Boston's Cook tosses just 80 pitches in shutout win
On the heels of Franklin Morales' seven scoreless innings Thursday night, Red Sox veteran sinkerballer
Aaron Cook tossed a two-hit shutout against a Mariners offense that has been blanked 10 times this season
and four times this month.
And here's the kicker: Cook did it in only 80 pitches.
"I've got a short attention span," Cook said with a smile, "so I try to work quick."
Said catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, "I felt like I caught five innings. I looked up at the board, it was
the seventh inning, and it was like, 'Really? All right.' It was fun."
It also wasn't the first time Cook had been so ruthlessly efficient. On July 1, 2008, as a member of the
Colorado Rockies, he threw a 79-pitch shutout against the San Diego Padres. But that was four years ago,
and Cook has been derailed by injuries ever since.
For him to pitch so well -- Cook gave up only an infield single to Ichiro Suzuki in the fourth inning
and a leadoff single to John Jaso in the eighth -- leaves the Red Sox feeling far better about the depth of
their rotation, especially with lefty Felix Doubront already approaching his innings total from last
season.
Cook signed a minor league contract with the Red Sox in January. After opening the season in Triple-A
Pawtucket, he lacerated his left knee on a play at the plate in his first start for the Red Sox on May 5.
Six weeks later, he's back in the rotation.
"It means a lot," Cook said. "To go out there and prove I'm where I want to be, where I was trying to
get back to -- be an effective pitcher, give our team a chance to win games and be efficient. It's
definitely satisfying."
