"It was right down the middle, up in the zone," Shields said, shaking his head about the
gopher balls. "They're good hitters over there, and they took advantage of it.
Craig Breslow gave up a home run to Caleb Joseph and has served up eight
gopher balls in 53⅔ innings.
Although Lima just escaped Bert Blyleven's single-season record of 50
gopher balls; no other hurler has ever given up homers with such frequency.
He has served up eight
gopher balls in 26⅔ innings this year.
Wakefield served up a total of 10
gopher balls during that streak.
Of the 156
gopher balls served up by Sox pitching, 111 came with nobody on base.
In contrast, John Lackey has served up 21
gopher balls but they have cost him just 25 runs.
With 15
gopher balls served up, Dempster is third in the league.
That was significant considering that in his previous three starts, he had served up six
gopher balls.
Masterson worked 21-2/3 innings between
gopher balls.
Overall, 12 of the last 15
gopher balls off Sox pitching have come with nobody on base.
It was only one game, but first-place Boston couldn't pull the trigger with men on base, gave up three
gopher balls, and looked bad in the field - read Julio Lugo - in dropping a 5-4 decision to the St.
Okajima went 689 pitches between
gopher balls. The homer snapped his personal shutout streak at 17 innings.
He went 672 pitches between
gopher balls, then went 33 pitches between Sheffield's homer and Marcus Thames' in the fourth; 11 between Thames' and Carlos Guillen's later in that inning.
It won't be a Boston pitcher, though the three starters Bonds will face here are all prone to serving up
gopher balls. The trio of Daisuke Matsuzaka, Julian Tavarez and Tim Wakefield are three of the four most homer-prone Boston pitchers, surrendering 23 among them, with Matsuzaka giving up nine, seven of them to left-handed batters like Bonds.
