Gotta say, I’m pretty jealous of Righty right about now. Guy gets to write about this awesome Opening Day win with five home runs and a dominant Buchholz performance and everyone’s dancing and la di da, we’re going to go 162-0!
No, the way life really works is Rick Porcello gets outpitched by Aaron Harang the day after getting an $80 million contract extension, the infield’s two best fielders show that they’re not infallible, both committing errors behind the first sinkerballer in the rotation, and the offense doesn’t show up. We’re going 81-81. Book it.
Okay, so hopefully the truth lies somewhere in the middle. But in the meantime, what went wrong here?
Oh, the weather outside is weather: There were a lot of bundled up Sox tonight, a lot of long sleeves out there, Bogaerts was wearing that goofy head shell thing, I think Nava might’ve been wearing a full-on hoodie…I’m probably projecting here because I hate playing sports in cold weather so much myself, but it’s possible that some guys were just tight tonight because of the cold. EXCELLENT ANALYSIS LEFTY, GROUNDBREAKING STUFF.
Aaron Harang: That’s right, this big sleepy-eyed dude had eight strikeouts, getting everyone but Betts and Nava (he Nava struck him out…). It felt like Harang was leaving stuff up in the zone all night, but he got away with it, as the Sox just couldn’t seem to drive the ball and, when they didn’t swing, home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi was calling high strikes all night (for both sides, to be fair). Classic Harang: doesn’t look like someone who would ever be called dominant, occasionally somehow is anyway.
Rick Porcello: I dunno. He looks like a perfectly fine pitcher to me. But I’m not sure that he’s a guy with the potential that an $80 million contract extension indicates. He feels like a high-floor, low-ceiling kind of guy. He was hittable but definitely in control until the sixth inning, when Howard worked a full count before striking out and Ruf worked a full count before walking. He was up in the high 80s of pitch count at that point. The home run by Francoeur, one batter (Asche, with a single) later, was just a slider left hanging out over the plate. Too easy.
Notice that the guy who caught Francoeur’s home run was wearing a Red Sox pullover and could not have looked more happy or been clapping more enthusiastically. Very confusing stuff.
Anyway, Porcello looked powerful and fresh up there most of the night, but his stuff isn’t exactly lightning and smoke, so he has to be mentally sharp – he’s not going to be able to get away with mistakes like someone with more dynamic stuff might.
Bad Luck/Missed Opportunities: Call it whatever you want, but by the time the Red Sox offense showed up in the 7th inning after six innings of utter futility, things just weren’t bouncing in the right direction. Harang, on apparently strict instructions not to give Pedroia anything inside, got him to a full count but eventually gave in, conceding first base, and then gave up his second hit of the night to Sandoval, who’d also been responsible for Harang’s first surrendered hit. Looking good, right?
Next, Hanley stepped up and worked a nine-pitch at-bat, eventually getting solid contact on a ball that tailed off away from center fielder Ben Revere…who ended up tracking it down anyway, covering a lot of ground to get to it. Ramirez would be Harang’s last batter of the game. To replace him, the Phillies brought in Jeanmar Gomez, he of the Venezuelan last name and the…French (?) first name, to get the last two outs of the inning. Napoli, like Ramirez, also had a long at-bat, but it ended in pretty much the worst possible way: a sharp liner to short with Pedroia running the bases the slightest bit too aggressively, getting doubled off at second to end the inning.
In the 8th inning, after the Phillies added an insurance run in the bottom of the 7th (which I’ll get to momentarily), Boston missed its chance to capitalize on Ken Giles pooping his pants on national television. The Sox got three walks and two runs out of him, true, after Sandberg’s decision to move Darin Ruf to first base backfired immediately when Nava reached on Ruf’s bobbled attempt to field a relatively routine groundball. But Ortiz’s pinch-hit strikeout and Betts’ third fly-out of the night quickly put two outs on the board, and yeah, Hanley’s inning-ending almost-grand slam would’ve probably been out of the park on a less windy night, but it just wasn’t tonight.
Defensive Miscues: In the 4th, you could tell Pedroia was feeling particularly slick after he made a great play to throw out Howard. The next batter, Ruf, grounded one towards second base, and Pedroia tried to do a little too much, or thought he had enough time to not totally step into it, or…well, I don’t know what happened, I’m just some guy. But he didn’t step into his throw whatsoever and tried to flip it almost 90 feet from a casual-looking sidearm, ending up landing the looping throw well short of first base. Not his best. He was otherwise great defensively – he just made a mental mistake. Still, Napoli’s picked worse throws before, so he might’ve gotten away with it on another day.
Speaking of worse throws, Sandoval’s double-clutch, crow-hopping throw into the dirt on Ben Revere gifted the Phillies a man on third base with no outs, leading to the eventual insurance run by way of a Chase Utley sacrifice fly. For a guy who’s supposed to be a pretty good defensive third baseman, that was about as ugly as it gets.
Bright Spots:
– Robbie Ross, Jr. and Alexi Ogando both looked very competent. Ross got screwed by Sandoval’s botched throw in the 7th, but struck out two after that (although the sacrifice fly he gave up to Utley was right in his wheelhouse and went a little too deep for comfort*). Ogando was particularly efficient, going three up and three down in eight pitches, though he may have benefited from the free-swinging bats of a home team with a two-run lead in the bottom of the 8th.
– Bogaerts looked good on defense, charging a soft liner, making a couple quick tosses to Pedroia on fielders’ choices, etc. Nothing choppy to report so far on a guy with some defensive question marks coming into the season.
– Sandoval was the only guy with a multi-hit game (two singles) and he drew a walk to bring in the Sox’ last run of the night. That said, the walk was probably the easiest he’ll draw all year, with all four pitches high and away. No, it was not an intentional walk. Just a very shitty one.
– Don and Jerry putting on gloves and hats:
Highlights: 1. I’m pretty sure Don was wearing batting gloves. 2. “Yes…it’s for my dome.” 3. Later, Jerry says he’s perfectly fine, that his head is the only part of his body that is not cold and doesn’t need any protection. 4. The next inning starts and Jerry is now wearing a hat and talking about how warm it is.
*That’s what she said.
P.S. This got really wordy. Sorry about that. Brevity is the soul of wit, etc. I’ll tighten it up next time.