Month: July 2015

Red Sox Win 12-6 in Game Number 81

Posted on July 3, 2015 in Game Recap
Papi Gives Praise (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

Papi Gives Praise (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

This was the Red Sox’ biggest game of the season. After winning 7 of 11 and playing their best stretch baseball of 2015, Wednesday brought us the Canada Day Massacre. If the Sox are going to make any sort of serious playoff push they needed to bounce back in a big way on Thursday, and boy howdy did they bounce high.

One day after the Blue Jays jumped out to an 8-0 lead after three innings, the Red Sox jumped out to an 8-0 lead after the top of the first. Here’s how it happened:

  • Mookie singled on an 0-2 pitch.
  • Brock Holt singled on a 1-2 pitch.
  • Xander singled home Mookie. 1-0, 0 Outs
  • Papi served a 3-run homer to left field. 4-0, 0 Outs
  • Hanley went back-to-back with Ortiz.  5-0, 0 Outs
    Make sure you stick around for the end of that highlight to watch the beautiful little bat toss as he heads towards first.
  • Panda singled.
  • Napoli walked.
  • Toronto took out Matt Boyd and brought in Liam Hendricks.
  • De Aza tripled, bringing home Panda and Napoli. 7-0, 0 Outs
  • Hanigan lined out. 7-0, 1 Out
  • Mookie singled again, bringing home De Aza. 8-0, 1 Out
  • Mookie stole second.
  • Brock Holt had an “infield single,” where Mookie was called out on interference trying to advance 3rd. 8-0, 2 Outs.
  • Xander grounded out. 8-0 3, Outs.

To recap: 8 runs on 9 hits and a walk. That’s great production for an entire game and the Sox did it before the fans had even bought their first Molsons. The score was 7-0 Boston before Blue Jays pitching recorded an out. Jay’s starter Matt Boyd was charged with all seven of those runs and was lifted without retiring anyone, even though when he left the game the score was still 5-0. Poor Boyd made Porcello‘s start yesterday look like a gem in comparison.

Staked with an 8-run lead, Wade Miley had a good bottom of the first, but ran into trouble in the bottom of the second. He gave up 4 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks, including walking in a run which is literally the last thing in the world you want to do when up by two grand slams. And it could’ve been worse had it not been for this catch by Betts.

Miley let the Jays right back in the game, and the Sox’ lead was an uncomfortable 8-4. But to his credit, Miley got through three additional innings without giving up a run to give him this ugly, but ultimately winning line:

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Miley (W, 8-7) 5.0 7 4 4 7 2 0 4.53

The Sox would tack on four insurance runs in the later innings to make it a more comfortable win, and allow me just smile sadly instead of pull my hair out when Craig Breslow came in and got smacked around. The top three batters in the lineup plus De Aza accounted for all four of the insurance runs. Those 4 (Betts, Holt, Bogaerts, and De Aza) combined to go 14-23 with 8 RBIs.

In the end, the Red Sox totaled 19 hits and every starter had a hit except Hanigan.

Notes:

-I was glad to see Farrell went back to Xander in the 3-hole after briefly reshuffling the lineup after Ramirez returned. The top 3 of Mookie-Holt-Xander has worked well since Pedroia went down.

–Ogando was big again, tossing scoreless innings in the 6th and 7th. The bottom of the 6th was the crucial half inning in the game since the score was still 8-4 and Donaldson, Bautista and Encarnacion were due up.

-Halfway through the season the Red Sox are 37-44 and still just 6 out in the division. Given everything that happened and how they played, I’ll take it.

Rick Porcello Struggles Again

Posted on July 2, 2015 in Game Recap

Porcello rocking that thousand-yard stare. (Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports)

I’ve spent enough time in this space complaining about the Sox recently that it’s gotten a little boring, always being upset about this team. You know what? This is a team that’s still 8-5 in its last 13 games, and I’m going to push past the bad stuff. Except, okay, yeah. We have to talk about Rick Porcello.

It’s just getting to be tragic. The guy is a near-lock to be terrible every time he steps on the mound. First of all, I was going to tweet for every out that Porcello recorded on his way to a no-hitter. But Rick obviously ruined that immediately by giving up a leadoff single to Jose Reyes. And then he let Josh Donaldson have a bunt single. He struck out our loyal reader Joey Bats to provide the illusion of major league ability, and then promptly gave up the game-winning home run to Edwin Encarnacion. Look at the pitch location. It’s a meatball. An unbelievable meatball of a changeup.

But Porcello’s problem isn’t just with his pitches staying up in the zone. Two batters after Encarnacion’s game-breaking homer (after hitting Russell Martin), Porcello threw another changeup, this time pinning it to the bottom of the strike zone, and Justin Smoak cleaned it out to right field. León had asked for it on the outer half of the plate, though, and Porcello gave it to Smoak inside. It was a fatal mistake (I’m being hyperbolic, I know no one died. Except me, inside).

And then Pillar hit a clean double to left and got picked off second (if only Porcello could locate his pitches as well as his pickoff moves), and Carrera hit one right on the screws, as Righty would say, but directly to Mookie Betts to end the inning.

With the game pretty much in hand, the Sox’ offense rolled over and died until the 7th inning and whoa there, I am not doing a very good job of staying positive. Okay, to be fair, Bogaerts doubled and De Aza tripled along the way, but neither scored so excuse me for not being enthusiastic.

Anyway, Porcello made up for striking out Bautista early in the game by giving up a 2-run home run to him in the 2nd inning, making it 7-0 Blue Jays. Right down the gut of the plate, by the way. Rick finished out the inning and then sat down to ice his arm.

Robbie Ross, Jr. fared better but also gave up Justin Smoak’s second home run of the afternoon. This one was an absolute moonshot. He almost took it to the third deck.

So, yes, back to the main theme of this post. The good stuff. Like I said, De Aza kept up the slugging with yet another triple. Hanley Ramirez came back to the lineup and hit a triple of his own, though Sandoval did manage to push him home with a ground ball out.

Mookie homered…boy, I am quickly running out of positives. Mike Napoli made this incredible leaping snag of a line drive to start an inning-ending double play in the 7th, but also contributed his usual 0-4 with 2 strikeouts, so I’ll be generous and call it a wash. Jonathan Aro continued to prove that he might not quite be ready for the big leagues, giving up 3 runs in 3 innings. That’s all I got.

Notes:

  • I know he’s not having a bad year, but I’m still embarrassed that the Sox got shut down by Mark friggin’ Buehrle.
  • The Sox didn’t exactly kill it from the plate, but they’re still slugging. 4 of their 6 hits went for extra bases. And you’re not going to win many games anyway when your pitching staff gives up 16 hits and 5 home runs.
  • Brock Holt took a seat for the day, and Deven Marrero filled in for Pedroia at second base. He went 0-3.
  • Please don’t let Porcello pitch in five days. I just can’t watch him again.  Please do something else with him. Come on. Tell him his next start is in Miami and that he has to take a private jet down there by himself. Anything.

Sox Win 3rd in a Row – Eduardo Rodriguez Tipping Pitches?

Posted on July 1, 2015 in Game Recap, Prospects

The Red Sox won 4-3 over the Blue Jays last night, their third straight victory. Here’s how it happened:

The story coming into this game was “is Eduardo Rodriguez tipping pitches?” If you hadn’t heard, the scuttlebutt was that Eddie was showing his hand early in his last outing, but only when pitching from the stretch. This theory certainly held water, seeing as in that game he retired the first 10 Orioles he faced, then one batter reached and Rodriguez surrendered 6 runs, and only recorded one more out.

Over the course of the past four days that theory had been confirmed. Eduardo was looking at the ground before throwing his offspeed pitches, and looking more to the side before throwing his fastball.

Eduardo Rodriguez Tipping His Pitches

lEduardo Rodriguez Tipping Pitches (NESN)

Last night, he was definitely conscious of his head positioning. Several times Eddie took the sign from the stretch, lowered his head, then stepped off. Since he was involuntarily tipping his pitches (obviously), I’d imagine it was tough for him to concentrate on locating his pitches while fighting a natural instinct. Regardless, Rodriguez performed admirably, holding Toronto to one run in six innings. This was especially impressive considering that the Jays touched him for 9 runs the last time he faced them.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Rodríguez (W, 4-2) 6.0 4 1 1 2 4 0 3.92

Rodriguez was opposed by Marco Estrada, who had been untouchable in his last two starts, taking no-hitters into the 8th inning both times. It was evident right off the bat that Eastrada didn’t have the same no-hit stuff. He walked four men in the first frame, giving up two runs on 0 hits (Mookie reached on an error to lead off the inning).

Somewhere in that first inning it looked like Estrada lost the feel for his fastball, and he started relying heavily on his changeup. He as a good one (he’s no Clayton Mortensen but who is?), but he went to the well many too many times.

In the top of the second, Jackie Bradley Jr. sat on an all-systems-go change that hung on the outside corner.

Unfortunately for Jackie, this might be too little too late. John Farrell announced after the game that Hanley will be back in the lineup tomorrow after putting on a show in BP before the game. De Aza has been exceptional of late, and Victorino is nearing a return. Barring anything unforeseen, JBJ most likely won’t get consistent at-bats for the remainder of 2015 – maybe in September if things break a certain way.

In the top of the 3rd, it was Ortiz’s turn to be cleared for launch on an Estrada change.

That ball might’ve actually gone to the moon. It’s not quite Manny’s shot, which was last spotted near the Andromeda Galaxy, but a rocket nonetheless.

This put the score at 4-0, and the Red Sox would need all of those runs. Tommy Layne surrendered two more runs on top of Rodriguez’s one, to bring the score to an uncomfortable 4-3. With Toronto’s lineup and the roof closed in the Rogers Centre, a one run lead feels like you’re starting every inning with a runner already on 3rd, but Ogando had a big-time 8th inning, getting Joey Bats, Edwin Encarnacion, and Chris Colabello in order, and Koji came in and had a 1-2-3 ninth, sealing the Sox’ third straight win.

Notes:

-After the game Rodriguez acknowledged explicitly that he was tipping his pitches with his head position. I thought it was kind of odd that he openly admitted the specifics of it, even if it was pretty obvious. I’m guessing because it’s not a mechanical thing, just something he has to be conscious of, it’s not as important to try and keep the “tip” a secret. If it was mechanical it’d be a much bigger issue and a longer fix, and may even have meant a trip to the minors to sort it out. This is a relief, and maybe he can even use it to his advantage by looking down when he comes set, then firing 95 MPH cheese.

–Ryan Hanigan will be called up tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to see what happens here because Swihart has played well and deserves to stay with the big club in my opinion, but Leon has been Buchholz’s personal catcher … and he’s out of options.

-The Sox inked their top two draft picks Andrew Benintendi and Austin Rei.

-The White Sox’ Chris Sale had 12 K’s last night, giving him 10 or more strikeouts in eight straight starts. The only other guy to do that? Pedro in ’99.

–Brock Holt!

-Everyone else in the division lost last night. Here’s how the AL East is looking, in case you had tuned out:

East W L PCT GB WCGB L10 STRK
Baltimore 41 36 .532 – – 7-3 L2
Tampa Bay 42 37 .532 – – 3-7 L3
NY Yankees 41 37 .526 0.5 0.5 3-7 L3
Toronto 41 38 .519 1.0 1.0 4-6 L2
Boston 36 43 .456 6.0 6.0 6-4 W3

Not exactly apocalyptic.