Interesting Stats from Rangers 18-3 Rout of Red Sox

Published: 17th Apr 12 11:37 pm
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by Peter Ellwood
peterellwood
Interesting Stats from Rangers 18-3 Rout of Red Sox
Mark L. Baer-US PRESSWIRE

The Texas Rangers walked into Fenway Park as owners of the best record in the American League. The Boston Red Sox walked into Fenway Park trying to patch holes in their team’s bulkhead after Bobby Valentine criticized team leader Kevin Youkilis. Then the two teams played accordingly.

To make a long game (3 hours, 25 minutes) short: this was a rout. Despite the Red Sox jumping to an early 2-0 lead after just two batters, the Rangers quickly put the game far out of reach to the tune of a final score of 18-3. The Rangers improved to 9-2 on the year, and the Red Sox dropped to 4-7.

There is no shortage of spectacular statistics to come out of tonight’s game, as is the case for most 18-run scoring efforts. Here is the laundry list of the highlights:

  • Colby Lewis gave up 4 hits in the first inning. After that, he would yield only 4 hits and no walks over the next 6 frames. He struck out 7 without walking a batter, running his K:BB ratio up to a league leading 22:1.
  • Jon Lester was forced from this game before he could record an out in the 3rd inning. This tied the shortest outing of Lester’s career, when he also pitched just 2.0 innings on August 20, 2010 against the Toronto Blue Jays.
  • The Rangers offense’s slash line from just tonight’s game was .456/.537/.913. That is an OPS of 1.450, fueled by 8 walks and 6 home runs.
  • The Red Sox pitching staff threw 218 pitches. Only 133, or 61% of those pitches were for strikes.
  • The Rangers set team records for a single game performance at Fenway Park in several categories, including runs scored (18), margin of victory (15), and home runs (6).
  • The Red Sox team ERA has flown up to 5.97. The bullpen’s ERA is now 6.23. Neither of those are the worst in baseball, yet.
  • The Rangers team ERA is 2.36. Their bullpen’s ERA is 2.20. Both of these numbers actually got worse after allowing 3 ER in tonight’s game. This was just the second game of the season in which the Rangers did not pitch one of Alexi Ogando, Mike Adams, or Joe Nathan.
  • Mark Melancon pitched in the 8th inning for Boston. He did not record an out, yet yielded 6 runs on 3 home runs. That was the first time in MLB history for a pitcher to “accomplish” such a feat.

The Rangers and Red Sox will meet at Fenway Park again tomorrow to close out this brief two game series. Once again, both teams will walk into the stadium at very different points of their season. The Rangers will be still riding a tidal wave of momentum, while the Red Sox will be eager to be greeted by a new day, hoping to forget tonight’s thrashing. The funny thing is, in the game of baseball, as we saw tonight, anything can happen.

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