Red Sox Cook Up Shutout Of Mariners (41-36)

I feel extremely proud of this blog, and this post today was my 1000th post and I'd like to thank all the fans that keep this blog going. On another note, let's celebrate the win!

Cook allowed two hits in a shutout

For quite a while, this game was looking like another pitcher's duel as neither team scored for a while. Aaron Cook and Hector Noesi practically matched each other pitch for pitch. Both teams were hitless until Ryan Kalish's single in the third and Ichiro Suzuki's infield single in the fourth. Aaron Cook was incredibly economical as he was throwing far fewer than 10 pitches an inning on average and was inducing grounders right and left. The game was 0-0 heading into the top of the fifth-- but the Red Sox changed that very quickly with a big inning. Will Middlebrooks was leading off and promptly hit a hanging slider to dead left field for a long home run to give the Red Sox the lead. Cody Ross followed him up with a blast to left that made it into the upper deck and traveled an estimated 432 feet. Three batters later, it was Daniel Nava crushing a ball to right to make it 3-0 on three solo home runs.

Ross hit his 12th home run 432 feet

Cook took care of the Mariners 1-2-3 in the bottom of the fifth before the Red Sox got right back to business in the sixth. David Ortiz doubled into right-center to start the inning and bring up Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Salty took advantage of a first pitch fastball down the middle and drove it to left-center for a two-run homer to make it 5-0. After an Adrian Gonzalez single, Hector Noesi was taken out of the game with an unimpressive line of 5 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 0 K despite being dominant for the first four innings. Shawn Kelley came into the game and shut the Red Sox down for two innings-- striking out a batter and allowing no hits or runs. Oliver Perez came in afterwards and was almost as good-- allowing two hits and walking one but allowing no runs. Meanwhile, Aaron Cook continued to dominate and finished his night with a ridiculous 81 pitch, two-hit shutout.

Bright Spots:
Aaron Cook- 9 IP, 0 H, 2 R, 2 K, W (2-1)
Daniel Nava- 1-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI
Jarrod Saltalamacchia- 1-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Will Middlebrooks- 2-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI
Cody Ross- 1-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI

Dull Spots:
Nobody!

Player of the Game:
Aaron Cook- Cook was absolutely fantastic last night, allowing just two hits and inducing 14 groundouts in a complete game shutout as he is now 2-1/4.32/2 on the year.