To cap off an exciting weekend between two teams battling atop the AL East, the series finale was selected for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. Shane McClanahan made the start for the Rays, and out of the healthy starting pitchers, Shane has been the best one of the bunch, carrying a 3.93 ERA and a 3.27 xFIP over 71 innings this season.
The Red Sox would send out Nick Pivetta, who was lights out in his last visit to the Trop on June 24th, throwing 6.2 innings of no-hit baseball and striking out eight. It looked like Pivetta’s dominance against the Rays lineup would continue well into tonight’s game, but a LASER (105.