April 13, 2013: Red Sox record first of season’s 11 walk-off wins

It was the 10th game of the 2013 season, with the Tampa Bay Rays (4-5) visiting Fenway Park to play the Boston Red Sox (5-4) on a Saturday afternoon. Friday’s series opener had been rained out, turning a scheduled four-game series into a three-game set.

In a battle of left-handers, the starting pitcher for manager John Farrell’s Red Sox was two-time All-Star Jon Lester, while Rays manager Joe Maddon went with the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, David Price, who had been 20-5 with a 2.56 ERA in 2012. Both starting pitchers performed well, going at least six innings and giving up just one run apiece. By the time the game was over, though, the Rays used six pitchers and the Red Sox five.

The Rays scored first, in the top of the third. Lester had walked one in the first inning and given up back-to-back two-out singles in the second.

In the third, Rays center fielder Desmond Jennings led off with a single off the scoreboard in straightaway left. First baseman Sean Rodríguez followed with a double down the line in left, with Jennings scoring from first.

Third baseman Evan Longoria came to bat and Lester let loose a wild pitch, enabling Rodríguez to take third with still nobody out. But Lester struck out Longoria, right fielder Ben Zobrist lined out to first base, and DH Shelley Duncan grounded out, third to first.

Price walked one in the first inning and one in the second, and gave up a single to right fielder Shane Victorino in the third. Victorino stole second, but second baseman Dustin Pedroia struck out.

Both pitchers traded one-two-three innings in the fourth. Lester again set down the side in order in the top of the fifth, and the Red Sox got to Price for a run in the bottom of the inning.

After two outs, catcher David Ross, who had started 2013 just 1-for-10, worked a 3-and-2 count and, on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, hit a solo home run completely over the Green Monster in left, tying the score 1-1.1 Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury grounded out to first base unassisted.

Three groundouts constituted the Rays’ sixth; Lester had retired 12 in a row. The Red Sox got back-to-back two-out singles by first baseman Mike Napoli and third baseman Will Middlebrooks, but left fielder Daniel Nava flied out to center, ending any threat.

Shortstop Yunel Escobar broke Lester’s streak by singling to lead off the seventh, but second baseman Ryan Roberts grounded into a 4-6-3 double play and catcher Jose Molina followed with a groundout, third to first.

Maddon had Jake McGee relieve in the seventh; Price had thrown 106 pitches in six innings. McGee retired the Red Sox in order.

Andrew Bailey took over for Lester – whose final pitch count was 100 – in the top of the eighth. He faced three batters and got all three out. Joel Peralta took over for McGee and he, too, retired the side in the bottom of the eighth.

In the ninth inning, the score still 1-1, Joel Hanrahan relieved Bailey. Longoria walked on four pitches. Next up was Zobrist and, though it took eight pitches, he too drew a walk. The Rays had runners on first and second with nobody out.

Farrell beckoned Koji Uehara in from the Boston bullpen. Maddon countered with pinch-hitter James Loney. Uehara struck out Loney. Escobar lifted a fly ball to Victorino in right-center but not deep enough for Longoria to tag up and score. Roberts popped up to Pedroia.

Maddon received some criticism later for eschewing the bunt with Loney at the plate. He had been quoted as saying “the bunt is an overrated play” and, after this game, he said, “For that group out there that wants people to bunt all the time, you don’t know the outcome when you choose to do that.” He had Loney hit because “[t]he guys hitting afterward are not really tearing the ball up right now.”2

The Red Sox came to bat in the bottom of the ninth, the game on the line. Kyle Farnsworth got Napoli to ground out and Middlebrooks to line out to Zobrist in right. Maddon then brought in left-hander Cesar Ramos to pitch to Daniel Nava, and Nava singled to right.3

Maddon then set up a Gomes vs. Gomes confrontation.4 Massachusetts-born righty Brandon Gomes was called on to face Red Sox DH (and California native) Jonny Gomes. Six pitches later, Jonny Gomes was on first base with a walk. But Red Sox shortstop Stephen Drew lined out to deep center and the game went into extra innings.

In the top of the 10th, Junichi Tazawa relieved Uehara. First up was Molina, who doubled to right field. Pinch-runner Kelly Johnson replaced the 37-year-old Molina on second.

Again, Maddon had a Rays batter hit away, and left fielder Matt Joyce lined out to left-center. Jennings popped up to second baseman Pedroia in shallow center. Sam Fuld, who’d come into the game as a pinch-hitter in the eighth and stayed in to play right field, grounded out to first base unassisted.

The Rays were 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Longoria said postgame, “If we want to compete in this division and this season in general, we’re going to have to find a way to push across more than one run.”5

In the Red Sox’ 10th, Jose Lobaton replaced Molina behind the plate. Over his career, Molina had been effective against the running game, leading the AL in percentage of runners caught stealing twice and throwing out 37 percent of steal attempts in 15 major-league seasons. Lobaton, by contrast, had caught only 18 percent of baserunners through four big-league seasons.

The impact of Tampa Bay’s defensive substitution soon became apparent. In the bottom of the 10th, Gomes struck out Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia looking. Ellsbury lined a single right past Gomes, up the middle and into center. With Victorino batting, he then stole second base, with relative ease, for his fifth steal in as many attempts in 2013.

The Rays battery might have been better off just letting him take the base: Lobaton’s throw “ticked off” shortstop Escobar’s glove and went out into right-center.6 Ellsbury wound up on third base, the catcher charged with an error.

The potential winning run was on third with only one out. Victorino faced a drawn-in five-man infield, with three infielders on the right side and left fielder Joyce playing third base.

On the very next pitch, with the count 2-and-2, Victorino slapped a hit to the right of pitcher Gomes, on the right-field side of second base, “a perfectly placed ground ball that shortstop Yunel Escobar snagged but couldn’t make a throw home on.”7 He’d had to dive for the ball and got it, but was unable to make a play.

Running on contact, Ellsbury scored easily, and the Red Sox had their first walk-off win of the 2013 season. “That’s the kind of game we want to play,” said Farrell. “We want to force the defense, to put pressure on them.”8

The Red Sox won their next two games against Tampa Bay as well – a 5-0 shutout for Clay Buchholz on Sunday afternoon and a 3-2 win in the 11:05 A.M. Patriots Day game on Monday.

The Patriots Day game was another walk-off, this time on a ninth-inning double by Napoli that scored Pedroia from first base. The game ended at 2:08 P.M. and both teams departed, the Rays for Baltimore and the Red Sox for Cleveland. At 2:49 P.M., two bombs exploded near the finish line at the Boston Marathon, just one mile from Fenway Park, killing three bystanders.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org and a video of the game on YouTube. Thanks to Jay Caldwell for supplying Tampa Bay Times newspaper coverage.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS201304130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2013/B04130BOS2013.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwtLj_wsFtI

Notes

1 “It was a bomb, wasn’t it?” he said afterward, talking about the matchup and his home run. “It was fun. I’ve been scuffling a little bit.” Not only had he been just 1-for-10 on the season; he had been only 3-for-28 in spring training. Peter Abraham, “Ross Contribution a Big Hit,” Boston Globe, April 14, 2013: C8.

2 Marc Topkin, “Small Ball Not in Rays’ Arsenal,” Tampa Bay Times, April 14, 2014: 1C.

3 Though a switch-hitter, Nava had hit better facing right-handers.

4 Major League Baseball did not implement the rule requiring pitchers to face a minimum of three batters until the 2020 season.

5 Topkin.

6 Peter Abraham, “A Perfect 10th for Red Sox,” Boston Globe, April 14, 2013: C1. The error was charged to Lobaton on the throw.

7 Topkin.

8 Abraham, “A Perfect 10th for Red Sox.” Victorino said he hadn’t even noticed the five men in the infield. “Just put the ball in play.” That was his goal. Associated Press, “Sweet Victorino for Sox,” Naples (Florida) Daily News, April 14, 2013: 6C.