Rays Lose to an Astros Rookie, Red Sox Keep Win Steak Alive Against the A’s

The Houston Astros (33-59) rookie pitcher Jason Cosart (1-0) showed up in his major debut on Friday and now many are questioning whether he will be returning to the minors anytime soon as he led his team to a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays (53-41).

Friday’s loss also snapped the Rays’ eight-game win streak.

Jarred Cosart

The game belonged to righty Cosart as he pitched as one would expect a Texan to do: go big or go home. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning with two walks. Finally the Rays Ben Zobrist grabbed a single and Evan Longoria grounded into a double play to see the inning come to an end.

This is when it started to unravel for the rookie.

In the eighth inning, Cosart gave up a single to James Loney and his first outing ended in the ninth after walking Rays pinch-hitter Kelly Johnson. For the night, the pitcher tossed 96 pitches–54 of them were strikes.

Don’t look for Cosart to be on a MLB mound any time soon. He will likely be sent back to the minors, Triple-A Oklahoma City, and remain on schedule for his upcoming start.

Astros manager Bo Porter said of Cosart’s debut via MLB.com, “When it comes to young pitchers, you just want them to have a positive outing. I’m not going to put any innings or hits or runs limit on what is acceptable; I just want him to have a positive outing and take away the experience on what it is he can do to better himself the next time he gets the opportunity.”

I think you can say mission accomplished.

As for the Rays, 2012 Cy Young winner lefty David Price (3-5) gave up eight hits with three strikeouts. He got off to a rough start as four of five Astros batters made it to base in the first inning. Price’s start represented his third one since he exited the DL list on July 2.

Friday’s game was the first in a three-game series for these teams.

On Saturday, Astros lefty pitcher Dallas Keuchel (4-5) will take the mound against the Rays righty Roberto Hernandez (4-10).

Tampa still sits 4.5 games behind the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox (58-37). They’ll get back on track with a Saturday win (-225, 9 o/u) and sit at +1600 to win this year’s World Series.

Red Sox defeat A’s 4-2

The Red Sox grabbed its fourth straight win with a 4-2 victory over the AL West-leading Oakland Athletics (43-39) on Friday.

John Lackey

Sox righty John Lackey worked hard on the mound, going seven innings and allowing two runs, a season-high four walks, three hits and five strikeouts. He grabbed his seventh win for the season and his ERA is now 2.32.

Lackey said of his outing via the Associated Press, “This is probably one that says more about where I’m at than anything,. I probably didn’t have my best stuff like I had my last few times out and still was able to do pretty good against a pretty good team.”

Besides Lackey’s solid pitching, the Sox win came from clutch hitting on two-out hits which represented all of their four runs.

In the eighth inning with a 2-2 game, Sox Dustin Pedroia snapped this with a two-run single on two outs. Teammate Brock Holt also had luck with two outs as he also brought in two runs in the second inning.

For the A’s, their two runs came from John Jaso’s RBI single in the fifth inning with Jed Lowrie in the sixth contributing a tying home run. A’s lefty Sean Doolittle (3-3) gave up one hit while hitting a batter in the eighth inning during his outing.

The three-game series continues on Saturday with Sox lefty Jon Lester (8-5) on the mound vs. the A’s righty A.J. Griffin (7-6).

Look for an A’s win (-126, 8 o/u).