Month: July 2015

Hooray! Joe Kelly Returns!

Posted on July 23, 2015 in Game Recap

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:

  1. Wade Miley – 4.49

Miley Ace

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:

Righty Does Houston, Back to Back Blogs

Posted on July 22, 2015 in Game Recap

Thanks to a happy coincidence, I was in Houston last night on a business trip, and so were the Red Sox. As a result, I’m blogging back-to-back games, which will totally throw off the natural order of the universe, since Lefty and I have now “switched” games. Anyway, I hope my business in Texas goes smoother than the Red Sox’ business. Last night was the much-anticipated debut of Brian Johnson and it was a mixed bag.

Johnson would give up a run in the first, and have a shaky second. In the mean time, the Red Sox offense was still enjoying their extended All-Star break, striking out 4 times in the first two innings.

Sidenote: I actually liked this guy, unlike the last guy who sat near me at a game that I tweeted about.

In the top of the 3rd everything changed. 

After a Pedroia groundout moved Mookie to 3rd, Xander would knock him in with a line drive single up the middle. From my vantage point it sounded like The X broke his bat on both of his hits.

Now staked with a two-run lead (as pointed out by Mr. Righty, my father, this was the Sox’ first lead since the All-Star break) Johnson needed a shutdown inning.

Pretty impressive stuff from the rookie, who relied heavily on his curveball, which seems to be his best pitch. He certainly doesn’t throw hard. The Minute Maid Park scoreboard operator called his fastball a changeup until the 3rd. He got the side in order again in the 4th before running into trouble in the 5th.

Back-to-back singles and a sharp grounder that Sandoval was able to turn into a force out at second after a diving stop put runners on the corners with one out. At this point Torey Lovullo stood up in the Red Sox dugout and gave the defensive signals to the middle infielders and the catcher. I immediately said to my cousin “I hope that doesn’t mean throw down” because this is the 2015 Red Sox and things never work out the way they should, so playing it safe would’ve been preferable. (By “throw down” I mean try to get the runner going to second in the event of a steal instead of looking him off and making sure the runner at 3rd stays put; not fight, which would’ve been more fun to watch). Sure enough, Marisnick steals second, Hanigan throws the ball away, and both the runner on 3rd (Carter) AND Marisnick score, tying the game. I know hindsight is 20/20, and with a rookie on the mound they might’ve been thinking they could steal an out, but HOLY SHIT you could see that coming from a mile away.

Masterson would come in and do his thing (plunk a guy, give up a double, etc.), tacking another run onto Johnson’s line.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA
Johnson (L, 0-1) 4.1 3 4 4 4 3 0 87-50 8.31

I’m very confused because the park had both of the “stolen base” runs as unearned but it looks like they both counted against Johnson? How can both be earned when there was an error on the run-scoring play? In either case, Johnson deserved better.

Nothing else good really happened for the Red Sox so I stopped tweeting. So now I’ll stop recapping. If you don’t have anything good to say…

Notes:

-Xander is still raking.

Red Sox Score 3!

Posted on July 21, 2015 in Game Recap

The Red Sox were swept by the Angels in a four-game wraparound series. All momentum of winning four of five series before the break is gone. They are now nine games out of first place. The Sox fell victim to another big inning, this time it was 4 runs in the second inning off of Boston starter Steven Wright.

Pujols and Trout are chasing each other for the league lead in long balls (not that kind). Pujols went deep twice while Trout only homered once (what a chump) and now leads 29-28.

Sox highlights:

Papi homered and looked downright pissed off about it:

Mookie made this catch:

Xander is still raking.

Notes:

–Brian Johnson will make his much-anticipated debut tonight in Houston, and Righty will be there to cover it all for you. Sad that it went from the possibility of strengthening the rotation from within for a playoff run to a potential “bright spot” before he threw his first pitch, but oh well.

Eduardo Rodriguez Blows Up Again

Posted on July 20, 2015 in Game Recap
eduardo rodriguez blows up

Eduardo Rodriguez's jersey got stuck on his nose – he works furiously to pull it loose. (Jonathan Moore/Getty Images North America)

Eduardo Rodriguez added another chapter to a season of bizarre results, giving up 7 runs in the second inning to seal Boston’s fate. In the 10 starts since his May 28th debut, Rodriguez has held his opponent to two runs or less 7 times. In the other three games, he’s given up over 75% of his earned run total (22), with a disastrous inning of 6 runs or more in each game. It’s been all or nothing, and whether it’s the result of pitch-tipping or not, it’s become yet another maddening inconsistency on a team that’s already full of them.

Rodriguez wasn’t sharp in the first inning, but he got out of a 1st and 2nd situation when Pablo Sandoval caught a hard line drive and threw to 2nd for an inning-ending double play. He didn’t get so lucky in the second inning, giving up a single with 1 out and men on 1st and 2nd to make the score 1-0. But the shit really hit the fan after Hanley Ramirez misplayed a double in left field. It probably should have been caught, but it scored a run instead, and the floodgates opened from there, culminating in home runs by Kole Calhoun and Albert Pujols. This has become something of a pattern for Rodriguez: defensive error plays part in utter collapse.

In any case, Noe Ramirez was brought in to relieve Rodriguez, and he got out of the inning, but the damage was done, and the Sox were down 7-0. Ramirez had an 18.00 ERA heading into this one, and he got it all the way down to 5.40 with 2 1/3 innings of work. However, the journey to that new number wasn’t pretty. Ramirez gave up 4 unearned runs in the 4th inning. He should’ve been out of the inning without any damage, but Sandoval committed an error, and the wheels that the Sox had glued onto the wagon came off from there. David Freese hit a three-run homer, and it was 11-1.

One, you say! How did the Sox get that one?! It’s the first run we’ve had in a week! Well, Mike Napoli singled in David Ortiz, who had led off with a single of his own. Victorino loaded the bases after the run scored with Boston’s fourth single of the inning, but both Hanigan and Mookie struck out to end the inning and the Red Sox’ last real chance of the game.

Not much more to say here. It was a blowout. Here’s hoping they steal the nightcap.

Notes:

  • Devin Marrero recorded his first career major league hit after starting 2015 with an 0-6 streak.
  • The Red Sox brought Blake Swihart back up from his rehab assignment and designated Sandy León for assignment. This is definitely a positive move for the Sox’ offense. A fact about León’s 2015 that I forgot to include in the catchers breakdown that I’m sure everyone read: he was 1 for 22 from the right side of the plate this year. I’m not sure the switch hitting was working for him.