Saturday’s game between the Red Sox and Rays officially closed the book on the month of March. The matchup ended in a 7-7 tie between the AL East rivals in their final meeting before the regular season gets under way.
Ross Ohlendorf got the start for the Red Sox to get his innings in before the season starts, as Bobby Valentine said on Friday.
Ross Ohlendorf’s Line: 3 2/3 IP, 7H, 5R, 4ER, 2BB, 1K
According to Bobby V, he expects Ross Ohlendorf to be a starting pitcher with the Red Sox organization which means he will likely start the season at Triple A Pawtucket. This is what Valentine said yesterday..
"Like I said before, some of the guys haven’t gotten all the innings we wanted them to get, and Ollie’s one of them,” Valentine said. “We opted, as he did, to try to make the team as a reliever. His role is going to be as one of our 10 starters, I believe."
The Red Sox lineup was mainly backups and minor leaguers in the game to give Bobby V a further look at them before the roster is finalized in the coming days.
First base prospect Mauro Gomez built on his strong spring with a 2-run single in the fifth inning, giving him a .350 average in Grapefruit League play. With Adrian Gonzalez miles ahead of Gomez on the Sox’ depth chart it looks like he’s destined for the minor leagues in 2012.
Darnell McDonald had a pair of hits in the game, a single and a double to further state his case for a backup spot in the outfield at the least. With Carl Crawford likely to miss the first month of the season, D-Mac looks like a favorite to get playing time in April.
For the Rays it was closer Kyle Farnsworth who got the start going an inning allowing 2 hits and a run but the majority of the Red Sox’ damage came against Wade Davis.
The Red Sox came up with 5 runs off Davis after the pitcher made 2 errors, one which allowed Daniel Nava to score and the other setup Mauro Gomez’ base hit that drove in Jonathon Hee and Pedro Ciriaco. In the 3 innings Wade Davis pitched only 1 of the 5 runs he allowed were earned.
Note
Bobby Valentine said today that he will finally announce the Red Sox starting rotation on Sunday. The first three spots are locked up and the candidates for the final two spots are Daniel Bard, Alfredo Aceves, Felix Doubront and Aaron Cook seems a long-shot to open the season in the rotation but could be ready by mid April. As soon as the decision is announced BoSox Injection will be here with full coverage.
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