May 15, 2004: Bronson Arroyo shuts out Blue Jays; Kevin Youkilis homers in MLB debut

The May 15, 2004, game in Toronto saw two contributors to the 2004 Red Sox make their marks. Right-hander Bronson Arroyo had been selected off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates in early February 2003 after pitching in 53 games over three seasons in Pittsburgh. In 24 starts with Triple-A Pawtucket in 2003, he was 12-6 (3.43), then saw six relief appearances with Boston (with a 2.08 ERA).

So far in 2004, the 27-year-old Arroyo had split his time between starting and the bullpen, making four starts and recording his only two decisions, a win and a loss, in relief. Entering the start in Toronto, his last four appearances had included two “quality starts,” with six innings pitched and two runs allowed, and two scoreless relief outings, dropping his ERA to 4.55.

Kevin Youkilis had been Boston’s eighth-round draft choice out of the University of Cincinnati in 2001. He’d done very well at Double A in 2002 and 2003 but not as well at Triple A since then. While in the minors, he’d become relatively well-known ever since Michael Lewis’s best-selling book Moneyball, published in June 2003, emphasized his on-base skills, dubbing him the “Greek God of Walks.”1 At one point in 2003, Youkilis reached base safely—one way or another—in 71 consecutive games.2

Youkilis began 2004 at Triple A. With regular third baseman Bill Mueller (the AL batting champion in 2003) suffering from inflammation in his right knee in May, Youkilis was told to grab his passport and head to Toronto for his major-league debut. He played third base in the third game of Boston’s four-game series at SkyDome, batting eighth in the order.

Starting the Saturday afternoon contest for the Blue Jays was veteran right-hander Pat Hengten, who had been on Toronto’s World Series champion teams of 1992 and 1993 (winning 19 regular-season games and one in the World Series in 1993), and was now back with the Blue Jays after four years with other teams.

Neither team scored in the first inning, but Boston right fielder Kevin Millar led off the second with a single to center, then scored from first on a double to deep center by left fielder Dave McCarty.

Third baseman Eric Hinske’s one-out single in the second was the first hit against Arroyo, but the next two Blue Jays were retired.

Boston made it 2-0 in the third. Second baseman Mark Bellhorn swung at Hentgen’s first pitch of the inning and homered, his fourth of the season.

Toronto threatened to get on the scoreboard when shortstop Chris Gomez led off the bottom of the third with a triple, but he languished at third. Arroyo struck out Orlando Hudson for the first out, and Frank Catalanotto lined to short. Millar’s diving catch on Vernon Wells’s fly ball to right stranded Gomez and ended the inning.

After Arroyo’s catcher, Doug Mirabelli, took a called third strike leading off the fourth inning, Youkilis came to bat. His first time up had been in the second inning, and he had popped up to Gomez.

This time, on a 2-and-1 count, Youkilis homered into the second deck in left field. As he returned to the Red Sox dugout, he pointed to his celebrating parents, who had hastily gotten themselves to Toronto and were seated two rows behind the visitors’ dugout. His teammates, though, gave him the silent treatment in the dugout itself.3 The homer gave Boston a 3-0 lead. The Toronto Star said it was a 402-foot drive.4

In the Toronto fourth, Arroyo hit the first batter and gave up a one-out single. A double play, shortstop César Crespo to first baseman David Ortiz, kept the Blue Jays from rallying.

Extending their one-run-per-inning string, the Red Sox made it 4-0 in the top of the fifth. It was again on a solo homer, this time a one-out drive to right field by Ortiz, giving him 10 in 2004. In the bottom of the fifth, Arroyo struck out the side—catcher Kevin Cash, Gomez, and second baseman Hudson—each one of them swinging on a count of 1-and-2.

There was no further scoring in the game by either side. Righty reliever Michael Nakamura replaced Hentgen to start the sixth. Youkilis singled to left for his second big-league hit but advanced no farther. Arroyo retired the side in order in Toronto’s half.

In the seventh, Bellhorn led off with a base on balls and made it to second on a wild pitch, but there he remained. Arroyo retired the side in order once more.

Kerry Ligtenberg replaced Nakamura in the eighth. He faced three Red Sox and retired all three. In the bottom of the inning, Arroyo, for the fourth inning in a row, faced three batters and none reached base. He got outs from the last 13 batters he faced.

In the ninth, Valerio de los Santos was given an inning of work by Jays manager Carlos Tosca. After two groundouts, he walked Bellhorn, but got Ortiz to fly out to deep center.

Arroyo had pitched eight innings of three-hit shutout ball on 100 pitches. Manager Terry Francona called on closer Keith Foulke to wrap things up. Catalanotto lined out to left. Center fielder Wells singled up the middle. Foulke then struck out first baseman Carlos Delgado and designated hitter Josh Phelps.

The game was over. In addition to allowing just the three hits, Arroyo had struck out six and not walked a batter. He had his first win as a starter for the Red Sox. “Spectacular,” said catcher Mirabelli. “He didn’t throw a bad pitch all day. … He never gave them a chance to get a rally going”5

Arroyo lost his next six decisions, supported by only 14 runs in the six games. He then won his final five decisions and ended the year with a winning record at 10-9 and a 4.03 ERA. He pitched in six postseason games, earning holds in Game Six of the ALCS and in the final Game Four of the World Series.

Youkilis went on to hit seven homers and in drive 35 runs in 2004. He had only two plate appearances in the 2004 postseason but was a major contributor in the 2007 postseason, with four homers and 10 RBIs. From 2006 through 2011, Youkilis was a starting infielder for the Red Sox, playing both first base and third base and setting defensive records, such as 238 consecutive games without an error from July 2006 through June 2008. Over that span, he handled a league-record 2,002 chances at first base without an error.

Homering in one’s first major-league game is relatively rare. Only six Red Sox had done so in the previous 103 seasons: Lefty LeFebvre (1938), Ben Steiner (1945), Eddie Pellagrini (1946), Merrill Combs (1947), Danny Sheaffer (1987), and Sam Horn (later in 1987). A reporter for New England Sports Network (NESN) television was able to secure the ball as a souvenir so that it could be presented to Youkilis. 

Both Youkilis and Arroyo had long careers in the majors. Youkilis hit a total of 133 home runs, drove in 564 runs, and recorded a stellar .388 on-base percentage for the Red Sox over nine seasons, then finished up with the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees.

Arroyo was 24-19 (4.19) with Boston before being traded to the Cincinnati Reds in March 2006. He won 148 games in 16 seasons with the Pirates, Red Sox, Reds, and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Carl Riechers and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Thanks to Adrian Fung for supplying Toronto newspaper coverage.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR200405150.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2004/B05150TOR2004.htm

Notes

1 Michael Lewis, Moneyball (New York: W.W. Norton, 2004).

2 Dan Shaughnessy, “Rookie Can Walk the Walk,” Boston Globe, May 16, 2004: D1, D10. 

3 Bob Hohler, “Youkilis Was Flying Before—and After—Game,” Boston Globe, May 16, 2004: D10. It was reportedly Pedro Martínez who had orchestrated the rookie roasting, briefly ignoring him with the silent treatment before giving him congratulations.

4 Geoff Baker, Hentgen Serves Up Bosox Win,” Toronto Star, May 16, 2004: E4.

5 Bob Hohler, “Young Red Sox Deliver,” Boston Globe, May 16, 2004: D1, D10.