Month: June 2015

Sox Lose, Sox Lose, Sox Lose…

Posted on June 13, 2015 in Game Recap

Everyone seems to be having a pretty bad time here. (AP Photo)

I mean…come on. Come ON. How is that possible? This team, man. This team. What can you say about a team that refuses to come through? The worst part is that I can’t decide what the truth is about these guys. Is it that the Sox have been unlucky? That they’ve come up a run short in what seems like a dozen games (I’m not going to look up stats for this because I’m writing this from a car, but I actually think that’s probably about right. I could probably look it up on my phone. Whatever). Or is the truth that they’re lucky to even have the record that they have, considering their very poor run differential (minus 51, tied for the worst in the American League).

More and more, I’m inclined to believe it’s the latter. The situations in which the Sox have, time and again, come up short aren’t happening in a vacuum. There’s a reason for repeated failure. It’s not a coincidence. The proof’s in the pudding. And Sox fans got a big helping of pudding last night. Even Don was despondent. He said we might’ve hit bottom. This team will find a way to lose.

[No videos for this one folks. Again, I’m in the car.]

The offense was unimpeachable in this one, as is usually the case with this team. I don’t mean that the offense is usually good, just that one side of the ball usually performs at least halfway decently while the other side decides to take the day off. You can’t blame Joe Kelly for this one – no, he didn’t have his absolute best stuff, but he did enough to expect to get the win, especially having been given eight runs of support .

No, most of the blame lies with Matt Barnes and Junichi Tazawa (much as that pains me to say). I’m gonna go ahead and say that giving up 8 runs without recording an out is an indication of bad pitching. Could it have simply been a case of these guys taking it easy, feeling comfortable with a multi-run lead? Probably. But it’s still embarrassing, and symptomatic of this team’s horrific pattern of losing.

You know what, there’s not much else to say about that side of the ball. The relief pitching was beyond terrible. On the bright side, Tazawa’s ERA remains significantly below 3.00, so this was, hopefully, an aberration on what has otherwise been an excellent year for him.

Let’s move onto the hitting, and compliment some guys that had great days:

  • Blake Swihart, who did a great job of setting the table for the top of the order, going 2-4 with a walk and scoring 3 runs.
  • Rusney Castillo, who went 3-4 with a double and a walk, scored a run and batted a runner in.
  • Xander Bogaerts – 2-4 with a double, and scored a run. Batting from the 3-hole! Finally.
  • David Ortiz – 2-4 with a walk and 2 RBI.
  • Dustin Pedroia, Pablo Sandoval, and Mookie Betts – each of whom only had one hit on the day. But each one was a home run. Pretty, pretty, pretty good.

And let’s shame one man publicly (okay, this blog probably doesn’t count as public. Whatever) who just seems like he’s not going to turn it around:

  • Mike Napoli – 0-5 with three strikeouts, including a huge strikeout (looking on an 0-2 count) with 2 outs and the bases loaded with the Sox down by 4 in the 8th Pretty tough.

I’m done with this thing today. Ugh. I hope Mookie’s okay.

Another Half-Assed (More Like Half-Handed) Blog

Posted on June 12, 2015 in Game Recap
Jones Rounds Third as Sandoval Looks On (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Jones Rounds Third as Sandoval Looks On (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Are we mailing it in less than halfway through the season? Well, no. Your pal Righty broke his left hand. If anything I’m taking this whole “Righty” thing too seriously. I broke it diving headfirst into first base. I was out. Kids, never ever slide headfirst.

My posts will be brief until I figure out a good system for blogging with one hand.

The good news about this game was that the offense scored a halfway respectable amount of runs (5!). They even had some timely hitting including this two-out two-run double by Panda in the top of the 4th, and this two-out RBI single by Xander in the top of the 6th. Papi homered in the top of the 8th (his first in 69 at-bats) and topped it off with a beautiful little bat toss. All three of the aforementioned plays brought the Sox to within one run at the time.

They also played good defense, with the play of the night coming from – who else – Dustin “Sunset” Pedroia. He made a full extension stop on a wicked one hopper from Crush Davis that was practically past him when he snagged it. Bogaerts would get in on the fun later in the game, making a diving stop on a grounder up the middle. I may or may not have predicted that this was coming from Xander (scroll to the notes).

The bad news was that Wade Miley was ineffective. He went just four innings, giving up 5 earned runs on 9 hits, including 3 home runs. Worse still, when Farrell told him between innings that he was done he threw a full-blown temper tantrum, ranting and raving and caterwauling all the way down the tunnel. As Orsillo said on the broadcast, if you’re Miley how can you complain after the outing you just had?

Steven Wright and Taz were effective in relief but the Red Sox could never fully climb out of the hole that Miley put them in.

Notes:

-I have to say, Siri is a pretty good secretary. Dictating this recap wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought it would be.

-Adam Jones is my favorite player in the AL East that’s not on the Red Sox. So good and so likable, a real treat to watch.

Most Half-Assed Blog of the Year

Posted on June 11, 2015 in Game Recap, Random Stuff

These are Skittles.

The Red Sox lost yesterday, 5-2 to the Orioles. I’m gonna give it to you straight here, people. I have neither the time nor the inclination to do a great job on this recap. I watched this game in fits and starts, and it’s just not gonna happen. I can tell you a few things though.

The Red Sox had two extra-base hits: one by Brock Holt in the 3rd inning that knocked in Dustin Pedroia, and one by Pedroia to lead off the 6th. He eventually scored in that inning as well. So Pedey, who’s now hitting an impressive .312, scored both the Sox’ runs. I don’t know what to say about this offense anymore. Just, what a colossal disappointment.

Paying Rick Porcello continues to be a joke of a decision.  I don’t quite understand why it is that he gets off easy and Justin Masterson got roasted.

At least our bullpen is still pretty good. Tommy Layne pitched two-thirds of an inning, and his ERA is still down at 2.41. Ogando is going to be back sub-4.00 pretty soon after going two scoreless innings last night.

This team is now 27-33, 6.5 games back of 1st place in the AL East. Somehow, and this is probably a good thing, it feels like Boston has been a lot worse than that.

Okay, I’m sick of talking about this team. Let’s talk about something else. Like…Starburst. In general, my favorite flavor of candy is orange, but I think orange just might be the worst Starburst flavor. I don’t quite understand the hate for lemon – yesterday at work, there was an open bag of Starburst, and some savage had been stacking the lemon outside the bag because they were unwanted. They’re delicious! I don’t get it. Very lemony.  I don’t usually like cherry-flavored candy at all, but Starburst does it right – I don’t think I’m breaking new ground with that one. The king is obviously strawberry.

It should also be noted that Skittles are forever tainted by switching the green Skittle from lime to green apple. I don’t care how much you like apple-flavoredy candy (I’ll admit I’m already biased against it), it just doesn’t go with the other flavors in the bag. I’ll go so far as to say that it ruins the “eat all the flavors at once” move. The rainbow just doesn’t taste the way it should.

Offense Forgets to Show Up

Posted on June 10, 2015 in Game Recap, Players, Prospects

View post on imgur.com


I’ve been itching to cover an Eduardo Rodriguez start since he got the call from Pawtucket. All season, every time a starter turned in a bad performance I’d tell my friends they should give Rodriguez a turn. It got to the point where it was a little irrational. “Well, yeah, Buchholz went 8 and struck out 11 and didn’t walk anyone. But I’d still like to see what Rodriguez can do.” My friends now refer to him as “your boy” when they’re talking to me, which I take as a huge compliment.

Anyway. Eddie (he needs a nickname. Any suggestions?) was once again impressive, but in a different way than his first two dominant starts. He didn’t have great command of his slider or changeup, but battled through and turned in 6 shutout innings, essentially with one pitch – six of his seven strikeouts came on his fastball.  It helps when your one pitch is a lively 95 MPH hairy heater, but still superb work by the rookie.

His crucial sequence came in the bottom of the 5th. After surrendering a leadoff single to J.J. Hardy, Rodriguez hit Ryan Flaherty when he was trying to bunt, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. The next batter was Manny Machado, who he coerced into a fielder’s choice on a 1-1 changeup, one of only two outs he’d record with that pitch all night. Rodriguez followed that with big back-to-back strikeouts of Delmon Young and Adam Jones. After the strikeout of Jones, Eduardo was FIRED UP. Jones didn’t like Rodriguez’s reaction too much, and kind of sarcastically grinned in his direction as he was walking towards the dugout.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Rodríguez 6.0 3 0 0 3 7 0 0.44

When the Red Sox acquired him, the Orioles scouts were sad to see Eduardo go and said he had another level, another gear that facing major league competition would bring out of him. I don’t know how they could possibly know such a thing, but a 0.44 ERA over his first three starts suggests that they knew what they were talking about. This one must’ve been hard for them to watch.

The lone run in this game came in the bottom of the 7th on a wild pitch from Matt Barnes. With runners on first and third with no one out, Barnes shook off Swihart, who I assume called for something hard, and threw a first pitch changeup that went about 55 feet. It’s a pitch that Swihart might block 8/10 times, but he lifted up on it slightly and it got away. Definitely a wild pitch, but still blockable. That was enough for the O’s to win the game 1-0.

Notes:

-The Red Sox lineup looked like it was filled with graduates from the Milford Academy.

Milford Academy

-0-8 with RISP.

-Not helping: Hanley fouled a ball off of his knee and had to leave the game. Let’s hope it’s just a bruise.

–Mookie has hit a rough patch. He’s batting just .156 since May 30.

-Don and Jerry have been comically bad at predicting the outcome of reviewed plays this season. Their chuckles and self-deprecating humor after the call is made almost makes the multi-minute delays palatable.

-If anyone suggests “E-Rod” for Rodriguez’s nickname you will be tarred and feathered and publicly shamed for lack of originality.

-The Red Sox had the #7 overall pick in this year’s draft and selected Arkansas outfielder Andrew Benintendi. I was somewhat surprised that they didn’t take Carson Fulmer (RHP, Vanderbilt), who was taken by the White Sox with the next pick, and who the Red Sox were very high on leading up to the draft. Fulmer was considered to be the best pitcher in the draft, but two others were taken ahead of him, including the Twins taking a college reliever with the 6th pick – I can’t quite figure that one.

Benintendi (is that Italian for “good Nintendo”?) shot up the boards after hitting .380/.489/.715 with 19 homers in 221 ABs this season. He’s got a sweet, compact lefty stroke and the potential to be a gold glove outfielder. With such a high ceiling, he was probably too tantalizing for the Red Sox brass to pass on. Definitely no reason to be upset if you’re a Sox fan.*

*Obviously I reserve the right to backtrack on this statement if Fulmer is the next Pedro and Benintendi is the next Billy Beane.