![]() ![]() Well, the momentum left for at least a couple of batters. He had racked up six strikeouts over three scoreless innings. It was still a 2-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth as Kickham came out on a bit of a roll. Fleming hung a breaking ball right over the heart of the plate, and Devers launched one way high and way deep, curling just inside the foul pole for a two-run shot, and the Red Sox had the early lead. That allowed Rafael Devers come to the plate, and he stayed red-hot. ![]() The lineup turned over, though, and Alex Verdugo kept the inning alive with a base hit through the left side. So, things were still scoreless as we headed into the third, and the Red Sox got off to a slow start there as well with a couple of quick outs. He then came back and hit another batter in the second, but that was all he gave up as he struck out the three other batters he faced. Kickham issued a walk and hit a batter in the inning as well, but worked his way out of that trouble. The Rays did have a chance in the first when Manuel Margot got to second on an error, but he was caught stealing third on a bizarre delayed attempt. The Red Sox managed just a single over the first two frames. Instead, though, we saw a whole lot of nothing over the first couple of innings. At the very least, it was fair to expect the Rays to do damage against Kickham. Fleming has been good in his first few starts, to be fair, but the stuff isn’t exactly overwhelming and the Red Sox offense has been trending in the right direction. With a pitching matchup of Mike Kickham against Josh Fleming to open up this four-game set in Tampa, it was fair to expect a good amount of runs on the board. Anyway, all that was enough for the Red Sox to win 4-3 and push their record to 16-29. He also somehow struck out eight, something I saw with my own two eyeballs and still don’t really believe. Mike Kickham only went four innings and served up two homers himself, but they were both solo shots and it was all he gave up. The rookie now has six homers in his first ten games. The offense was led by a pair of dingers by a pair of red-hot power hitters, with the first coming from Rafael Devers and the second from Bobby Dalbec. The Rays aren’t going to be knocked out of the postseason picture, but Boston can at least make things more uncomfortable atop the division with a good weekend, and they got off to a good start. The Red Sox have just a handful of series left on the docket before this disaster of a 2020 series is over, and all they have left is to play spoiler against a plethora of teams who actually remain in the race. ![]()
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