't manage to get the baserunners around to score.

The game would have been a lot closer if Price hadn't let up two solo homeruns to Victor Martinez, but overall he pitched a great game (seven innings, ten hits, no walks, eight strikeouts). His control was much improved from his last time out (in which he walked five batters), although he may have compensated by leaving a few too many balls over the plate and letting the Sox get hits. He worked high in the zone, trying to blow 95-97 MPH fastballs by the Sox and although it worked (he had 15 swinging strikes on his fastball), those sort of pitches will end up as homeruns if you make a slight mistake to a good batter.

C'est la vie. Let's move on and get a win tonight. Matt Garza versus Clay Buchholz promises to be another great matchup, but hopefully the Rays can actually get some offense going this time.