With Win Over Twins, Red Sox Improve in Close Games

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With their 1-0 win over the Twins on Monday at Fenway Park the Red Sox improved to 32-38, and 9-16 in one-run games. It was the fourth time this season the Sox were involved in a 1-0 game, improving to 2-2 in such games. The last time the Sox earned a 1-0 win at home was May 18, 2011, against the Tigers.

The Sox have been in three consecutive one-run games, after two consecutive 3-2 losses to the Indians.

 

With the win, the Sox pulled to a game of .500 at Fenway, improving to 18-19. They are now 4-6 in shutouts and 2-21 when scoring fewer than three runs, and 24-9 when scoring first.

 

Right-hander Rubby De La Rosa earned the win, improving to 2-2. He threw a career-high 106 pitches over seven innings, allowing just one hit with three walks and three strikeouts (all on his changeup).

 

In his first two career starts at Fenway, he has yet to allow a run in in 14 innings. He also threw seven scoreless innings on May 31 against the Rays. He is the first Sox pitcher since at least 194 to pitch scoreless outings in his first two career starts at Fenway. He is the first pitcher overall to throw scoreless outings in his first two starts at Fenway since Felix Hernandez did son on April 11, 2007, and June 6, 2008.

 

De La Rosa is the second Sox pitcher to throw at least seven scoreless, one-hit innings this season. Jon Lester did so on May 3 against the A’s, when he went eight scoreless innings, allowing one hit. Only three other Sox pitchers have done so since the beginning of 2010. Lester has done it three times, along with Daisuke Matsuzaka (three times, and Josh Beckett (twice).

 

De La Rosas outing is the fifth straight quality start by a Sox pitcher, combining for a 1.89 ERA, allowing seven earned runs in 33 1/3 innings. Sox starters are 3-0 in those games, while the Sox are 3-2.
Daniel Nava went 1-for-2 and improved to 12-for-31, batting .387, since being called up on June 2. He has reached base in 18 of 37 plate appearances in that span, a .486 on-base percentage.
Stephen Drew went 2-for-3 with a double, his first extra-base hit since June 28, 2013, at Baltimore. He has four hits in his last seven at-bats after starting the season going 1-for-14. He has four of the Sox 12 hits in the last two games.

 

Dustin Pedroia went 1-for-4 and has reached base in each of his 29 career starts against the Twins since the beginning of 2010, going 38-for-118, hitting .322. It is the longest active on-base streak as a starter against the Twins and the longest every by a Sox batter against the Twins.

 

Koji Uehara pitched a perfect ninth inning to earn his 15th save in 15 opportunities this season. It was his 20th straight scoreless appearance, spanning 21 innings, allowing seven hits and three walks with 25 strikeouts and an opponents average of .108 (7-for-65).

 

Burke Badenhop pitched a scoreless two-thirds of an inning, extending his career-best scoreless-innings streak to 15 2/3. He has gone 30 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run. In that stretch he has allowed one unearned run. His 30-inning stretch without giving up an earned run is the third-longest in relief without an earned run in Sox history, trailing Uehara (33 2/3 innings in 2013), and Dick Radatz (33.0 in 1963).
Drew was the last Sox batter to get a hit in Sundays 11-innign loss to the Indians, a one-out single in the seventh, and the first to get a hit on Monday, a lead-off double in the third. The Sox had 23 plate appearances without a hit in between Drews two hits.

 

Navas single to left leading off the fifth inning was the first hit by someone other than Drew since Brock Holts two-out single in the fifth on Sunday, a span of 39 plate appearances.

 

Although the Sox won, they went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, leaving seven runners on base. In their last three games they are 1-for-22 with runners in scoring position, leaving 22 runners on base.
The Twins Kendrys Morales snapped his six-game hitting streak since joining the Twins, and his eight-game hitting streak against the Sox, in which he was hitting .514, going 18-for-35, with three home runs and 10 RBI.

 

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