Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox split weekend home and home

March 9, 2:03 AMTampa Bay Rays ExaminerRob Quinn

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Three unearned runs come home on Sat. AP/Charles Krupa

In a Spring Training version of the good old hockey home-and-home, the Rays split a pair with the Red Sox this weekend. Each team won on their spring home field – the Rays beat the Sox 15-7 in Port Charlotte on Saturday and Boston won 8-2 Sunday in Fort Myers.

Saturday’s tilt was a classic Spring Training affair. By classic I mean poorly played, strange, and downright ridiculous. The Rays scored 15 runs on seven hits. It was a Spring Training game, so it didn’t count, but if it had been a regular season game, I’m guessing seven hits may be a record for the fewest in a game for any team scoring 15 runs. Somebody needs to look that one up.

How did the Rays manage to pull it off? Well, they had help. The Red Sox made more errors than a half-drunk Eddie Vedder trying to get through "Soon Forget" towards the end of a long show. When it was all said and done on Saturday, the Rays were the beneficiaries of six Boston errors leading to nine unearned runs.

Sunday’s rematch saw the Rays get the same number of hits, but 13 fewer runs. The Rays left a total of 12 men on base and struck out 15 times. The Red Sox also became the first team to find a crack in the armor of Wade Davis, touching him up for six runs on two homers in 2.2 innings of work.

Other news and notes from the weekend:

• There were a total of five hit batsmen in the two games – normally a recipe for fisticuffs between these two teams – but no confrontations developed.
• Jason Bartlett and Evan Longoria are off to hot starts this spring, batting .500 and .533 respectively through Sunday.
• James Shields and Grant Balfour made their spring debuts on Saturday. Shields allowed a run in two innings and Balfour threw one shutout inning.
• Jason Hammel gave up his first runs of the spring on Saturday. He allowed four runs and two homers in three innings. It should be noted that he did not start the game.
• The Rays have now stolen 17 bases in 11 spring games. They led the Majors with 142 steals during the 2008 season.

Best Weekend Pitching:

Dewon Day pitched two no-hit innings on Sunday, allowing two walks and striking out three.

Best Weekend Plate/Field:

Jon Weber went 2 for 2 with a homer, a double and six RBI in Saturday’s win.

Worst Weekend Pitching:

Wade Davis' bad day on Sunday left him with an ERA this spring of 6.48. He entered the game with an ERA of 0.00. It can go downhill fast when you’re only pitching a couple innings at a time.

Worst Weekend Plate/Field:

Morgan Ensberg did a good job of staying out of the double play on Sunday. Too bad he avoided them by going 0 for 3 with three strikeouts.

Monday, the Rays will face brethren small-market success story Minnesota at 1:05 in Fort Myers. Scott Kazmir is scheduled to make his first start of the spring and Joe Nelson is set to make his Rays’ debut as well.

Good weekend for the Rays? Bad weekend? Let me know in a comment.

Do you have a great story idea for me? Want to borrow my hang glider for the weekend? E-mail me at raysexaminer@live.com

I am also the co-host of "Speaking of Sports" with Tampa Bay Sports Examiner Ted Fleming and Althea Pashman. The show airs from 7-9 p.m. each Sunday night on WSRQ 1220 AM Sarasota. Listen live here.