Month: September 2015

Things to Watch: Bills vs. Patriots

Posted on September 20, 2015 in Random Stuff

Hey everybody. Since I’m more well-acquainted with football than baseball anyway, I decided to throw together some stuff to look out for in today’s game. It’s going to be mostly scheme-related stuff from last week. Will New England continue to do the same things they did last week against the Steelers?

The Patriots used what looked like a nickel base against Pittsburgh. That means that they exchanged a member of the front seven (linemen and linebackers) for an extra defensive back. Usually, this means taking away a linebacker and replacing him with a cornerback to cover an extra wide receiver. The Patriots did this, but they also stood their defensive ends (usually Rob Ninkovich and Chandler Jones) up in a two-point stance, like this:

steelers front

Depending on how you use it, this gives you the power of a typical four-man defensive line or the versatility of a 3-4 look.

The other thing that New England did with this alignment was bring in an extra safety instead of a cornerback. They did rotate corners in, of course, when the Steelers brought an extra receiver onto the field. But New England stayed in its “nickel” look for virtually the entire game, even when Pittsburgh went with a heavier look. Against these heavier personnel groups, Patrick Chung came into the game and played near the line of scrimmage, looking for all the world like an outside linebacker.

Despite the Patriots’ lack of typical defensive linemen in the game, they were still able to cram the box with bodies when they brought Chung into the game, as seen here:

eight man front

Despite the Patriots use of only two linemen with their hands in the dirt, they showed a look that discouraged the run and encouraged a pass. And with so many bodies to keep track of, Donta Hightower was able to sprint past the center to sack Roethlisberger and put Pittsburgh in a third-and-long from deep in its own territory.

I would’ve liked to do a better job with this, but I’m kind of in a rush. Next week this’ll be top notch I’m sure.

Porcello Doesn’t Have His Best or His Worst, Sox Lose

Posted on September 19, 2015 in Game Recap

Nice pose, Rasta. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

The Red Sox lost to Marcus Stroman and the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 last night. Full disclosure: I was at the Boston College-Florida State football game last night, so I didn’t watch a second of the Sox until this morning. I’m gonna keep this recap short and sweet because the game was bereft of fireworks and Boston still managed to lose handily.

I will note that despite losing 3 of their last 4, and due mostly to every other potential wild card team’s failure to run away with it, the Red Sox still find themselves only 7 games out of the playoffs.

Brock Holt started for Pablo Sandoval at 3rd base and Josh Rutledge started for Dustin Pedroia at 2nd base. And in a move that has been hinted at recently, Mookie Betts played in right field so that Jackie Bradley, Jr. could get some time in center field.

Rick Porcello got the start and pretty quickly looked like he didn’t have his best stuff, allowing back-to-back singles from Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista before getting Edwin Encarnacion to ground into a double play to end the 1st.

Holt had a pretty tough night filling in for Sandoval. It started with a Kevin Pillar double in the 3rd inning that glanced off his glove and made its way into the left field corner. A sacrifice moved Pillar to third and a ground out scored him, so that probably didn’t sit too well with the Brock Star. 1-0, Toronto.

An error by Holt in the 4th inning with a man on 1st meant that the Blue Jays ended up with men on 1st and 2nd with no outs, and Justin Smoak stroked a deep double to score both runners. Ryan Goins tripled off the right field wall for good measure, and the Jays led 4-0.

Travis Shaw singled to start the bottom half of the 4th, and Rusney Castillo got first on a fielder’s choice. From there, Boston managed to manufacture a run. Castillo got to second base on a wild pitch from Stroman, moved to third on a clean single to center by Blake Swihart, and scored on an infield single from Rutledge, who was initially called out before a replay.

Toronto started the 6th inning with 3 consecutive singles, one of which, by Russell Martin, was of the infield variety (in Holt’s direction). Despite Porcello’s best efforts, Toronto came away with two more runs: one on a wild pitch and one on a sacrifice fly. 6-1, Toronto. That’d be the final.

Heath Hembree, whose ERA was once 40.50 after an extremely unfortunate outing on April 26th against the Orioles, got it all the way down under 4.00 after another clean outing in the 8th inning. 3.98, Heath! Congrats! I’m actually unreasonably proud for some reason. He fell on this pitch with 2 outs, but it looks like he emerged okay.

Sox Smash O’s Behind Owens’ Start, Pedroia’s Bat

Posted on September 17, 2015 in Game Recap
Little man, big swing. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Little man, big swing. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

The Red Sox offense put up a ten-spot and Henry Owens tossed up zeroes as the Red Sox inched closer to not finishing in last place.

Owens was spectacular, shutting out the birds in 7.2 very strong innings. He only struck out 4 men, but he didn’t walk anybody and matched his season-high game score of 71.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Owens (W, 3-2) 7.2 6 0 0 0 4 0 4.33

Big Papi got the scoring started by putting a beautiful swing on a middle-out fastball and planting it over the centerfield wall for #501.

But the offensive player of the night was the Muddy Chicken. God it’s good to have him back. Pedroia, hitting out of the 3-hole, went 2-4 with not one


but two

longballs, a walk, two runs scored and FIVE runs batted in. He’ll be chasing .300 to close out the season. He sits at .295 now and was on #teamhighsocks last night. Coincidence? I think not.

Brock Holt is heating up again. He was 2-5 with two runs and two RBIs.

Deven Marrero had handled himself well thus far in the bigs. Last night he was 3-4 with his first career RBI and two runs scored. He’s hitting .421 over three different stints in the show this year.

Even Allen Craig had an RBI double!

I was going to write “It’s a little unfortunate that the offense started being who we thought they were once the team had already buried itself in an insurmountable hole,” but then I thought about it more. This highly productive offense isn’t who they were supposed to be. I’m quite certain that under no circumstances did the Red Sox brass envision having a top-three offense in baseball with Sandoval batting under .250, Hanley Ramirez peaking in April and not being in the lineup on a semi-regular basis, Napoli ineffective and traded, Pedroia missing significant time, and Victorino hurt/ineffective/traded. It’s exciting to think that it’s mainly due to the young guys stepping in and living up to their potential (after, of course, an at times painful learning period).

Jackie‘s gotta show us something before the season is out to prove that his insane hot streak wasn’t just a flash in the pan, but Rusney has shown that he most likely should have been the starting right fielder since Opening Day. Swihart has shown he can handle pitchers, call a decent game, and swing the stick as promised. Betts and Bogaerts both had the night off last night but they are numbers 1 and 2 on the team in WAR, respectively, and it goes without saying how good they’ve been. And, oh yeah, they’re both 22 years old. Even Travis Shaw has put on an impressive power display, and will give Dave Dombrowski and friends another “good problem” to deal with this winter.

Notes:

-Mike Napoli’s Rangers are in first place all of the sudden.

Joe Kelly’s Consecutive Win Streak Ends

Posted on September 16, 2015 in Game Recap

Say it ain’t so, Joe. (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo)

And so it comes to an end, as all good things must. Unfortunately, Joe Kelly’s 8-game winning streak didn’t extend to 9 last night, and the Red Sox lost 6-5 to the Orioles in 13 innings (the 2nd time in 3 games that they’ve played 13 innings). Kelly appeared to be cruising early on, allowing only a walk through two innings and striking out the side in the 2nd. Staked to a 1-0 lead in the 3rd after Boston loaded the bases and walked a run in in the top half of the inning, he gave up a leadoff single and hung a breaking ball up in the zone to Steve Pearce, who crushed it into the left field seats to give Baltimore a 2-1 advantage.

Manny Machado singled after that and advanced all the way home on an uncharacteristically poor throw from Mookie Betts in center field after a one-out Chris Davis single. Following another single from Adam Jones, Kelly left the game due to “shoulder tightness and fatigue.” And that was it for the streak.

Craig Breslow came in to relieve Kelly. He actually did an admirable job, recording an out against 7 of the 8 batters he faced. On the other hand, the first out he recorded was a sacrifice fly that scored Davis from third base. And in tribute to his 1.65 HR/9 rate (the 7th worst in MLB), the only hit he gave up was a solo home run to Manny Machado to break a tie game.

But wait, how was it a tie game? Weren’t the Orioles up 4-1? They were, but the Red Sox stormed back in the top of the 5th in an effort to get Kelly off the hook. Betts singled to lead off the inning and Dustin Pedroia hit a ground rule double to deep right center field to put them both in scoring position. Then Xander Bogaerts singled to bring home Betts and Ortiz hit a sacrifice fly to bring Pedroia home.

With one out, Bogaerts stole second and, after Travis Shaw struck out, Pablo Sandoval poked the first pitch he saw (a pitch off the plate to the outside) over Pearce’s head in left field and off the wall. Bogaerts scored and Sandoval was called safe at second, but the call was overturned on replay because Pablo’s hand came off the bag.

After the 5th, neither team could get anything going. Heath Hembree and Noe Ramirez each pitched immaculately in relief to stretch out the game, and their efforts were rewarded with a game-tying Travis Shaw solo shot to start the 8th inning. 5-5.

Tommy Layne came in to face Davis in the bottom of the 8th and got him to fly out. He gave way to Alexi Ogando, who gave up an infield single in the 9th but was otherwise clean through 1.1 innings, thanks in part to this fantastic throw by Bogaerts.

Devin Marrero ran for Sandoval after he hit a two-out single in the 10th but got picked off first to end the frame. Not ideal for a pinch runner. Jean Machi threw 4 pitches in the bottom half to retire the side, but didn’t go any further. I have to think he was probably still fresh enough to pitch the 11th.

In any case, Jonathan Aro came in for the 11th inning and got three outs, only allowing a two-out walk by Matt Wieters. The Sox had their last real chance in the bottom half of the inning – Bogaerts doubled past Machado’s glove into left field and Buck Showalter elected to intentionally walk Ortiz, bringing up Travis Shaw. But Shaw only grounded out to second to end the frame.

Aro pitched a clean inning in the 12th, and Marrero reached on an infield single off pitcher Chaz Roe’s glove. But Rusney Castillo hit a harmless fly ball to right field and Ryan Hanigan grounded into a double play to bury that chance.

Aro looked wild to start the bottom of the 13th inning, and that was pretty much all she wrote. He walked Gerardo Parra on five pitches and gave up a single to Manny Machado that advanced Parra to third. Robbie Ross, Jr. had been warming up, and he came in to face Chris Davis, but the jam proved to be too much for him to escape.

6-5 Orioles, final.

Notes:

1. Junichi Tazawa was shut down for the season to give him some rest. Torey Lovullo paid him a heap of compliments and implied that Taz was overworked. Taz, on the other hand, only appears to be disappointed in himself. It’s been a bummer of a second half for him – here’s hoping he’s back to his old self in 2016.

2. In the last 7 games, Jackie Bradley, Jr. is 1-24 with 4 walks and 13 strikeouts. It seems to me that he’s been caught looking at a lot of strikes, especially on the outside part of the plate. There have been a lot of close pitches that have gone against him, but he might just need to take the bat off his shoulder and make as much contact as he can (that said, he’s not doing much when he’s swinging either).