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Jake Peavy is legally blind, which is terrifying considering his chosen profession is to throw objects at people in speeds in excess of 90 miles an hour. To say that he is “blind as a bat” may be a misapprehension of the biology of the order Chiroptera as no bat is actually blind. I’m not sure if the same can be said about Jerry Layne and his crew. Here they are trying to figure out if the count is correct. Dropping a four-game series is bad enough, but it had to be against former Rays hurler James Shields. I’ll always remember Coco Crisp’s bob and weave away from Shields’s punch. The Royals starter didn’t pull any punches on Sunday. Much of the Red Sox lineup is slumping, as his line of 7 innings, 7 hits, 3 runs (2 earned), 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts will attest. Game 120: August 11, 2013 Boston Red Sox71-49 3 L: John Lackey (7-10) 2B: Shane Victorino (18), Stephen Drew (18) Kansas City Royals62-54 4 W: James Shields (7-8)H: Tim Collins (19), Aaron Crow (18)S: Greg Holland (32) 2B: Mike Moustakas (18), Alex Gordon (19)HR: Gordon (13)...
For four innings James Shields limited the home hitters to four baserunners but in the fifth inning the Rays starter failed to show proof that his team’s pitching staff has the best earned run average in the American League. Mike Cameron’s gutshot single to his counterpart set the stage, Marco Scutaro’s wall-ball warmed up the crowd, and David Ortiz’s three-run shot over the visitors’ bullpen set the audience into a frenzy. Ortiz nonchalantly tossed his bat after the blast, like he had just swatted a fly and flung away rolled-up newspaper. Shields hunched over, hands on knees as if someone had just thumped him in the diaphragm. He swiped angrily at the dirt as fans battled over the ball and Ortiz rounded third. Evan Longoria refrained from criticizing his teammate’s pitch selection but instead manned his base and pondered why he let a four-year old cut his hair. Pinch hitters infused the shell-shocked Tampa Bay squad with new life in the late innings. Responding to Bill Hall’s two-run homer was Willy Aybar’s two-RBI effort over the left field wall in the eighth. Joe Maddon summoned B.J. Upton to pinch hit with two out and the center fielder showed hustle on...
Game 30: May 8, 2009 Rays3L: James Shields (3-3)14-17, 1 game losing streak Red Sox7W: Brad Penny (3-1)H: Hideki Okajima (5)H: Ramon Ramirez (5)19-11, 2 game winning streak Highlights: Seven runs scored, seven etched on the field, seven in heaven. For the second game in a row the Red Sox defeated a pitcher with the initials “J.S.” Like Jeremy Sowers before him, James Shields cruised for most of the game until sixth inning.I wish MLB weren’t so protective of its copyright on YouTube. I could watch Shields’s reaction to Jason Bay’s game-tying home run off the stanchion a million times over. Shields let fly a cookie (in Dennis Eckersley’s parlance) and even before Bay followed through with his swing the pitcher knew he lost his lead. He swiped at the mound with his pitching hand causing an eruption of dirt.The fireworks weren’t over with Bay’s blast to left. J.D. Drew launched a two-run shot to right with Mike Lowell on second. This time Shields’s response was quite so violent: he jerked up his head to watch the ball’s lofty trajectory take his chance for a win into the visitors’ pen.Lowell was fortunate to be on second in this inning; Carl...
Game 27: April 27, 2008 Red Sox 0 L: Josh Beckett (2-2) 15-12, 5 game losing streak Rays 3 W: James Shields (3-1) 14-11, 6 game winning streak Highlights: A dominant pitching start ended in Boston’s fifth straight loss. Not only was it the first time the Rays swept the Red Sox but it also propelled Tampa Bay into first place in the American League East. The Red Sox had a few individual accomplishments of note: Josh Beckett mowed down 13 batters over seven innings of work, a career high. His previous high of 12 came on July 12, 2002 where he was opposed by the Expos. Manny Ramirez had his first stolen base since April 10, 2005 in a game against the Blue Jays. Certainly that theft was nowhere near as dramatic as Ramirez was dreadless back then. But it was the nine innings of two-hit ball that James Shields turned in that prevailed. The young pitcher continued to fill in admirably in Scott Kazmir’s absence, striking out seven while walking a single hitter. The game also revealed who will be the Red Sox’s gadfly this season. Light-hitting Jason Bartlett, formerly of the Twins, looks to be Frank...
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Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library’s Sports Temples of Boston.