For this one I’m going to blog my knee jerk reactions to the game in real time as the events unfold:

Pregame: Chris Sale vs. Rick Porcello. I’d say something snarky here but the Red Sox have dominated the Aces of the AL this season.

Don 🙁

Don Orsillo, I’ll love you until the day I die. I read somewhere that he wanted to start and end his career with the Red Sox which breaks my heart. I might have to buy MLB.tv and listen to the away broadcasts just to stick it to NESN.

Top 1: The Red Sox challenge the call at first when Brock Holt hits a grounder up the middle, but Alexei Ramirez makes a fantastic play, and the call stands as out. Sox lose their challenge in the first.

Xander singles on a 1-2 changeup from Sale – no easy feat. He now extends his hitting streak to eight games. When this kid discovers his power stroke it’ll be something to behold.

Jerry says that Hanley already looks better playing first in practice than he has all year in left. He then strikes out and the inning ends.

Bottom 1: Freddie has an impressive 1-2-3 inning. Looks like a different guy.

Top 2: Another challenge and more great banter between Don and Jerry, who have had a rough time getting calls right via replay this season.

Castillo comes in with a 9 game hitting streak, hitting .429 in that time, and has raised his overall average to .305. Pretty incredible.

Bottom 2: Don has already started reminiscing about Red Sox memories, talking about a time when Jermaine Dye took Papelbon deep in the 9th and forced extra innings in what would be a 21-inning game the day before the All-Star break.

Another 1-2-3 inning for Fred.

Top 3: JBJ is hitting .435 with a .978 SLG since August 9. His resurgence has been largely due to his new timing mechanism in his swing. Previously, he had done a toe-tap as the pitch was being delivered. Observe this homerun he hit in June (it’s easiest to see the toe tap in the replay).

He now uses a pronounced leg kick, which requires much less precision than the toe tap, as is evidenced below on this dead-center job he hit earlier this month:

After an infield single by Rutledge and a line drive single up the middle by Mookie, Xander draws a walk in an impressive at-bat.

I feel like Jerry is intentionally trying to make Don laugh, which is adorable.

Hanley strikes out to leave the bases loaded.

Bottom 3: Another 1-2-3 inning for Rick. Looks like he’s throwing harder than he has all year with good movement.

Top 4: Shaw continues to do his best impression of a Milford Man away from Fenway.

Sale is 6’6″ and 180 pounds. That’s crazy skinny.

Still scoreless but Sale has thrown 76 pitches through 4.

Bottom 4: With two outs Porcello surrenders his first hit of the night, a double to Melky Cabrera on a good pitch – a curveball down in the zone.

Top 5: Quick 1-2-3 for Sale.

Bottom 5: Freddie gets into trouble and works his way out, with the help of a sweet Rutledge barehanded flip to end the inning and strand two.

Top 6: Justin Verlander has a no-hitter through 8 innings and is currently sitting on my bench in fantasy.

Red Sox go down in order again.

Bottom 6: In and out of trouble, but Rick is hitting his spots even when he surrenders hits.

Top 7: Sale through 7 shutout innings, but has thrown 119 pitches. He’s gotta be done.

Bottom 7: Porcello is still rolling.

Top 8: Travis Shaw dials long distance and finally gets a hit on the road! I happily eat crow for my Milford Man joke. 2-0 Sox.

Bottom 8: Porcello is done after only 94 pitches, which is a little bit surprising. I guess Lovullo didn’t want to push his luck seeing as it was his first start back. Smart move. Definitely his most impressive start of the year (technically he had a one point higher Game Score against Toronto in April). He didn’t walk anybody and struck out five.

Robbie Ross Jr. gets the Pale Hose 1-2-3 in relief.

Top 9: Insurance run on a sac fly. Remy was rooting for a suicide squeeze, but instead Rutledge lifted a fly ball to right to score Swihart from 3rd. Big night for Josh. 3-0 Boston.

Bottom 9: Tazawa is in for the save. Gulp.

Despite struggling with location at times, Taz picks up the save with relative ease. Shutout for the Sox.

Notes:

-Lefty already touched on what a terrible situation it is that Orsillo is being forced to leave, and I don’t really have much to add to what he said besides this:

And this. And this. And the fact that this is also a raw deal for Don’s successor, Dave O’Brien. By any standard, Dave is a top 10 play-by-play man for TV or radio in baseball; but Don is so loved and Orsillo and Remy are such a great team that people are rightfully pissed off at NESN, and are talking about boycotting the network (like I did above) and Sox games altogether. Obviously that won’t really happen, and O’Brien is smart enough to know that none of this anger is directed at him, but it still can’t feel good and I’m sure it is not how he envisioned landing an enormous TV gig.

O’Brien is the ultimate professional, but lacks those endearing “Don moments” where he lets his guard down and starts giggling like a school girl. That’s not to say he’s robotic or lacks personality, either, he’s really a treat to listen to and we’ll certainly be in good hands. He’s just not Don. Adding to the tragedy of the situation is the way NESN handled it; it seems like it was a personal grudge held by a NESN executive. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given the way they handled the Naoko Funayama and Jenny Dell situations, but that doesn’t make it any less infuriating.