Welcome back, Joe! (AP Photo/Richard Carson)
First, some stuff that happened: Devin Marrero, Steven Wright, and Brian Johnson were all sent back down to Pawtucket. So much for Johnson filling in for Clay Buchholz, who just got a platelet-rich plasma injection in his elbow. Who got called up? Why, none other than the thumb-headed idiot himself, Daniel Nava, and everyone’s favorite potential-ridden number 5 starter, Joe Kelly.
In case you were wondering what the Red Sox rotation looks like right now, in order of 2015 ERA:
- Wade Miley – 4.49
2. Eduardo Rodriguez – 4.64
3. Joe Kelly – 5.74
4. Rick Porcello – 5.79
5. Random call-up/Justin Masterson/a ham sandwich – ???/5.98/probably sub-5.00
Your 2015 Red Sox!
Anyway, Nava didn’t play last night, but Kelly was the starter, and he immediately brought me back to the hopeful days of May, when he’d do things like this. Sprinkling some parsley on a fastball and laying it out for Preston Tucker on the outer half of the plate on a full count when Swihart wanted it inside? It’s just like when we were getting to know each other, Joe! Tucker crushed it to center to take a very early 1-0 lead.
Kelly gave up two more home runs, and that was all the Astros did to score in this one. To make it 2-0, Evan Gattis hit a line drive homer to left that got out of the park in a hurry:
This came on another miss by Kelly, a slider that stayed hanging up and in on Gattis. He’s not the kind of guy you want to give a hanging slider. But that’s just me. The 3rd Houston home run of the night was Tucker again. He pulled a low fastball to right field for a no-doubter 2-run jack.
As for the offense, it was actually above average for this road trip, so: well done offense! Just kidding, you stink. It must be said that Boston’s 2-10 with RISP is better than the Astros’ 0-5. Congratulations on that. I think my favorite part was when we were down 4-2 with men on 1st and 2nd and McHugh was clearly on the skids, and Swihart bunted directly to the pitcher for a force out at third. That was a real magical moment.
Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Notes:
- Dustin Pedroia recorded his first hit since returning from the disabled list. It was an RBI double to the gap in right center. Pretty good.