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Chris Sales’s perfect game would have ended abruptly with just two down in the first inning were it not for Adam Eaton’s glove. Eaton’s leaping catch of David Ortiz’s line drive shot just above the center field fence was reminiscent of Mike Trout or, if you prefer to go old school, Andruw Jones. Even Ortiz gazed on in admiration. From that point Sale only allowed two baserunners: David Ross walked in the second and Xander Bogaerts was hit by a pitch in the fourth. Perhaps Bogaerts took the plunking personally as he delivered the end of the no-hitter via air mail with two down in the sixth. Alejandro De Aza had no chance to snare Bogaerts’s blast to left field. Jon Lester carried a perfect game into the sixth. Once again Bogaerts was pivotal to the play as Tyler Flowers sent a single just out of reach past the shortstop. Leury Garcia proved a better hitter than reliever and laced a ground-rule double to right. Eaton, hero of the first inning, tapped the ball through Mike Napoli’s dive but it was seized by Dustin Pedroia. Lester couldn’t beat Eaton to the bag and the score was tied 1-1. In the...
According to the internets Adam Dunn’s nickname “Big Donkey” was given to him by teammates who have seen him in the shower. I’m sure Dunn has overcome the hardship of having a grey-haired hide, particularly with his baserunning acuity. Dunn notched his 60th stolen base in the top of the third. It was his first stolen base since April 9, 2008, a game between the Reds and the Brewers. Since Dunn’s most recent theft America has witnessed large sweeps of historic scale. Later in 2008 the subprime mortgage crisis came to a head, power exchanged hands from the GOP to the Democrats with Barack Obama’s defeat of John McCain, and the world lost Tim Russert, Paul Newman, and Betty Page. In 2009 the likes of Ted Kennedy, Farrah Fawcett, and Patrick Swayze passed without enjoying the majesty of a Dunn stolen base. Howard Zinn, Leslie Nielsen, George Steinbrenner, Rue McClanahan, Jose Lima, and J.D. Salinger followed in 2010. Last year Steve Jobs, Elizabeth Taylor, Gerry Rafferty, Frank Buckles (the last surviving American WWI veteran), Christopher Hitchens, Amy Winehouse and Betty Ford joined the ranks of those who would miss Dunn’s stunning swipe. The Adam Dunn stolen base. Not as infrequent,...
I kept on thinking that the Red Sox were playing the Phillies or Nationals, but the White Sox were in genuine throwbacks from the 1970s. In 2012 Paul Konerko wasn’t juggling balls in the dugout with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth but rather watching Gavin Floyd flirt with a perfect game until the fifth and a no-hitter up to the seventh. Cody Ross, balaclava free, broke up the perfecto after Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz harmlessly grounded out to the middle infielders. Ross worked a base on balls on seven pitches and refrained from flipping his bat when he took first. Dustin Pedroia, who wore one of the four shared balaclavas, broke up the no-hitter with a sharp grounder past his diving counterpart, Eduardo Escobar. David Ortiz powered Pedroia to third with a line drive double to right. With runners in scoring position Ross came through again and drove in Boston’s only run with a single past shortstop Alexei Ramirez to plate Pedroia. Getting a closer look at Pedroia he wasn’t wearing an accessory on his head — that was his facial hair. Josh Beckett didn’t pitch badly but merely was out-played by Floyd, a hurler who has...
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Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library’s Sports Temples of Boston.