Month: September 2015

Dr. Henry and Mr. Owens

Posted on September 23, 2015 in Game Recap

This man is an enigma. He's also a floppy-haired goofball with enormous hands. (Jim Rogash/Getty Images North America)

It was a tale of two halves for Henry Owens last night. If baseball games had halves. Which they don’t. But still!

Owens’ first four innings were perfect. Seriously, look:

PITCHERS IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Owens 4.0 0 0 0 0 4 0 3.97

But if there’s one thing I know about Henry Owens, it’s that he has a tendency to get rattled when things aren’t perfect.

Logan Forsythe smashed the first pitch of the fifth inning into the left-center gap to break up Owens’ perfect stretch, and the Rays did what they had to in order to get the run across: a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly did the trick. Suddenly, the 2-run Boston lead (provided by Travis Shaw on a 1st inning bases-loaded single) was down to 1.

Things got worse for Owens in the 6th. He walked Richie Shaffer on five pitches, and on the next three consecutive pitches, he got Luke Maile to pop out, hit Guyer on a wild inside pitch, and gave up a single to Mikie Mahtook. Bases loaded, one out.

The next batter, Evan Longoria, lifted a fly ball to right field, and Mookie Betts should probably have just eaten the ball. Instead, he absolutely airmailed a throw to home plate. Owens, backing up the throw, not only missed the ball (letting it get into the stands to score another runner) but looked pretty awkward in the process. A real lose-lose. 3-2, Tampa.

Owens had another tough inning in the 7th, but got out of it without giving up any runs despite loading the bases with no outs. After Shaw botched an attempt to field a soft ground ball to first (it went down as an infield single) to load the bases following a single and a walk, he redeemed himself by firing home to get the inning’s first out on a soft ground ball from Shaffer. Three pitches later, Owens managed to get the ball home on another soft grounder to start a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning.

Owens was looking pretty shaky at this point – might it have been time to remove him from the game? Possibly, but Torey Lovullo disagreed. On the one hand, the Sox were only down one and Owens had either lost his best stuff or was rattled. On the other, Boston is essentially playing for the love of the game at this point, and this game represented a good opportunity to let Owens pitch deep. Plus, he’d only thrown 76 pitches through 7! I think if this team was in the midst of a serious playoff push, Lovullo might’ve deferred to the bullpen, but as it is, I can’t really blame him.

For the record, though, it went poorly. Double, home run, 5-2. Owens’ line after the 4th inning doesn’t look quite as pretty:

PITCHERS IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Owens 3.1 7 5 4 2 1 1 4.41

Now down 3 runs, the Boston offense did manage to put runners on base in both the 8th and 9th innings. But Xander Bogaerts tried and failed (by a split second) to stretch a Green Monster single into a double in the 8th, and Shaw’s leadoff walk in the 9th amounted to approximately nothing. 5-2, final.

Notes:

Bogaerts went 2-3, walked, and scored a run, but his failed 8th inning stretch was the second of two baserunning mistakes. In the 3rd, when the Sox still had a 2-0 lead, Bogaerts led off with a double. But he completely misread a David Ortiz broken bat bloop, pretty much running on contact. Maybe he didn’t know a ball could fly that far off a broken bat. Whatever the reason, he was doubled off easily.

Sox Win Behind Xander’s Slam

Posted on September 22, 2015 in Game Recap

I’ll say it again: has a last-place* team ever been this much fun to watch?

Let’s get right to it. With two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the 8th, the Red Sox were trailing the Rays 6-4. Jackie Bradley Jr. got hit by a pitch, Mookie singled, and Pedroia singled to shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, who inexplicably elected to try and throw Pedey out at first instead of making the short throw to 3rd to cut down Bradley. That brought up Xander Bogaerts with the bases loaded and two outs. Rays’ reliever Brandon Gomes used three sliders and only one fastball to get the count to 2-2. On the 5th pitch of the at-bat Gomes went back to the slider and Xander was waiting for it, golfing it over the Monster for his first career grand slam.

Just like that a 6-4 deficit turned into an 8-6 lead. If you watch the replay closely, you’ll see Bogaerts indulged himself in a quick little stare down of Gomes as if to say “I can’t believe you threw that weak shit in here again.” Lefty and I were hootin’ and hollerin’ like the Rays held a half-game lead over the Sox for the last wild card spot, not 4th place in the division.

So how did we get to that point? Eduardo Rodriguez was on the bump for the Sox and gave up 3 runs on his first nine pitches of the game, but was in control for the rest of his outing, going 6 and logging a quality start.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Rodríguez 6.0 6 3 3 2 4 1 3.97

He was opposed by Chris Archer, who was effective but wild. He only allowed only one run, but thanks to five walks, couldn’t go more than 5 innings.

Given the matchup of Rodriguez and one of the AL’s best in Archer, you didn’t have to be Tim Kurkjian to predict that this game would come down to whose bullpen would be less ineffective. For a while that looked like it was going to be the Rays.

Although Alex Colome surrendered 3 runs,

  • Mookie and Pedroia singled.
  • Xander doubled high off the wall in left-centerfield. It looked gone off of the bat, but the chilly September wind kept the ball in the park.
  • Ortiz had an RBI groundout.
  • Shaw lifted a sac fly.

and the lead in the bottom of the 7th, Alexi Ogando gave it right back in the top of the 8th, putting the Sox in a 6-4 hole and necessitating Xander’s heroics.

Robbie Ross Jr. came in for the 9th and followed his standard operating procedure, giving up an absolute scud missile of a home run to Richie Shaffer before nailing down the save.

*With last night’s win, the Sox are now technically in 4th, a half game up on the Rays. But they were in last while this game was being played.

Notes:

-For those of you keeping score at home, that was two at-bats with men on in crucial late inning situations and two extra-base hits for Xander. He was a few degrees and a breeze away from the first being a three-run homer. He had 5 RBIs and also did this in the field.

-The Red Sox honored Big Papi for his 500th homer in a long, but nice ceremony before the game. Worth a watch if you have 11 minutes to kill.

Rich Hill Dominates – That’s Just What He Does

Posted on September 21, 2015 in Game Recap

This is what dominance looks like.

Rich Hill is my new favorite baseball player. I’ll admit that he kind of passed me by when he did some pitching for Boston from 2010-12, but he’s definitely in my line of sight now. Over 14 innings, Hill has struck out 20 and walked 1. He’s the first Red Sox pitcher to ever record 10 or more strikeouts in his first two starts. It’s been utter dominance, and aside from one shaky inning yesterday against the Blue Jays, no one has been able to figure him out.

The Sox should probably have scored in the top of the 1st to give Hill an early cushion, but a Mookie Betts walk and a Dustin Pedroia single that moved Betts to third proved inconsequential as Xander Bogaerts lined out and David Ortiz grounded into a shift-induced double play.

Hill kept going from where he left off against the Rays in his last start, putting the Jays down in order in the 1st. But in the 2nd, after a single and a strikeout, Dioner Navarro guessed right on a high first-pitch fastball, sending it over the left field wall to give Hill his first earned runs of 2015.

Immediately following this rude awakening, Kevin Pillar laid down a bunt that Travis Shaw and Hill could’ve played a little better…

Pillar advanced to second on another single and Ben Revere brought him home with yet another one-bagger. Kind of amazingly, Hill still technically struck out the side.

The Red Sox offense gutted out a little support for Hill in the 4th inning. Bogaerts got an infield single off Mark Buehrle to start things off. Then, when Bogaerts kept running to third on an awkwardly handled toss from first baseman Chris Colabello to Buerhle to retire Ortiz, Buehrle (a four-time Gold Glove winner) threw the ball away on a difficult first-to-third attempt, and Bogaerts scored. Shaw infield singled too, and Rusney Castillo doubled to put men on second and third, but Sandy León popped out to end the inning. 3-1, Toronto.

Fortunately, that one run wasn’t all the offense had to offer. Jackie Bradley, Jr. (recording a hit in consecutive games for the first time since September 7th) singled to start the 5th, but after a fielder’s choice and a fly out, Boston was left with Mookie Betts on first with 2 outs. Bogaerts and Ortiz, however, continued to atone for their 1st inning failings. Xander singled and Big Papi walked to load the bases, and Shaw came through with a huge opposite field single to tie the game at 3.

Meanwhile, Hill kept dominating, retiring the last 7 Blue Jays he faced before giving way to Noe Ramirez.

PITCHERS IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Hill 7.0 7 3 3 0 10 0 1.93

Before Ramirez actually appeared, however, the Red Sox put Hill in line for a win. Pablo Sandoval benefited from another pitcher error (this one by former closer Brett Cecil) to lead off, and after Castillo advanced Sandoval to second with a ground out, León came to the plate again. I’m sure hopes were not high on the Boston bench: the catcher had popped to first in the 2nd, second in the 4th, and third in the 6th. I’m no mathemagician, but he was clearly due to pop out to the Blue Jays’ catcher. Instead, he singled to move Pablo to third, and Bradley came through with a full count sacrifice fly to drive the go-ahead run home. 4-3, Boston. Pablo actually probably should have been out on the throw, but Navarro couldn’t handle it on the bounce:

Ramirez got a hold for his work in the 8th inning, despite allowing a single to Edwin Encarnacion and throwing the ball away on an attempted pickoff of Encarnacion’s pinch runner, Dalton Pompey. He had him if Shaw could’ve made the catch, but the throw was pretty low. Anyway, with Pompey at second base, Ramirez got Colabello to ground out to end the 8th.

Robbie Ross, Jr. gave up a two-out ground rule double to a pinch-hitting Russell Martin, but struck out Justin Smoak to notch the 4th save of his career.

Notes:

1. Out of the 14 innings Hill has pitched so far, 8 of them have been perfect 1-2-3 frames.

Sox Score 5 in the 9th to Shock Blue Jays

Posted on September 20, 2015 in Game Recap
JBJ ties the game at 4 in the top of the 9th. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

JBJ ties the game at 4 in the top of the 9th. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

The Red Sox played spoiler to the first-place Blue Jays yesterday in the Great White North. It’s always a little disappointing to help the Yankees gain a game in the standings, but I’ll take it. This game started out pretty uneventful, with Wade Miley and R.A. Dickey limiting baserunners and matching zeros through the first five innings.

In the top of the 6th, Xander took Dickey deep on the first pitch he saw, giving the Sox a brief 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the 6th, Miley gave up a two run home run to Edwin Encarnacion, putting the Red Sox in a 2-1 hole. A shallow hole, to be sure, and in the top of the next inning, the Red Sox would get back to even ground thanks to a Brock Holt double and a Jackie Bradley Jr. “seeing eye double.” That’s not really a thing, but watch this video and you’ll see what I’m talking about. The ball was just out of the reach of the second baseman, Pennington, and Jackie hustled into second while the defense was chasing the ball down.

The game was knotted at two until the bottom of the 8th, when Noe Ramirez walked back to back men and gave up an RBI single to start off the inning. He’d give up another infield single before being lifted for Jean Machi, who got a strikeout of Martin before surrendering an RBI single to Kevin Pillar.

The score stood at 4-2 Jays heading into the top of the 9th, with Toronto’s closer Roberto Osuna standing on the mound. As someone who has Osuna in fantasy I can tell you he’s either dominant or very hittable, with rarely any outings in the middle ground. Fortunately for the Sox, Roberto was in the latter category yesterday. Holt got things started with a double. Swihart struck out looking to bring up JBJ, who immediately went down 0-2 and for a minute it looked like Osuna was in pretty good shape to close out the game. Jackie, before his double in the 7th, had been 0 for his last 21 and 1 for his last 32, and as I mentioned, that double wasn’t exactly a scorcher.

But after taking a couple of balls, Jackie stroked a 2-2 dead red fastball for a game-tying two-run home run. It was a “Bondsian” sweet, easy swing where he knew right off the bat that he got all of it, as evidenced by his inability to inhibit that little hop he took after his first step. On swings like that, everything works in such perfect harmony that you don’t even feel the impact of the ball on the bat.

After a Mookie groundout, Pedroia would walk and Xander would single, bringing up Big Papi with two out, two on, and the game tied in the 9th. Hmm think he’ll come through? He poked an RBI single to left to bring home Pedroia, who executed some fancy footwork to avoid a Russell Martin tag. 5-4.

The Sox would add a couple of insurance runs on a wild pitch and an RBI single by Rusney. Good thing too, because Robbie Ross Jr., who has become the de facto closer, surrendered a two-run job to Joey Bats in the bottom of the 9th, but was able to strand the game-tying run at second base to close the door.

Notes:

-Miley had a weird start, giving up 2 in 6.2, striking out 7, but he also walked 5 and gave up 3 hits, including the homer to Edwin.

-It’s such a cliché, but Pedroia really does give 100% on every play in every game. It’s a treat to watch him leg out a triple, score the go-ahead run on a creative slide, and start a key bases-loaded double play. All in a day’s work.

-Holt made this ridiculous play in the bottom of the 6th.

Great range from the Brock Star.