{"id":2705,"date":"2013-02-25T23:57:29","date_gmt":"2013-02-26T04:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/?p=2705"},"modified":"2013-02-26T00:26:08","modified_gmt":"2013-02-26T05:26:08","slug":"grapefruit-league-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/25\/grapefruit-league-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Grapefruit League Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, February 25, 2013 – Charlotte Sports Park, Port Charlotte<\/h3>\n

Rays 6, Red Sox 3<\/h4>\n

Monday found the Red Sox partaking in a pair of split-squad games.\u00a0 Half the team would be traveling up beyond Tampa to Dunedin to take on the Blue Jays, while the other half would be making a shorter trip to Port Charlotte to play the Rays.\u00a0 We opted for the Rays game, since that stadium is much closer to where we stay.\u00a0 Most of the focus from the media was on the Dunedin game, because Red Sox knuckleballer Steven Wright was taking on last year’s Cy Young winner and fellow knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, and because new Sox manager John Farrell was returning to his old stomping grounds where he used to manage with the Blue Jays.\u00a0 Meanwhile, in our game, bench coach Torey Lovullo served as manager for the day.<\/p>\n

\"With

With John Farrell in Dunedin for the other game, bench coach Torey Lovullo was left to manage this one, including meeting with the media before the game.<\/p><\/div>\n

We started off near the dugout, and wound up getting autographs from Daniel Nava and Mark Hamilton, who’s one of the guys competing for the backup first baseman’s job.\u00a0 We also went down the left field line for a bit while the players were long-tossing and wound up getting a baseball (with a Fenway Park 100th Anniversary logo) from a player who we later found out was catching prospect Christian Vazquez.<\/p>\n

\"Jacoby

Jacoby Ellsbury steps in to lead off the game, while Jonny Gomes waits on the top step.<\/p><\/div>\n

We were happy to see that the first five batters in the lineup – Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Shane Victorino, Jonny Gomes, and Stephen Drew – were all major league regulars.\u00a0 Pedroia drilled a homer over the left field fence to give the Sox an early lead.\u00a0 Victorino followed with a walk, and he attempted to go to third on Gomes’s hit, but he overslid the bag and was tagged out.\u00a0 In the second inning, Ryan Sweeney singled, and Mike Carp, another player who’s vying for the backup first base\/outfield spot, doubled him home.<\/p>\n

There was less to cheer about on the pitching side.\u00a0 Alfredo Aceves (who is now a bum in my book because he’s been signing autographs with “Yankees 2009” all spring – is there seriously a ruder way to treat Red Sox fans?) started, but he wasn’t sharp in his two innings of work.\u00a0 The new “embedded Yankee” gave up two runs on two hits and two walks.\u00a0 He was followed by Chris Hernandez, who pitched very well in Triple A for the PawSox last season, but gave up three runs this afternoon.\u00a0 Daniel Bard was next, and he didn’t seem to have improved over his disastrous season last year.\u00a0 He walked one and hit a batter, and topped out at 94 on the radar, though he did pick up a strikeout on a nice off-speed pitch.\u00a0 Next on the mound was Terry Doyle, the New England native who used to play for Boston College.\u00a0 He gave up one run in two innings of work.\u00a0 The final pitcher was Pete Ruiz, a call-up from minor league camp who was wearing number 98.<\/p>\n

\"Terry

Terry Doyle pitched two innings.<\/p><\/div>\n

Our seats were good, just behind first base, but that put us in the sun for the whole game, and despite my best efforts, I’m now sporting the beginnings of my annual farmer’s tan.\u00a0 (Who knew farmers watched so many baseball games from the bleachers?)\u00a0 Some friends of my parents were in shaded seats behind third base, and we noticed that the seats in the row in front of them had never filled in, so in the middle of the sixth we made our move and went to sit with them.\u00a0 It was much more comfortable in the shade, and from there we got to watch as the younger players subbed in.\u00a0 Catcher Christian Vazquez made two nice plays – a sliding catch of a foul popup and a throw to second to nab a would-be base stealer.\u00a0 And Jose Iglesias drove in a run with an infield single.<\/p>\n

\"Charlotte

Charlotte Sports Park on a sunny afternoon.<\/p><\/div>\n

Down 6-3 heading into the ninth, the Red Sox had a chance to stage a rally.\u00a0 The first two batters of the ninth reached base, thanks to a walk and a Tampa error, but Vazquez and two minor league call-ups (Peter Hissey and Tony Thomas) all struck out to end the threat.\u00a0 Next up for me is a home game at JetBlue Park tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, February 25, 2013 – Charlotte Sports Park, Port Charlotte Rays 6, Red Sox 3 Monday found the Red Sox partaking in a pair of split-squad games.\u00a0 Half the team would be traveling up beyond Tampa to Dunedin to take on the Blue Jays, while the other half would be making a shorter trip to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2705"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2714,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions\/2714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}