Month: July 2015

Xander Comes Through Again in the Clutch #XforASG

Posted on July 8, 2015 in Game Recap, Players
Xander Bogaerts: Such the Man #XforASG

Xander Bogaerts: Such the Man #XforASG (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Cliché alert: Xander Bogaerts “strengthened his case” to be the AL’s selection in the Final Vote ballots for the All-Star Game. #XforASG. He was once again big with runners in scoring position. He was once again big with two outs. He was once again big late in a game. And he was once again big with two outs and runners in scoring position late in a game.

Don’t believe me? Just look at these clutch stats:

Hitting with ducks on the pond on was the Achilles Heel of this team early on and The X has produced all year long in that situation (.379 on the year before last night UPDATE: now .388).

Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the 7th, Xander came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. On the 8th pitch of a tough at-bat, he lined a 99 MPH fastball through the right side. The runners were off with the pitch, and all three would cross home safely, giving the Red Sox a 4-3 lead. They would win by that same score.

Wade Miley started and was strong, submitting a quality start and racking up a season-high 9 strikeouts.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Miley 6.2 7 3 3 2 9 0 4.50

A nice bounce back start from Wade after the seven-hit, seven-walk debacle last week.

After not pitching for 5 straight games and sparking rumors that he may be hurt, Tazawa has picked up right where he left off, making back-to-back shutout appearances. Last night he went one and a third, picking up the win in the process.

Notes:

-I wish Mookie would go back to “team high socks”. With Pedroia out and Napoli not playing, we need everyone on board that we can get. Xander is still going strong.

–Travis Shaw was recalled from AAA and collected his first Major League hit, plus a couple more.

-The Yankees and Orioles both lost. The Red Sox are only 5 games out in the division.

-Tune in tonight to see if the Sox can finally capture that elusive 4th straight win.

Do the right thing. Vote for Xander.

Brock Holt, All-Star and Vote Xander!

Posted on July 7, 2015 in Players, Random Stuff
Happy days are here again! (Boston Herald/Matt Stone)

Happy days are here again! (Boston Herald/Matt Stone)

The Brock Star is an All-Star.

You won’t find two bigger Brock Holt fans than Lefty and Righty, and Holt certainly deserves the nod since he’s slashing .295/.383/.424 and has played 2B, RF, 3B, LF, SS, CF, and 1B this year. Ned Yost said that his versatility was one of the main reasons he was selected (Belichick would be proud).

I was a little disappointed that Xander wasn’t selected. He was also worthy to be selected by Yost at .302/.339/.414 while playing the most important defensive position in baseball. Part of my disappointment could also stem from the fact that Xander is so improved from a year ago, which doesn’t really matter to anyone but Red Sox fans. Then again, advanced stats and analytics don’t really matter to Ned Yost so who knows. It also would be cool to have him be an All-Star shortstop at age 22. Fortunately, Xander is on the ballot for the Final Vote for the final roster spot on the 2015 ballot.

In any case, we’re happy for Brock Holt! All-Star 4lyf (I’m not trying to be cool, his twitter handle is @BrockStar4Lyf). Don’t be surprised if his versatility allows him to play more significant innings than expected – unironically that’s the exact way he ended up an All-Star in the first place.

And don’t forget, Vote Xander! #XforASG

 

 

Hanley the Hero

Posted on July 6, 2015 in Game Recap

Imagine how far it would have gone if he'd used TWO arms. (ESPN Photo)

Righty’s right. I was in New Hampshire, and we definitely don’t have Internet. We don’t have cell phone service either. My plan had been to venture out to find some on the 4th to do some writing, but come on. You weren’t gonna read it anyway. Let’s be honest. So I’m gonna break down yesterday’s game and maybe if you’re lucky I’ll post a little something about Friday’s game too. Hey, five games til the All-Star break!

The Sox came back to win the game and the series on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Boston. The scoring got started in the 2nd inning, after Hanley Ramirez got excited and was caught trying to go from first to third on a Pablo Sandoval single. Victorino flied out, but De Aza drew a walk and Ryan Hanigan, perhaps inspired by Sandy León’s 3-4 performance on Saturday, drove in Sandoval with a clean single to right field on a full count.

Eduardo Rodriguez only gave up one run on the day, but like his opponent Lance McCullers, labored through five innings and 101 pitches (seriously, that was what they both ended up with). The lone Astros run, which tied the game in the 4th, came by way of a pretty standard walk, single, and single to drive in the runner on second.

With the game still tied in the 6th, the Astros brought in their best reliever, Will Harris, he of the 0.93 ERA through 38.2 innings. This game wouldn’t hurt his ERA, but neither was he particularly effective. After Hanley led off by reaching on an error by Puerto Rican phenom shortstop Carlos Correa, Pablo Sandoval sliced a double into the left field corner, where Evan Gattis had enough trouble fielding the ball to let Ramirez score.

Hanigan came through again with two outs to get Sandoval home from third, and the Sox left the inning up 3-1.

But after a clean 6th inning in relief of Rodriguez, Alexi Ogando ran into trouble in the 7th. With his ERA under 3.00 for the first time since May 1 after a sterling June (1.84 ERA), he found himself over the 3.00 mark once again after back-to-back two-out home runs into the Monster by Correa and Gattis. Correa’s came with Jose Altuve on second base, and the Sox found themselves down by a run going into the bottom of the 7th. 4-3, Astros.

Harris got Xander Bogaerts looking to start the 7th, but got pulled so the lefty Tony Sipp could face David Ortiz, who finally drew a walk after 11 pitches. And then Hanley did this:

5-4, Red Sox. The remainder of the game passed by fairly uneventfully. Tazawa got a hold, Uehara got the save. Colby Rasmus tried bunting Preston Tucker to second base (after a Buckner-esque error by Brock Holt at second base) with two strikes and biffed it. If I have any other thoughts on this one, I might include them in the breakdown of Friday’s game, but for now this’ll have to do.

Clay Buchholz Wishes a Happy Birthday to America

Posted on July 5, 2015 in Game Recap

Clay Buchholz tossed the first complete game of the season for Red Sox pitching. He was a pitch away from a shutout, but a one-run CG ain’t half bad.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Buchholz (W, 7-6) 9.0 6 1 1 0 8 0 3.27

The Astros were the second highest scoring offense in the league coming into yesterday, and were looking to put an end to Clay’s recent run of dominance. But they couldn’t touch him because he had a sound mind in a pure body and was strong as an ox. They couldn’t touch him because he was Tarzan, Mandrake, Flash Gordon. He was Bill Shakespeare. He was Cain, Ulysses, the Flying Dutchmen; he was Lot in Sodom, Deirdre of the Sorrows, Sweeney in the Nightingales among trees. He was miracle ingredient Z-247. He was … immense. He was a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. He was a bona fide supraman.

Based on watching the condensed game, it looked like Clay had great depth to his changeup and had command of all of his pitches, and now has shut down the two best offenses in baseball in back-to-back games.

My favorite trio (Mookie, Brock, and Xander) got things started in the first with a walk, a single, and a single to get the Sox out to a 1-0 lead. Bogaerts continued to be fantastic with runners in scoring position, and excel at hitting the ball to the opposite field, especially with two strikes. These three did most of the damage in this one, driving in 5 of 6 runs (Mookie knocked in three).

Victorino was 2-4 with two runs scored in his return to the lineup.

Sandoval made a pretty play while positioned practically in the first base hole, and a diving play over the railing. He really is incredibly athletic for his size.

Papi got mad.

Final: 6-1.

For all of you asking “Where’s Lefty?” the answer is New Hampshire. They must not yet have internet up that way.

Happy Fourth, everyone.