Gordon Edes, ESPN Staff Writer 10y

Shoemaker ices Sox on first trip to Fenway

BOSTON -- Here's one way to make your first trip to Fenway Park memorable:

• Have a bucket of ice water poured on your head from the top of the Green Monster;

• Take a no-hitter into the seventh inning;

• Have your wife tweet what she thought was a "little joke" about the guy who broke up your no-no, then have to delete it because of all the grief she took.

This summed up the past two days for Angels rookie Matt Shoemaker, who on Wednesday created his own way to honor Pete Frates and the ALS ice bucket challenge, then iced the Red Sox Thursday night until Will Middlebrooks doubled with two outs in the seventh inning, Boston's only hit in a 2-0 loss to Los Angeles.

"We were smart about it," Shoemaker said of the dousing he took from teammate Efren Navarro and one of the clubhouse attendants Wednesday afternoon. "We took all the ice out.

"Some of our guys have had ice dumped from three feet and gotten cut in the head. I'm not going to be stupid about it. We took the ice out. It was awesome. I didn't know about Pete Frates until we got here. For him, a big Boston fan, doing it here, that was awesome."

So was setting down 20 straight Red Sox batters, after hitting leadoff man Brock Holt, in a bid to become the first rookie to throw a no-hitter since Boston's Clay Buchholz on Sept. 1, 2007, and the first opposing pitcher to throw a no-no at Fenway since Detroit's Jim Bunning in 1958.

Shoemaker was still at Eastern Michigan University in 2007, then went undrafted in 2008 as 1,504 players were taken without his name being called. He signed with the Angels after the draft for $10,000, and has turned into one of the game's best bargains: His 12 wins are tied with Masahiro Tanaka for most in the majors by a rookie in 2014.

Danielle Shoemaker evidently was disappointed when Middlebrooks broke up the no-no by lining a double into the left-field corner.

"Middlebrooks you butthole," she tweeted, only to delete it later due to negative reaction.

"I'm getting a lot of rude responses for a little joke," she subsequently tweeted.

Shoemaker smiled when told of his wife's Middlebrooks tweet.

"Is that good or bad?" he said. "That's a funny way to do it, right?

"I'm glad she said it the way she said it. I know her better than other people. That's her just being funny, goofy. That's cool."

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Post by Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

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