The Red Sox received a stellar performance from rookie left-hander Connelly Early on Friday night in Boston’s 2-0 shutout win over the Rays.
Early opened the game by retiring six of the first seven batters he faced before running into serious trouble in the third inning, allowing back-to-back singles and hitting a batter to load the bases with nobody out.
Needing just six pitches to escape the jam, a poised Early struck out Ryan Vilade before getting Rays slugger Junior Caminero to ground into an inning-ending double play, preserving the scoreless game.
“That saved the game, because that was a really really bad spot,” Chad Tracy said. “But we were optimistic if we could get Vilade, Caminero, he’s scary, right? But he’ll swing a little bit so if you can put one on the ground you’ve got a chance at a double play and he did just that. It was the turning point of the game.”
Early added, “Huge double play. I think from that moment, we had all the momentum.”
Caminero entered Friday night scorching hot at the plate after crushing a 449-foot two-run homer off Ryan Watson in Thursday’s 8-4 win over the Red Sox.
But with the bases loaded in the third inning, Early got the Rays slugger to roll over a first-pitch changeup at the bottom of the strike zone, inducing a weak ground ball that turned into an inning-ending double play.
“He’s obviously a dangerous hitter,” Early said. “Really good hitter. So just trying to execute pitches. (He) chases a little bit, but still gets the barrel to the ball a pretty good amount of the time. So honestly, just trying to let the defense do the work behind me.”
Early let out a yell and pointed to his defense following the key double-play.
“Just big rush of adrenaline and excited to watch the offense go out after that,” Early said.
The Sox’ offense helped its starter out early, courtesy of a Wilyer Abreu solo blast 427 feet to right-center field off Rays’ Jesse Scholtens. Abreu’s sixth homer came in the bottom of the third.
“It was really cool,” Abreu said. “That was my first homer here at Fenway this year so it was really good to have the team on the board early in the game.”
In the fourth inning, Ceddanne Rafaela hit a solo homer of his own, his third home run, crushing a 79.7 mph sweeper, 379 feet into the Green Monster seats. Rafaela is heating up at the plate, hitting .333 (16-for-48) with seven runs, a double, two triples, two home runs, eight RBI, three walks, two stolen bases and a HBP over his last 12 games.
“We’ve started to hit a few more (home runs) over the course of the last four or five days, which is good,” Tracy said. “It’s nice in addition to the other things we’ve started to do, we ran the bases well tonight, took our chances there in good spots, so in addition to that if we can get the home runs and some of the home runs that come that’s obviously always welcome.”
The Red Sox have homered in 11 of their last 15 games, since April 23, hitting 16 blasts during that span, after hitting just two homers in their previous eight games.
Those were the only two hits that Scholtens allowed over the course of his 4 2/3 innings of work. He also walked four batters in the outing while striking out four.
With a little run support behind him, even if it was only two runs, Early settled in and dominated on the mound.
Over his final four innings, Early retired 12 of the last 14 batters he faced, allowing only a fifth-inning single by Nick Fortes and a sixth-inning walk to Jonathan Aranda.
“The past outings walks have been the problem so just going out there to try and throw strikes,” Early said of his command Friday night.
He threw 96 pitches, tying a career-high, and his 70 strikes were the most thrown by any Red Sox pitcher in a game this season.
“He was controlling counts, ahead and he actually leaves some in the tank and he starts to get stronger as the game goes on,” Tracy said. “You’re seeing a lot of 92s, 93s and then you get to the end there and you’re seeing 96s. So he had plenty in the tank left. And the strikeouts started to pile up more as the outing went along. So just a really, really good outing.”
The rookie finished with eight strikeouts while allowing four hits and one walk across seven scoreless innings.
Early joined former Red Sox right-hander Aaron Sele (1993) as the only starters in franchise history to allow three or fewer runs in 11 of their first 12 career appearances.
Boston’s bullpen also delivered, helping preserve the lead late.
Garrett Whitlock retired the Rays in order in the eighth inning, and Aroldis Chapman slammed the door in the ninth for his eighth save of the season.
“It’s a good formula, the starter takes you all the way to Whitlock and Chappy,” Tracy said. “We feel good about our whole bullpen but those two guys at the back end are pretty nails.”
Wearing their Fenway Greens, the Red Sox improved to 3-0 this season and 9-5 all-time in their City Connect uniforms.
The Red Sox have now won four of their last five games and are 8-5 over their last 13 since April 25.
Boston also recorded its major league-leading sixth shutout of the season. The club’s six shutouts through its first 39 games are tied for the second-most in franchise history.
In addition, the Red Sox are now 13-1 when their starting pitcher works at least six innings, not including games in which Boston used an opener.
The victory also snapped Tampa Bay’s seven-game winning streak against American League East opponents and ended the Rays’ nine-game winning streak against left-handed starters.
The Red Sox and Rays continue their four-game series Saturday at 4:10 p.m. ET. Rookie left-hander Payton Tolle (1-1, 2.04 ERA) is expected to start for Boston opposite Rays right-hander Nick Martinez (3-1, 1.71 ERA).
