Thursday, May 21, 2009 11:56 AM
A struggle at Fenway
JEFF BLAIR
Odd. Two games at Fenway Park. Both brisk-paced, including Wednesday night’s 29-hit affair. And lots of fly balls which, unfortunately for the Toronto Blue Jays, have stayed in the park.
Kevin Millar’s home run off knuckleballer Tim Wakefield on Tuesday was an exception, and Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston doesn’t think it’s coincidence that Millar hits Wakefield. He has a plan. “He goes up trying to hit a homer,” Gaston said, smiling.
The Blue Jays were skewered for taking early hacks against Wakefield but Gaston said that was part of the plan because the Blue Jays noticed the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim had success going after high knuckleballs. He threw high knuckleballs early. The Blue Jays went after them.
Wednesday night’s game was a different story. Red Sox’s starter Brad Penny fed the Blue Jays fastball after fastball after fastball. When the night was over, centre-fielder Jacoby Ellsbury tied a Major League record for putouts by an outfielder in a nine-inning game with 12. Oddly, the two other times that was accomplished was also in Boston: by the Braves Earl Clark on May 10, 1929, against Cincinnati and by the Minnesota Twins Lyman Bostock on May 25, 1977, against the Red Sox. Ellsbury’s 12 putouts broke the Red Sox’s record for a game of any length. The previous standard was 10, set by Lee Tinsley on August 14, 1995, against the New York Yankees. Gary Geiger held theoverall mark with 11 in 13 innings on July 4, 1963, at Cleveland. And now you know.
