Month: April 2015

Orioles Get Bogaerted

Posted on April 18, 2015 in Game Recap

We’ve had home games all week, but today was the first day that I’d really had to deal with Sox traffic on the T. I’d kinda forgotten how much it stinks. I can’t wait until it’s 90 degrees outside in late July on top of the congestion. I ended up with my right arm pressed up against this chubby dude’s back, trying to read my book (in a really boring part right now, so not even a good distraction) while actively sweating and trying to push the train towards Kenmore by sheer force of will. Needless to say, it took like a full twenty-plus minutes to get to Kenmore from South Station. FEEL THE EXCITEMENT.

Anyway, THE GAME. Joe Kelly was on the mound for the Sox, and he looked decently sharp, but his command was juuuust off enough to be a problem, as he racked up 118 pitches in 5 and 2/3 innings. The kid obviously throws gas, yeah, but he doesn’t have a real out pitch. Not yet anyway.

On the other side, the Orioles had Ubaldo Jiménez, he of the mercurial performance. Both pitchers had 1-2-3 innings in the first, including a beautiful full-count two-seam fastball on the outside edge by Jiménez that completely fooled Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia was shocked – I don’t think he believed that the ball could’ve come back into the zone.

After striking out Adam Jones with his own brand of fastball on the outside edge, Kelly gave up a wall-ball double off the Green Monster to Chris Davis, but he had a little help from Hanley Ramirez in getting to second.

Tough look. For now, let’s chalk it up to an adjustment period for Hanley. But having the last name “Ramirez” and a tenuous grasp on how to play left field at Fenway is definitely gonna get you some jokes tossed in your direction, Hanley. Head on a swivel.

Kelly eventually got out of what turned into a 1st-and-3rd situation with 2 outs by striking out Everth Cabrera with gas thrown off the plate to the outside. In the bottom half of the 2nd, Sandoval worked a walk, setting the stage for a curiously important play. The next batter, Napoli, grounded into what probably wouldn’t have been an inning-ending double play anyway, but especially not after an ambitious takeout slide by Sandoval, who plowed directly through Orioles’ second baseman Jonathan Schoop’s legs.

He was fully touching the bag for sure, and Righty thinks he had a chance to be safe at second if he’d just gone for the base instead of the takeout. In any case, it went down as a fielder’s choice, and the inning ended two batters later as Bogaerts grounded out hard to Manny Machado at third base, who ran ahead to touch the base himself.

Bogaerts made a terrific play to start off the top of the third and keep Kelly happy, diving to his right and making an iffy one-hop throw (with a great stretch from Napoli) to rob Schoop of a single. Around this time, Don and Jerry were making a real hard sell on some $300 million lottery jackpot. This quickly became a discussion about what you would do with $300 million. Don made a crack about never seeing Jerry again if Jerry were to win the jackpot, and then things got very serious and Jerry seemed mildly offended that Don assumed he would ever leave his job at NESN. It was kind of weird.

In the top of the 4th, Kelly gave up back-to-back singles, with Travis Snider advancing to third on Adam Jones’ hit. The next batter, Davis, hit into a double play (4-6-3) but the runner scored, making it 1-0. With two outs in the next inning, Jiménez plunked Sandoval and was IMMEDIATELY ejected.

The ejection was probably the right move, assuming that it was retaliation for the Sandoval takeout slide on Schoop. But it was also still one of the quicker hooks I’ve ever seen. I was shocked until Jerry brought the takeout slide to the attention of viewers with diminished memory skills (me). For what it’s worth, I don’t think Sandoval meant for the takeout slide to be a dirty play in any way – he even gave Schoop a gentleman’s butt pat after he was forced out at second on another fielder’s choice by Napoli to end the inning. It looked like Schoop ignored it, but hey, what can you do?

To lead off the 5th inning, Kelly got ahead of Baltimore catcher Caleb Joseph 0-2, but on a pitch intended to be outside, he left it over the plate. Joseph sliced it down the line towards the Pesky Pole and over the outstretched arm of Shane Victorino to double the lead to 2-0. The next 3 Orioles went down in order.

In the bottom half, Bogaerts hit another screamer down the third base line, but this one skipped over the base and careened off the wall into short left, getting Bogaerts to 1st with one out. Ryan Hanigan, who struck out looking in his other two at-bats on the night from the 9-hole, took advantage.

With the score now knotted at two thanks to Hanigan’s golf shot to left, the Orioles led off the inning with a line shot by Steve Pearce into Dustin Pedroia’s shift-aided glove…but Pedroia dropped it. Did the shift throw him off? Possibly, but it’s his second error in the first ten games of the season. Hopefully it doesn’t become something to really worry about. Three batters later, Kelly was pulled after his 118th pitch of the night and Edward Mujica came in to strike out Manny Machado and end the threat.

This is getting way too long again because I am a long-winded…windbag. So 7TH-9TH INNING LIGHTNING ROUND!:

  • Hanigan threw too high to catch a stealing Everth Cabrera (it looked like he cocked his arm back too far, according to Righty) and was visibly pissed about it. Fortunately, Cabrera was stranded at second.
  • Junichi Tazawa came in and performed dominantly, striking out both Travis Snider and Adam Jones with nasty splitters. Hanigan had to block both third strikes after they bounced off the dirt and throw the runners out at first.
  • Uehara looked equally dominant in the 9th, going 1-2-3 with two strikeouts himself.

Okay. BOTTOM OF THE NINTH. Napoli started out the inning by walking on four pitches.

Nava, who replaced Pedroia in the 6th inning, then laid down, frankly, a pretty bad bunt to the 1st base side. Steve Pearce had a legitimate chance to get Napoli at second. Instead, he hesitated and elected to toss over to 1st for the easy out. Two pitches later, Bogaerts slapped a bloop to right field and Napoli, depending on your point of view, either took a crazy chance or had an unbelievable read on the ball. He booked it towards third base virtually on contact, and scored the winning run fairly easily ahead of the throw from right.

Sorry this is so long. Bogaerts is hitting pretty well, huh? We even won this one without any contributions from Brock Holt! What are the odds? The end.

Sox Get Doubled Up 10-5, Righty Tastes Defeat for First Time

Posted on April 16, 2015 in Game Recap

This was an ugly one all around. A very short outing by Wade Miley and some more uninspired defense from the Nationals made it a little difficult to pick out highlights, but I have done my best. Well maybe not my best. I definitely tried hard though. The weather was really nice again!

Much has been made of Miley’s pace when he’s on the mound. After watching guys like Beckett, Buchholz, and Lester, it’s definitely a breath of fresh air to see Wade get the ball, toe the rubber, get the sign, and hurl. Similar to Mark Buehrle, when he’s going well and pitching that quickly, it’s really tough for hitters to get comfortable and it’s a lot of fun to watch. On the flip side, when he’s firing up ball after ball, and giving up walks and hits in quick succession, it makes you want to scream at the TV for him to take a breath and collect his thoughts.

After giving up a pair in the first, he set down 5 in a row before giving up a homer to Ian Desmond in the 3rd on a slider that was down and in. It was a good pitch, Miley hit his spot, but the wheels seemed to come off after that. Single, walk, walk, Wilson Ramos’ bases-clearing double, yanked. His final line was ugly: 2.1IP, 7ER, on 5 hits, walking 3, and striking out 1.

This team’s firepower means they’re never really out of a game, and they were able to pull within 3 runs with three full innings left to play, but Robbie Ross Jr. gave up a 2-run homerun to Tyler Moore in the top of the 7th, and that was all she wrote.

Offensive highlights:

Napoli is starting to drive the ball and has raised his batting average to .129 after getting off to an atrocious start.

Brock Holt! had a great at-bat in the bottom of the 6th. Facing Gio Gonzalez with home plate fully immersed in the shadows, he had an 8-pitch at-bat, culminating in a ground rule double. The thing had some hair on it. In his first AB he smoked one that was caught by a perfectly positioned Yunel Escobar at third base. He ended up being 1-4, dropping his average to an anemic .533. The guy should be getting regular at-bats. Our buddy Liam wrote a whole blog on this subject, you should check it out.

Hanley homered again, giving him 4 long balls already on the young season. Lefty touched on this in an earlier recap, but I have a theory that Hanley Ramirez and Manny Ramirez might be the same person, and it’s not just because they make playing left field look like so much fun. Hanley’s balance is incredible. Watch him sit back on this breaking ball and absolutely nuke it.

When they showed the side angle of him anticipating the pitch, he has the same load position, and same “hammer” angle (the angle of the bat when it comes forward, right before it comes through the zone) as Manny. For some frustrating reason MLB isn’t showing multiple angles on homerun highlights, so I can’t show you a screenshot, but you’ll have to trust me on this one.

However, I can show you their follow-throughs:

images article-0-0DDBB10000000578-829_468x335

Their helmets both even do that thing where they flip up in the front after they swing. Maybe Manny took Hanley under his wing back when he was just a young pup in the Red Sox farm system and looked like this:

bYn6XsMN

Notes:

–Allen Craig looks like a guy who’s simply forgotten how to hit. I have no witty analysis to offer. Here’s hoping he figures it out soon.

-Before the game, Boston Marathon bombing survivors Jeff Bauman and Patrick Downes threw out the ceremonial first pitches, and at 2:49PM the entire stadium observed a moment of silence for the victims of the Marathon attacks. Usually during these things there are some people screwing around and talking, but it looked and sounded like everyone was silent and reverent. I think that reflects how deeply connected everyone in Boston felt to what happened that day, grieving for the victims and their families, being incredibly proud of the heroes who saved so many, and being inspired by the survivors who have shown incredible spirit and tenacity in the two years that have passed.

Nationals Poop Their Pants! Sox Win!

Posted on April 15, 2015 in Game Recap

 

So Righty and I were in the ballpark tonight, taking in our first live game of the year. Pretty exciting stuff. Let’s not waste time up here, I’ll get right to it.

Actually, no. So I bought chicken tenders and fries for dinner at Fenway because I am five years old, but this “meal” cost me like 9.25 or something and only came with two tenders!

That’s all I really have to say about that, but I think we can all agree that it’s an atrocious miscarriage of justice and it resulted in me eating like eight E.L. Fudge cookies when I got home. I told you, I’m five.

All right, the section about Lefty’s personal problems is over.

1st Inning: Gonna be honest, I think we walked in as Pedroia came up to bat. Hey, we have day jobs, all right? Plus this one started at 6:10. Anyway, Pedroia and Ortiz both singled, but nothing came of it. In the top half, I guess Masterson dropped the ball during his pitch delivery and was called for a balk, but nothing came of that either.

Top of the 2nd Inning: Desmond doubled and Espinosa walked, setting the table for the centerfielder Michael Taylor, who I’d never heard of but who is apparently incredibly fast. Anyway, the Nationals chose this moment to run a double steal, which didn’t work out so well. With the lead runner gone, Masterson still gave up a single to the 9-hole hitter Taylor, who then stole second fairly easily with Escobar at the dish. This was the first sign of Taylor’s speed on the night – he clearly had the green light as soon as he got on base, and even a good throw (which didn’t happen) would probably not have caught him stealing at second. Fortunately, Escobar grounded out to Brock Holt at shortstop to end the frame.

Bottom of the 2nd Inning: 

After Napoli reached on a first-pitch single to lead off, Holt (who, after tonight’s 2-4 performance, saw his average sink down to .636) hit a two-out single and Betts knocked both Nap and Brock in with a double down the left field line that rattled around a bit in the corner.

3rd Inning:

Masterson’s only quiet inning of the night, setting down Werth, Harper, and Zimmerman in order. Werth, in his second game back from injury, had the green light on a 3-0 count and flew out to right.

Sandoval got hit in the foot by a Strasburg pitch here and stayed in the game. However, he’d come out later, being replaced in the batting order by Allen Craig and at third base by Hanley Ramirez. I read somewhere that he was fine. INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM.

After an excellent take-out slide by Sandoval on a potential Napoli double play ball, Nava knocked in Hanley with an RBI single and Hanigan brought in Napoli with the same.

4th Inning:

Not much. Masterson got out of a 2 outs, men at the corners jam. Pedroia hit a solo home run that barely cleared the Monster. It’s just so silly to miss high and inside against him. Dear all pitchers: don’t do that. Well, I prefer that you do, but it just seems like a dumb move.

5th Inning:

This is where the wheels came off for Masterson. 6 runs in one inning, yuck. Two hit batsmen, a walk, and three singles. With the score tied and men on first and third, Farrell brought in Alexi Ogando, fresh off his first poor performance of the year, allowing 3 runs in two-thirds of an inning against the Yankees. Ogando wasted no time in giving up a bases-clearing triple to Michael Taylor (who, with a little help from a Mookie Betts bobble, made it to third base easily – this kid is seriously lightning fast), but settled down after that, retiring the next four batters he faced.

Now down two runs, the Sox went down in order in their half of the 5th (although Napoli did show that he can still hit the ball a mile).

6th Inning:

Nothing doing for the Nationals, but the Sox showed a little fight. Holt singled, after which Strasburg was pulled in favor of Craig Stammen (who’d only end up facing two batters – not much Stammen-a if you ask me! I’m so sorry). Betts reached on a fielder’s choice and stole his 3rd base of the season, but I’m also pretty sure that was a pitch before Pedroia walked anyway. Ultimately, it came to nothing as David Ortiz grounded into a shift, 4-3.

7th Inning:

Edward Mujica pitched well in a non-pressurized situation, three up and three down with a K on Desmond to end the top half.

And this is where the wheels came off for the Nationals. This video can explain so much better than I can. So this dude Blake Treinen came in after that stiff Matt Thornton hit Victorino (who came in for Sandoval, shifting Nava to left and Hanley to third) and got Napoli to fly out to Bryce Harper in right. Harper’s arm, by the way? Not that impressive. I’m not well-educated enough to know if I should actually be surprised by this, but still.

Anyway, so Treinen comes in, hits Craig on his first pitch (Matt Williams should probably have yanked him then and there) and then his very next pitch results in a game-tying comedy of errors in which he scoops up a weak Hanigan ground ball, drops it while in the act of tossing it underhand to Wilson Ramos, then frantically picks it back up and throws it into the stands to try to catch the runner at home. Could’ve been a double play! Instead, Treinen is credited with two errors on one play and the score is tied at 7 (here is a picture of Blake Treinen. Now that I have seen this picture, I am less surprised about how his Tuesday night went).

Of course, the Sox still needed another run, so who came through? Brock Holt, obviously. Grounded out to the shortstop to drive in Craig, nothing fancy. Pretty terrible, confusing decision by Desmond not to throw home.

8th Inning:

Mujica struck out Espinosa to start the inning, then gave way to Junichi Tazawa, who gave up a single to Escobar, who then advanced on a wild pitch thrown to Jayson Werth. But Werth struck out looking moments later to end the inning.

Papi did the right thing in the bottom half by grounding into a shift-induced double play to speed the game up. Yes, I would’ve preferred we scored runs, but come on. We won, don’t get on my case.

9th Inning:

My scorebook for this inning reads: K, F7, K. Great comeback outing for Koji, right? In some ways, yes. His splitter is as devastating as ever. But his susceptibility to being taken deep remains…scary.

In any case, though, he got the save in typical one-two-three fashion. That about wraps it up for the first live Lefty and Righty game viewing of the year. As usual, I’ve written too many words. Good thing they’re all so interesting and vital.

Oh wait, game notes:

  • Pedroia was great: 3-4 with a walk and a home run.
  • Masterson was ugly, looking much more like the 2014 version than the 2013 version. Even apart from the one terrible inning, it wasn’t very clean pitching.
  • I don’t actually have much else to say, I just wanted to put in a game notes section.
  • Very important statistic
  • Witty observation
  • Okay sorry, this is really the end now

Red Sox Take the Home Opener, Righty Stays Unbeaten

Posted on April 14, 2015 in Game Recap

Well it was quite a day in Boston. The Red Sox welcomed the Nationals to Fenway for a three game set to open up play at Fenway for the year. The sun was shining, it was 70 degrees, the sky was blue, and girls were wearing sundresses. On a day where it felt like nothing could go wrong, nothing did.

The story of the day was Markus Lynn Betts. By the end of the 2nd inning, he had compiled a month’s worth of highlights. Here they are in order:

Top 1: Bryce Harper walks to the plate with a man on and one out and turns around a high fastball from Rick Porcello. Mookie does this:

He times his jump perfectly and snags the ball at the top of his leap. Unbelievable athleticism and coordination. I had a minor heart attack watching his ribs come crashing down on the bullpen wall, but he bounced right up and was no worse for the wear.

Bottom 1: Mookie walks. With David Ortiz batting, Mookie swipes second, notices no one is covering 3rd due to the shift, and immediately takes off, just beating Zimmerman (the pitcher) to the bag.

Bottom 2: Xander reaches on a throwing error from shortstop Ian Desmond (already his FIFTH of the young season), and Sandy Leon singles up the middle, bringing up Betts, who hits a heat-seeking missile into the top row of the Monster. Watch him bring his hands in and clean this sucker out.

My favorite part of that clip is the fact that he’s running so hard that he almost misses first base.

Mookie would later add an infield single and another RBI, ending the day going 2 for 4, with 2 runs scored, 1 walk and 4 RBIs. Have a day kid.

Other offensive highlights:

  • Ortiz hit the ball the other way with authority twice, which is a great sign. His balance was much better than it was in the beginning of the New York series. Papi’s at his best when he’s hitting the ball to all fields. In the first he hit a long single that one-hopped the Monster. In the bottom of the 6th, he hit an absolute BOMB to left-center.
  • Most of the offense came with the Fenway shadows halfway between home plate and the mound, which usually favors the pitcher.
  • Xander was 2nd in the league in hits coming into this game, and added two more to his tally, raising his average to .433.

The Sox played well, but they were definitely helped by the Nats being an absolute disaster in the field. They technically only committed one error, but they let two very, very catchable balls drop in the outfield, and Espinosa couldn’t get the ball out of his glove on a tailor-made double play ball, resulting in only one out (so not an error, but costly). This is one reason why ERA isn’t always the best indicator of a pitcher’s performance, Zimmerman didn’t pitch that poorly, but he didn’t help himself by plunking two guys, and walking another.

Porcello has been exactly as advertised so far. I imagine 2/3 of his appearances he’ll have a line that looks something like this:

Boston IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Porcello (W, 1-1) 8.0 4 4 3 1 6 2 3.86

He’s gonna make a few mistakes (like leaving fastballs up to Harper and Zimmerman, and hanging a curve to the #9 hitter Espinosa), but otherwise he’ll be solid and pitch deep into games.

All in all, you couldn’t ask for a better Home Opener. I’m looking forward to a long, exciting summer with this team.

Notes:

-Don and Jerry are already in midseason form. Orsillo had a flower in his lapel and Jerry made fun of him for looking like he was dressed to go to prom. Later they had this exchange:

Don: Jerry do you like cotton candy?
Jerry: No..[Silence]..but I do suggest it to other people who come to the game.

-Tanner Roark may be the Nats’ best defender. They should try him at short.

-It’s Opening Day for Dick Flavin, the Red Sox’ Poet Laureate, too. Don’t judge him based on this one performance. I’m sure he’ll return to form as the summer heats up, and be the front-of-the-rotation poet we’re used to. The one that makes the opposing team’s poet look like a 2nd grader with a rhyming dictionary. Wait other teams don’t have poets…?

–Napoli picked at least 4 really difficult balls at first. Here’s one of them on a low and away throw from Pedey after a diving stop