Wade Miley had it going on on Saturday (Photo by Rich Gagnon/Getty Images)
The Red Sox continued to bully the last-place Phillies as they coasted to a 9-2 victory behind a complete game effort by Wade Miley. Wade has been Boston’s most consistent starter all season long, and has been pretty much as advertised. Yesterday’s performance was one of his best of the season.
| Pitchers | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miley (W, 11-10) | 9.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4.43 |
Zero walks and eight strikeouts is a beautiful thing.
The most exciting play of the game, and maybe of the year, was Xander Bogaerts’ little league “grand slam”.
That is just an absolutely incredible slide by Xander and I love how fired up the whole team was after he scored.
Also of note: David Ortiz hit home run #496.
Games like this really make you wonder “what if” for the beginning of the season. If a couple of things had broken differently, they could be right in the thick of the wild card hunt. Even as things stand now, this team is a lot of fun to watch.
The pitching staff is finally putting up good, consistent outings.
Papi is chasing 500.
Highly touted prospects are not just contributing, but thriving. (All averages are before today’s game).
- Betts .281
- Bogaerts .320
- Castillo .280
- Swihart .288
- JBJ .293
And all of our loyal readers know how poorly the bottom half of that list started the season. Travis Shaw has dropped off slightly and is at .277, but has still been a pleasant surprise. Hell, even Josh Rutledge is hitting .341!
Watching JBJ, Castillo, and Betts in the outfield is also a ton of fun. Balls hanging in the air longer than 2.5 seconds will be caught, and runners can try and take the extra base at their own peril.
Notes:
-I saw Dave Dombrowski walking down Brookline Ave the other day. I gave him a big “Dave! What’s goin’ on?” He responded “Thank you.” Poor guy was probably kicking himself for the rest of the day for looking like an idiot in front of Righty.