SMYLY NO-HITS BOSOX

Left-Handers Season Turnaround Complete

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Sept. 1 (AP) – Drew Smyly fired the major league season’s third no-hitter, leading the Tampa Bay Rays past the Boston Red Sox 3-0 at Tropicana Field.  Smyly becomes the first American league hurler to accomplish the feat, joining Jon Niese of the Mets and Jeff Samardzija, who was with the Cubs when he tossed a no-hitter against the Pirates on June 12.  Niese no-hit the Phillies May 11. 

Smyly walked a pair and struck out nine batters, including five in a row at one point.  He allowed several hard hit balls, including Xander Bogaerts’ deep fly to left that was snared on the warning track in left by Brandon Guyer to lead off the top of the ninth.  But overall, Smyly controlled the Red Sox bats throughout.

The Rays took the lead in the first inning when they strung together four consecutive two-out baserunners against Boston starter Ruby de la Rosa.  Matt Joyce started the rally when he singled to center and James Loney’s infield hit put runners on first and second.  Evan Longoria’s base hit through the box loaded the bases and David DeJesus reached on an infield single, scoring Joyce with the game’s first run.  A balk charged to de la Rosa allowed Loney to score as well, and Yunal Escobar struck out to end the inning with Tampa Bay on top 2-0.

De la Rosa then settled down, keeping the Rays off the board until Escbar homered in the seventh to cap the scoring.

Smyly, meanwhile, was dominating.  He retired the first 12 batters he faced, including striking out six in a row, beginning in the first and ending in the third.  But he walked Mike Napoli and Allen Craig to open the fifth, giving the Red Sox an instant threat.  But Daniel Nava flied to shallow right field and Wade Middlebrooks rolled into a double play to end the inning.  No subsequent Red Sox batter reached base.  Nava’s fly out represented the first of 14 consecutive hitters retired by Smyly to complete the game.

The Tropicana crowd of 24,359 was well-aware of what was going on and became increasingly noisy with each out Smyly recorded beginning in the seventh inning; the left-hander received a standing ovation as he returned to the dugout when Middlebrooks flied out to end the top of the eighth.

Boston reliever Tommy Layne yielded a lead-off double to pinch hitter Guyer to open the bottom of the eighth and Longoria sacrificed him to third.  But with the infield pulled in, Layne retired Loney on a soft grounder to second baseman Brock Holt and escaped damage when he induced a grounder to short off the bat of pinch hitter Sean Rodriguez.  The crowd didn’t care.  As soon as the third out of the bottom of the ninth was made and Smyly made the walk to the mound the entire assemblage rose to its feet and gave the Tampa Bay starter another long ovation.  They remained standing as Smyly completed his warm-up tosses and cheered lustily when Bogaerts fouled a first pitch fastball out of play for a strike.  They then booed heartily when a breaking ball missed, evening the count.  Bogaerts hadn’t made any hard contact against Smyly to that point, striking out as part of the six-in—a-row skein in his first plate appearance and popping weakly to Loney at first on the first pitch of his second trip to the plate.  But he was guessing fastball from Smyly on the 1-1 pitch and he got it, lifting a deep fly to left.  But Guyer, who remained in the game following his pinch hit appearance to take over left field duties from starter Matt Joyce, retreated quickly and snared the drive a step onto the warning track, producing the loudest outburst from the crowd to that point in the game.

Christian Vazquez, the Red Sox catcher, was next, having popped and grounded to second baseman Ben Zobrist, after going 4-for-8 in the first two games of the series.  After working the count to 2-2 he rolled a routine grounder to Escobar at short who threw him out at first. 

The crowd was buzzing with a playoff-like intensity as rookie Mookie Betts strode to the plate.  Betts was 0-for-3, with a strikeout, a fly to left and a comebacker.  Betts took a breaking pitch for a ball, which elicited a chorus of boos from the spectators, then another breaking ball for a strike, which drew an even louder cascade of cheers.  The third pitch was a fastball up and out of the strike zone, and Betts swung and missed.  The crowd noise was now deafening.  Rays catcher Ryan Hanigan signaled for another high fastball and Smyly nodded, then delivered.  Betts was a little quicker this time, but only a little, and lifted a high pop fly to the right side of the infield, near the foul line.  Loney called for the ball and, drifting into foul ground, made the catch to secure the no-hitter.  Smyly was mobbed by his teammates and serenaded by the crowd.

Smyly had, remarkably, taken a no-hitter into the sixth inning of his previous start, on August 27 at Camden Yards in Baltimore, but surrendered a two-out single to Steve Pearce.  Smyly was pulled after 7-1/3 innings, having allowed just the one hit.  The Orioles ended up winning the game 1-0; Smyly received a no-decision.  There would be no mistake in this September 1 start against Boston.  In his last two starts, Smyly has worked 16-1/3 innings, allowing no runs on one hit, walking three and striking out 17.

9/1/2014, Bos14-TB14, Tropicana Field

                       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9     R  H  E   LOB DP

2014 Red Sox           0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0     0  0  0     1  3

2014 Rays              2  0  0  0  0  0  1  0  x     3  9  0     6  1

Red Sox              AB  R  H BI   AVG    Rays                 AB  R  H BI   AVG

Betts             cf  4  0  0  0  .276    Zobrist           2b  1  0  0  0  .270

Holt,B            2b  3  0  0  0  .270    Myers             rf  4  0  0  0  .232

Cespedes          lf  3  0  0  0  .252    Joyce             lf  3  1  1  0  .235

Napoli            dh  2  0  0  0  .266     Guyer            ph  1  0  1  0  .268

Craig             1b  2  0  0  0  .212    Longoria          3b  2  1  1  0  .224

Nava              rf  3  0  0  0  .236    Loney             1b  4  0  2  0  .318

Middlebrooks      3b  3  0  0  0  .144    DeJesus           dh  3  0  1  1  .299

Bogaerts          ss  3  0  0  0  .251     Rodriguez,S      ph  1  0  0  0  .146

Vazquez           c   3  0  0  0  .296    Escobar,Y         ss  3  1  1  1  .251

                     26  0  0  0          Hanigan           c   3  0  1  0  .187

                                          Kiermaier         cf  3  0  1  0  .235

                                                               28  3  9  2

Red Sox                          INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA

De La Rosa,R     L 2-11          6.1  7  3  3  2  5 101  63  5.80

Badenhop                         0.2  1  0  0  1  0   7   2  1.96

Layne                            1.0  1  0  0  0  0  10   6  4.72

                                 8.0  9  3  3  3  5 118  71

Rays                             INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA

Smyly            W 11-8          9.0  0  0  0  2  9 109  73  4.10

                                 9.0  0  0  0  2  9 109  73

TB : Guyer batted for Joyce in the 8th

     Rodriguez,S batted for DeJesus in the 8th

     Guyer moved to lf in the 9th

2B-Guyer(13). HR-Escobar,Y(9). RBI-DeJesus(18), Escobar,Y(48). CS-Zobrist.

K-Betts, Holt,B, Cespedes, Napoli, Craig 2, Nava, Middlebrooks, Bogaerts,

Zobrist, Myers, Joyce, Escobar,Y, Hanigan. BB-Napoli, Craig, Zobrist 3.

SH-Longoria. HBP-Longoria. HB-De La Rosa,R. BALK-De La Rosa,R.

GWRBI: DeJesus

Temperature: 70, Wind: none.

Attendance: 24,359

Game Time: 2:21