Jupiter rising as Red Sox shut out Cards, 3-0

A trip from west to east along with a nice view of the southern tip of Lake Okeechobee and into Jupiter for a match up with the St. Louis Cardinals. The final score was 3-0, but the big story is just who did what that may show promise for the regular season. Wade Miley, Matt Barnes and Michael Wacha all impressed.

The Red Sox sprinkled their lineup with players scheduled for destinations other than Boston. Deven Marrero was at short and the DH was Luke Montz – who sports a Crash Davis like resume. Travis Shaw and Henry Ramos also started for Boston as it appeared several vets wished to avoid the 140 mile trek.

St. Louis, a perennial contender with a rich baseball history, sent Wacha, injury plagued in 2014, to the mound to face the Red Sox and Miley. Wacha breezed through his two assigned innings in impressive style allowing, no hits and sending four Red Sox down on strikeouts. That certainly is a plus for the Redbirds.

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Miley had a few jitters in the third with a Jhonny Peralta walk and a line shot infield hit by power prospect Randal Grichuk. Miley settled down and no run scoring damage was done as Miley finished his three innings, allowing three hits, a pair of walks and striking out two.

In the fourth the sox made a bit of noise as Brock Holt banged another hit off a left-handed pitcher. This time the honor was bestowed upon seasoned veteran Randy Choate. Holt then stole second and eventually moved to third on a ground out where his potential run expired.

The Red Sox also brought out their own veteran for the last half of the inning.

Felipe Paulino, a 30-year-old right-hander, is attempting to make an impression and possibly be stored at Pawtucket for future use or hook up with another club. Paulino, with experience with four MLB teams, had a clean inning and passed the pitching baton to Alexi Ogando.

Ogando had a rough start to spring a few games ago and it appeared another crash and burn was in the works with a Jacob Wilson two-bagger. That, however, was it for the Cards and Ogando as he allowed the lone hit for his inning of work with no walks and a strikeout. Both teams were in an offensive stall with a 0-0 after five.

The Red Sox dented the scoreboard in the seventh off Tyler Lyons.

Travis Shaw was replaced by Sam Travis, who walked. You can never have enough Travis’. Montz banged out a double for an RBI and after a force out Ramos (two hits) singled and Boston had runners on first and second. Marrero (two hits) singled and some base running magic had two players in the vicinity of third. Jemile Weeks, in as a pinch runner, took control of the bag and there were now two outs. Mookie Betts followed with a single and the Sox had a 2-0 lead.

What are spring games like? That came out clearly in the top of the eighth inning when Humberto Quintero, a vet of 12 MLB seasons and 471 games, drove a single into center and stole second. In those 12 seasons Quintero had one steal.

The final Boston run was the result of a Ramos double and a Blake Tekotte single. Tekotte, like many of the Red Sox players in the game, signed a minor league deal and may eventually end up in Pawtucket.

Edward Mujica, who got the win, and Junichi Tazawa both tossed a single inning with no damage. Then came another nice Matt Barnes outing with three punch outs and one hit in his two innings.

The Red Sox return to their happy place for a 1:05 game on Tuesday against Tampa at Jet Blue Park.