Jake Bennett Spins Absolute Gem, Records Career-High Strikeouts

Jake Bennett Spins Absolute Gem, Records Career-High Strikeouts originally appeared on NESN.
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Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Jake Bennett had the best start of his career on Monday night. 

Bennett was called up to the majors in early May before going back to Triple-A Worcester for another month. Bennett now finds himself back in the rotation and made his fifth start of the season on Monday night against the league-worst Colorado Rockies.

Going into the game, no team in Major League Baseball had fewer wins than the Rockies. 

Bennett retired the first seven batters of the game. He struck out three batters before surrendering his first base runner of the game in the bottom of the third on a single to shallow left-center field. 

He gave up another hit in the fourth, but was able to get a double-play ball and another strikeout to end the inning unscathed. 

Now carrying a scoreless outing into the fifth, looking to secure his fifth-consecutive quality start, Bennett struck out a pair and allowed a third single. 

Interim manager Chad Tracy sent Bennett out for the sixth, an inning he has struggled with this season. Bennett fanned the first two batters before surrendering an infield single and grounding out the fourth batter of the inning. 

When it was all said and done, Bennett had pieced together the best outing of his young career. He posted a career-high nine strikeouts, allowed just four hits and didn’t walk a single batter. Bennett threw just 72 pitches on the night and finished with the first shutout start of his career. 

The Red Sox were unable to make his efforts worthwhile after a ninth-inning collapse led to the 45th loss of the season.

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