It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It’s almost impossible to describe the ridiculous contrast between the Rays team that boarded a plane in Chicago yesterday and the one that landed in Boston. The version visiting Beantown beat the pants off the Redsox to the tune of 16-5 and a river of tears flowed into the pints of Sam Adams.
Jeremy Hellickson came away with the win, despite not bringing his best stuff. The Rays rookie starting pitcher had an uncharacteristically sloppy game but got plenty of run support on a night when he need it the most. The bats picked Hellboy up in an evening when he threw for 5 and 1/3 innings, giving up 2 runs on five hits. Not bad numbers, certainly still winning numbers, but the troubling parts of his line were the 5 walks and only 1 strikeout. The kid was clearly off his game.
But that’s all just wanting to have one’s cake and eat it too. Hellickson could have done a lot worse and still come away with the W.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.