Red Sox Oust Rays from Playoffs with 3-1 Win as Xander Bogaerts Scores Twice without a Hit

Players of the Day for Tuesday, October 8, 2013

American League

Bogaerts: 0 AB, 2R

As much as fine pitching and bombastic home run hitters generally decide the outcome of games, baseball is also replete with oddities and quirks which make it statistically astonishing at times.

The Boston Red Sox won their best-of-five divisional series with the wild card Rays three games to one with a 3-1 victory at Tampa's Tropicana Field Tuesday night. Here is some of the quirky scoring:

Boston starter Jake Peavy - aided by two double plays - allowed one run on five hits over 5 2/3 innings, but did not get the decision, the win falling to reliever Craig Breslow, who allowed one hit over 1 2/3rd innings, getting four of his six outs via the strikeout. Koji Uehara, who got the final four outs, fanned two without allowing a hit, earning his second save of the series, a night after giving up the home run that forced game four.

Rookie Xander Bogaerts, Boston's speedy sometime shortstop, scored two runs without having an official at bat, walking both times he appeared at the plate. The first instance was in the seventh inning, when he pinch-hit for Stephen Drew, eventually scoring on a wild pitch by Tampa reliever, Joel Peralta. Remaining in the game at short, Bogaerts walked again in the top of the ninth, this time scoring on a sac fly by Dustin Pedroia, giving the Red Sox an insurance run before Tampa's final at-bat.

Despite not having an official at-bat in the series, Bogaerts scored three runs.

In Detroit, the Tigers evened their series with the A's at two games apiece with an 8-6 win, sending the series back to Oakland for a deciding game five on Thursday, at 8:07 pm EDT. The Red Sox will have home field advantage over whichever team comes out on top in the AL Championship Series.

National League

Thre were no NL games on Tuesday. The Pirates play at St. Louis, Wednesday, in the deciding game five of the NLDS at 8:07 pm EDT.

Today's Trivia: Which National League team has won the most World Series? (answer tomorrow)

Yesterday's Answer: The Oakland A's - formerly the Philadelphia A's - have won nine World Series championships.