Friday, April 8, 2011

Stat Line of the Day: April 8th

Fausto Carmona (CLE): 7 IP, 2 H, 4 Ks; Jon Lester (BOS): 7 IP, 3H, 9 K
Lester gave the Sox their first quality start
this season, going seven strong at Cleveland
For their first five games, the Boston Red Sox' starting rotation had put up a lovely 8.53 ERA; in his first start, the Cleveland Indians' Fausto Carmona let up 10 runs in just three innings. To say that both teams were looking for a improvement from their pitchers would be quite the understatement, and both aces delivered on Thursday afternoon. Neither of them allowed a run in their fourteen combined innings, with Lester lowering his ERA from 8.44 to 3.65, while Carmona's plummeted from 30.00 down to 9.00. The two also combined for seven 1-2-3 innings, though each pitcher found some trouble in the third inning. First, Carmona had runners on first and second with one out before  getting Crawford and Pedroia to ground out and fly out, respectively. In the bottom of the third, the Indians had men on first and second with only one out, but Lester pitched his way out of the situation--getting Orlando Cabrera to ground out before striking out Asdrubal Cabrera on three pitches. Unfortunately for Lester, he had to give the bullpen an opportunity to keep a scoreless game intact--and they failed, as the Red Sox lost one to nothing, dropping their season record to 0-6.

Honorable Mention:

Roberto Luongo (VAN): 29 SV, 0 G;  Ondrej Pavelec (ATL): 29 SV, 0
In honor of the two pitchers having a great day, our honorable mention goes to two goalies who had really good days as well. Luongo, 32, shut out the Minnesota Wild, while the 23-year-old Pavelec shut out the playoff-bound New York Rangers. This was the second time in five games the Rangers had been shut out, and was the sixth career shutout for the young goalie from the Czech Republic. Meanwhile, close to the other end of the age spectrum, Luongo picked up his 55th career shutout, which is actually second amongst active goalies--though he has quite a ways to go to catch the number one active goalie, the 116 shutouts of Martin Brodeur. With four shutouts this season, and no fewer than four in any season since 2002, Luongo is actually in very good position to move into the top fifteen in career shutouts in the next two years, needing seven more to catch Turk Broda.

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