Clay who?
Rubby De La Rosa pitched seven shutout innings for the Red Sox in a 1-0 win at Fenway Park.
The Twins wheeled out veteran starter Kevin Correia to face De La Rosa in a battle of two sub .500 teams.
De La Rosa had location issues in the first. Two walks had runners on first and second, but a Josh Willingham grounder resulted in a twin (pun intended) killing.
In the third, a Jackie Bradley throw was key to dousing a potential Twins uprising.
With one out, Sam Fuld walked and pilfered second. Danny Santana lined a single to center and Bradley charged the ball. Fuld put on the brakes when Mike Naopli cut the ball off and had Santana trapped off first. Fuld then got nailed in a rundown attempting to score. Brian Dozier grounded out and the Sox escaped.
In the last of the fifth, the Sox broke the scoreless duel.
Daniel Nava dropped a single down the left field line. A suddenly hot Stephen Drew (2-3) bounced one down the left field line, pushing Nava to third. Drew, however, was tossed out at second. A.J. Pierzynski lifted a sac fly to left for the run. Sox had a 1-0 lead.
In the last of the sixth, a Sox threat fell short by a few feet.
A Brock Holt out was spaced between singles by Xander Bogaerts and Dustin Pedroia. David Ortiz then drove a 3-2 pitch to the 379’ mark that was caught with Fuld against the wall. A Napoli ground out sent the inning into scoring book history.
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Correia (3-8) was finished after six with a respectable one run on five hits with one walk and two strikeouts.
De La Rosa (2-2) opened the seventh and quickly disposed of the Twins and was done for the night. The impressive Rubby allowed a lone single to go with his three walks and three strikeouts.
The game was now in the hands of the Red Sox bullpen.
In the top of the eighth, the Twins started to shoot line drives around Fenway. With one out, Burke Badenhop replaced Andrew Miller on the mound. Kurt Suzuki greeted Badenhop by lining a single to center. Eduardo Escorbar lined out to Jonny Gomes in left and Fuld lined a double to right. Santana was hit by a pitch to load them up. Badenhop then punched out Dozier to set up Koji Uehara for the ninth.
Koji finished off the Twins for his 15th save and lowered his ERA to 0.57.
Tuesday night has the Twins Phil Hughes (7-2, 3.17) facing off against Jon Lester (7-7, 3.33) for Boston.
See if the Red Sox can keep it going tomorrow against the Twins by grabbing Boston Red Sox tickets from Razorgator.