« In The Silo: PawSox Mocked By Chiefs; Sea Dogs Game Suspended Due To Rain; Salem Sox Fall | Home | This Day in Baseball History: June 29th »
G75: Sox Fall To Braves Phenom Hanson, 4-0
By Administrator | June 29, 2009
Last fall, Red Sox prospect Clay Buchholz and Braves prospect Tommy Hanson were the best pitchers in the Arizona Fall League, hands down. Both have built on their AFL success in the minor leagues this season; but, while Buchholz continues to toil in Pawtucket, the Braves have promoted Hanson to “The Show”… and the young right-hander is making the most of it.
Despite battling the flu yesterday, he improved to 4-0 with six shutout innings, allowing only two hits (a pair of fourth-inning singles) while issuing two walks. He extended his scoreless-innings streak to twenty, and lowered his ERA to 2.48.
He outdueled right-hander Brad Penny, who continues to dial it in for the Red Sox. Penny also tossed six innings in the Atlanta heat, allowing two runs on six hits and no walks… both Braves runs came on solo home runs that barely made it the bleachers (to 3B Chipper Jones and LF Garrett Anderson). He lowered his ERA to a season-low 4.79.
But the story of the game was Hanson, whose bout with the flu put his start in jeopardy even as he was traveling to the ballpark with fellow rookie hurler Kris Medlen: “I told Kris he’d better be ready to pitch. I felt horrible waking up this morning, and driving to field, I didn’t feel good at all. But once I got going, got my blood flowing, I felt a lot better”.
Red Sox manager Terry Francona said: “If he was sick, I really don’t want to see him when he’s not sick”.
A strikeout pitcher, Hanson struck out only two Red Sox hitters… yet the Sox still couldn’t do much with his fastball and repertoire of breaking pitches. Atlanta skipper Bobby Cox said: “He threw a lot of strikes and stayed ahead of the hitters. That’s the key. He didn’t get a lot of strikeouts, but he threw good strikes”.
With two outs in the fourth, Jason Bay and David Ortiz singled and Jason Varitek walked to load the bases, but Hanson escaped unscathed when CF Jacoby Ellsbury grounded to second base to end the inning.
Braves reliever Peter Moylan escaped a seventh-inning jam caused by some shaky Braves defense… he induced an inning-ending double play from SS Nick Green with runners at first and third. RHP Rafael Soriano pitched a perfect eighth inning… and closer Mike Gonzalez recorded his ninth save with a scoreless ninth inning that was delayed several minutes when a fan ran onto the field.
Of his outing, Penny said: “We lost the game, so there’s no satisfaction in whether I’m pitching good or not, but it’s nice to be healthy”.
—————————————
The Boston Globe is reporting that Mike Lowell returned to Boston to receive an injection in his hip.
—————————————
Penny left The Nation momentarily breathless in the first inning when he grabbed his right hand after bouncing a pitch… turns out his thumb just popped out of its joint. Penny simply snapped it back in, threw a couple of warmup pitches and continued with his outing.
—————————————
If interested, you can find my exclusive interview with Tommy Hanson, conducted during the 2008 Arizona Fall League, here.
Topics: Sox Games, Sox Players |
