A few factors have conspired against Righty that have prevented me from giving my normal level of attention to this game. First, I am in St. John, Canada. I walk into a restaurant at 8:30 local time (we are in the Atlantic time zone, one hour ahead of EST) hoping the game would be on. Alas, some obscure hockey tournament was on one TV (World Juniors maybe?) and Canadian football was on the other. Second, the wifi at my hotel has been maddeningly inconsistent, making the viewing of any kind of extended highlights nigh impossible. So I’ve only actually seen a couple of pitches of this entire game, making it hard to get a good feel for what went on. I’m going to have to put my blind faith in the numbers and hope they’re telling the truth. Third, I forgot my laptop in the car so I’m doing everything on my phone.
With that caveat in place, here’s what happened:
The Red Sox lost the rubber match of the series in the Bronx by a score of 2-1.
Eduardo Rodriguez pitched well, surrendering two runs on six hits, walking two and striking out five over seven innings. Duardo gave up the game winning homerun on a hanging 2-1 slider to Jacoby Ellsbury that was supposed to be outside but was middle-in. Jacoby deposited it in the upper deck. As far as I can tell it was Eddie’s only glaring mistake of the night, but it was a costly one, coming with the score tied at one in the bottom of the 7th.
Rodriguez was outdueled by C.C. Fatassia, I mean Sabathia, who picked a hell of a time to have his best outing of the year. Carsten Charles struck out 8 Red Sox over 6 innings of work, and even dialed it all the way up to 94 to strike out Big Papi with the bases loaded to end the 5th.
Once the Yankees have a lead after the 7th, the fat lady is allowed to start warming up her vocal cords. After being told her whole career in New York that she could only start warming when Mariano did, she’s had to change her whole approach. I heard she called the Royals’ fat lady for advice. Anyway, Betances and Miller have a 2.99 ERA combined. As in I added Betances’ ERA to Miller’s ERA and the result is still under three. They stuck to the script, pitching two innings of shutout baseball and the fat lady – Frank Sinatra – sang.
Notes:
-JBJ was 1-2 with two walks. I really hope he can string together a few weeks of good hitting before the season ends.
-Travis Shaw had a pinch hit single and deserves a start.
-Daniel Nava has found a new home with the Rays, which makes me incredibly sad. If I were on a computer I’d link to about 50 different highlights of him on the Red Sox and that song Michael Scott plays on repeat when he and Carol break up.