The only good thing about playing baseball inside is no rainouts. So even though it was pouring in St. Pete yesterday, baseball happened at Tropicana Field.

The Red Sox have now won six of their last ten and have looked like a halfway respectable ball club. In the process they have guaranteed that I will remain optimistic about this team’s chances up until the All-Star game regardless of how they play in the coming two weeks.

Justin Masterson was effective in his triumphant return to the mound after missing a month and a half due to “injury” (read: ineffectiveness). The big Jamaican is back in the rotation after Joe Kelly out-ineffective’d him and got demoted to AAA.

Masterson mixed his pitches nicely and featured an exceptionally sharp slider. Costiglione and O’Brien used the word “devastating” more than once when describing that pitch. “Devastating” is thrown around pretty casually and has resultantly lost some of its punch, but at its core it’s is an awesome turn of phrase. A pitch is so nasty that it has left the batter not just angry or upset or disappointed, but devastated. The slide piece was coming in soft (right around 80MPH) and must’ve been tantalizing for the Ray’s hitters. His fastball velocity still wasn’t back up to pre-2015 levels but he was able to pump a few in there that topped 90MPH. Now we’re cooking with … kindling?

The end result was 0 earned runs, 6 strikeouts and 0 walks in 5 innings.

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Masterson (W, 3-2)	5.0	5	1	0	0	6	0	5.58

A few of the hits were bleeders or bloopers that found grass – I mean turf – thanks to the shift.

Masterson was countered by Chris Archer, unabashed hypocrite and arguably the AL’s best pitcher behind Chicago’s Chris Sale. The Sox were able to get to him to the tune of 3 four-baggers and 5 earned runs.

Sandoval got the fun started with a lined shot that he snuck inside the left field foul pole in the top of the second.

The next batter was Mike Napoli who worked the count full, only to be rung up on a slider that was off the plate outside by rookie umpire Tripp Gibson. Nap has been victimized by the MLB’s expanding strike zone a lot this season, more so than most other players because he sees a lot of pitches and tries to work the count. It would be somewhat understandable if his frustration just boiled over and got the best of him, even though the Red Sox were playing with a short bench. But that’s not what happened; Nap was walking back to the dugout, when Gibson ran him for not picking up his bat. Seriously. On a 3-2 pitch that was outside, Napoli dropped his bat on the plate, thinking he had earned a walk. After giving Napoli the bad news and some brief jawing, Gibson told him to pick up the bat when Nap had already walked away. Napoli told him the bat boy would get it, and Gibson tossed him. Napoli then got his money’s worth. My lipreading skills tell me he said “That’s horseshit! Are you fucking kidding me?” My thoughts exactly. The league should discipline Gibson and let him know that he can’t be pulling that crap.

The following batter was De Aza, who wasn’t going to wait around and get Tripp’d up by bad umpiring (sorry guys). He took Archer out to right on a first-pitch changeup, continuing his recent power surge. He’s been a nice pickup so far.

In the 4th, Papi took Archer deep on a slider and showed incredible restraint by not admiring his work, flipping his bat, and taking a 50 second tour of the bases.

Notes:

–Jonathan Aro was ineffective again and will most likely be riding the Merloni express back down to Pawtucket in the near future.

–Deven Marrero made his major league debut when he replaced Napoli. He was 0-3 at the plate but made this mint stop at second to steal a hit and save a run in the bottom of the 8th, killing the Rays’ rally. Pedey would be proud.

–Jackie Bradley Jr. was 0-4, but hit a couple balls right on the screws and looked comfortable at the plate. Hopefully he doesn’t get discouraged and change his approach because those balls should start falling soon.

–Xander was 2-4 with a double and 2 runs scored, batting out of the three-hole. He’s now hitting .294 and is 2nd in the league in fielding percentage for shortstops. He hasn’t consistently showed the power that we were promised, but this kid is still only 22 years old. Nomar was 23 during his rookie season.