Month: September 2015

Papi Hits #498, Pumpsie Keeps Rolling, Sox Take 2/3 from Jays

Posted on September 10, 2015 in Game Recap
I could do this 498 more times and never get bored. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

I could do this 498 more times and never get bored. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

The Red Sox took the series finale and two out of three from the first-place Jays with yet another strong outing from Joe Kelly, that was backed by yet another big-time offensive output.

Pumpsie wasn’t fantastic, but was able to keep his win streak alive by going 5.2 innings and allowing only one run. More importantly, it was his seventh straight start giving up two earned runs or less. It was good to see him work in and out of trouble and come up with outs despite having difficulty locating his pitches. He labored through the 4th inning, when he surrendered his only run, but was able to escape a bases-loaded jam by dotting the outside corner and striking out Russell Martin looking.

Papi hit number 498 on a center-cut fastball, depositing it over the wall in the deepest part of the ballpark.

Mookie led the offensive charge, going 2-5 with a dinger,


a double and three RBIs. He now has a 15-game hitting streak.

Hanigan provided infantry support, going 3-3 with three RBIs, two doubles, a walk and a run scored. Ryan is batting .269 with a really impressive .361 on-base percentage. The Red Sox couldn’t have asked for anything more from Hanigan this year after being thrust into the starting role when Christian Vazquez went down… Besides maybe getting his throwing hand behind his back or his leg when he’s catching so he doesn’t miss two months due to an easily avoidable injury. I’d look for Dave Dombrowski to deal Hanigan or Swihart this offseason while their values are at their highest and Vazquez waits in the wings.

Other highlights:

  • Bogaerts is still raking. X was 2-4 with a double and two runs scored. He also had this nice flip to start a double play. Concerns about his play in the field seem about as distant a memory as Bobby Valentine.
  • Travis Shaw was 1-3 with a walk and a run scored.
  • Panda was 1-3 with an RBI and a run scored
  • Rusney was 2-4 with a double and two runs scored. He also nailed Josh Donaldson trying for two after hitting a bullet off the wall in left. Castillo had an unbelievably quick turn and accurate throw to snuff out the MVP.
  • Loyal reader Geoff pointed out that Joe Kelly stared down Jose Bautista after striking him out to end the 5th, and when Bautista took the field in the bottom half of the frame he told Kelly to peep the standings on the scoreboard. (Don’t pay attention to the audio. My sources – Geoff – say that he was talking to Kelly, not a fan).

Notes:

–Jean Machi thinks he’s Rod Beck all of the sudden.

-Quality starts are a useful statistic but don’t always tell the whole story. If Kelly had recorded one more out but given up two more runs, it would’ve been a quality start. As it stands, his 5.2 innings and one run were not.

-Pumpsie is the first Red Sox pitcher to win eight straight starts since Pedro won 9 in a row in ’99. Speaking of which, today is the anniversary of the one-hit, 17 strikeout game against the Yankees in that legendary ’99 season.

Pretty awesome that he pitched that well just to stick it to Joe Kerrigan. Also awesome that current Red Sox hitting coach Chili Davis had the only hit, a homerun, off of Petey and basically admitted the he got lucky by sitting fastball and not even trying to hit anything else Pedro threw.

-Despite the Sox’ victory, the Jays stayed 1.5 games up on the Yankees, who lost to the Orioles again. Win-win.

Sox Winning Streak Ends, Henry Owens Still Goofy

Posted on September 9, 2015 in Game Recap

Look at this magnificent goofball. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Taking a 5th straight game would’ve been pretty sweet for the Red Sox, but as the game went on last night, it became obvious that Boston needed to put a run or two across the board and they just couldn’t do it.

Henry Owens ended up with a pretty good stat line even though he was predictably wild all night. He had to dance out of trouble early and often. He hit Ben Revere on his second pitch and sent him to second on a wild fourth pitch. After walking loyal @AndRighty Twitter follower Jose Bautista, the two baserunners completed a double steal to get to 2nd and 3rd with one out. Blake Swihart didn’t even throw down because they got such good jumps. Unfortunately, this meant that Revere scored when Edwin Encarnacion grounded out to second, giving the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead after the top of the 1st.

On the bright side, the man Encarnacion grounded to at second was Dustin Pedroia, returning from injury for the second (?) time this season. He actually made a nice play from a shift on that out too, ranging to the left side of second base to put Encarnacion away.

Only one Red Sox batter managed to avoid an out on his first at-bat. Fortunately for Boston, Travis Shaw made the most of his opportunity in the bottom of the 2nd, taking an R.A. Dickey fastball deep into the right field corner for a solo home run to tie the game at 1-1.

Owens hit Troy Tulowitzki with the first pitch of the 4th inning and Kevin Pillar singled after a questionable strike three call on Chris Colabello, leaving runners at first and second with 1 out. The Sox couldn’t quite turn two on a ground ball to third from Cliff Pennington, but Owens got Josh Thole to foul out, stranding Tulo at third base. Bogaerts and Pedroia also erased a leadoff Revere walk in the 5th with an excellent double play to get the inning’s first two outs.

Pablo Sandoval led off the bottom of the 5th with a double off the Monster off an inside-out swing. Despite Brock Holt’s ground ball to the wrong side of the infield (he’s usually excellent at grounding to the second baseman to advance runners from second to third), Panda advanced to third with 1 out nonetheless. But Swihart lined out to Ben Revere in left even though the ball looked destined to fall onto the grass, and Jackie Bradley, Jr. grounded out harmlessly to first to end what was probably Boston’s best chance to score.

Things went sour quickly for Henry Owens in the 6th inning. After getting Edwin Encarnacion to fly out to left, Tulowitzki took the first pitch he saw from Owens back up the middle. Owens reacted awkwardly as the ball went through his legs (8:20 in this video) and stumbled backwards towards home plate. His matchup with the next batter, Colabello, went poorly: Ball. Balk, advancing Tulo to second. Ball. Ball and wild pitch, advancing Tulo to third. Ball, walking Colabello onto first base. Fortunately for Owens, the Red Sox bullpen put together a mostly great effort last night, starting with Jean Machi’s heroic appearance here, getting Pillar to ground into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.

Pedroia doubled off the wall with 1 out in the bottom of the 6th and Bogaerts drew a walk behind him. But David Ortiz (and I hope to eat my words on this) appeared to be pressing for a home run against the knuckleballer Dickey, repeatedly swinging at high pitches out of the zone, and eventually popped out. And Shaw flew out to end the inning.

Bogaerts did this on a one-hopper in the 7th:

Bautista reached on a Swihart throwing error resulting from a chopper in front of the plate to start the 8th, and Noe Ramirez hit Encarnacion on his next pitch, giving Toronto its third hit batsman of the game. But Ramirez and Junichi Tazawa combined to strike out Tulowitzki and Colabello, and Pillar lined out to Sandoval at third following a double steal that put both runners in scoring position.

Unfortunately, Boston squandered its last real opportunity to score after a 1-out walk by Big Papi in the bottom of the 9th. Rusney Castillo pinch ran for Ortiz, but he was thrown out easily as he tried to steal with the count at 3-1 to Shaw.

Shaw grounded out to second one pitch later, and the Sox moved to extras. I’d heard in the 9th that Alexi Ogando was warming up in the bullpen in Robbie Ross Jr.’s wake, and I had an inkling then that the evening was doomed if the game went more than 9 innings. Ogando has given up more home runs per 9 innings than all but two qualified pitchers in MLB this year, and he was set to face an absolute murderers’ row of sluggers: Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, and Edwin Encarnacion, who’ve hit a combined 100 home runs in 2015. Like I said, doomed from the start. Unfortunately for Boston, Torey Lovullo’s other options were Craig Breslow (10th worst in HR/9), Ryan Cook (impossibly incompetent, probably off the charts in HR/9), and call-ups Jonathan Aro, Matt Barnes, and Rich Hill, each of whom may not have been in the building, having only been summoned earlier in the day yesterday.

Anyway, like I said, it was doomed from the start. Josh Donaldson hit the longest pop-up you’ll ever see, and whether it hit the Monster’s shelf or upper corner is up for debate. Either way, the umps eventually decided that it stayed in the park by what has to have been the barest possible margin.

After Bautista flied out to relatively shallow center and Donaldson didn’t try for home, Ogando intentionally walked Encarnacion (though not without difficulty – I don’t think Ogando can throw a baseball properly if he’s not straight-up pitching) and things looked momentarily hopeful. But Tulo hit a single through the left side to grab a 2-1 lead, and it was all gravy for Toronto after that. Colabello singled to center as Bogaerts couldn’t quite make a diving play to keep the ball in the infield to make it 3-1. Then Ogando balked Tulo in from third (Owens definitely balked earlier in the game, but this one was absolute horseradish and the ump who called it should be ashamed of himself) and, like Owens after his balk, lost his cool, throwing a wild pitch to advance Colabello to third, from where he’d score on a Pillar sacrifice fly. It was actually an excellent throw by Brock Holt in left field, but Swihart couldn’t hang on. Not that it mattered, but there are worse, less cool ways to get outs.

The Sox went down in order in the bottom half. Game, blouses.

blouses

Sox Win 4th in a Row, JBJ Has 4 Hits

Posted on September 8, 2015 in Game Recap
JBJ Goes Oppo (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

JBJ Goes Oppo (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

The Red Sox beat the first-place Blue Jays 11-4 yesterday, keeping up their torrid offensive pace. They’ve been one of the top two offenses in baseball since August 1. The hometown nine thumped 17 hits off of Blue Jays’ pitching, led by — who else — Jackie Bradley Jr.’s 4-4, four RBI effort. JBJ singled to left, singled to right, homered to left, and doubled to right. He’s using the whole field. He’s hitting fastballs and offspeed stuff. He has the most extra-base hits in baseball since August 1. He’s raised his average .150 points in that time and is now hitting .312. His OPS is now 1.016. He’s Tarzan mandrake Flash Gordon. He’s Bill Shakespeare. He’s Cain, Ulysses, the Flying Dutchmen; he’s Lot in Sodom, Deirdre of The Sorrows, Sweeney in the Nightingales Among Trees. He’s miracle ingredient Z-247. He’s – immense. He’s a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. He’s a bona fide supraman. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe how well this man is playing right now.

Other highlights from the 17-hit onslaught:

  • Every starter had a hit.
  • Mookie was 3-5 with two runs scored and an RBI.
  • Xander smacked this RBI double.
  • Ortiz was 2-4 with two doubles, an RBI, and a walk, and missed #498 by a few feet.
  • Travis Shaw was 2-5 with a homer. He really squared the ball up in all five of his ABs.
  • Rusney was 2-4 with two runs scored and an RBI.

The “other” top offense in baseball is the Toronto Blue Jays, and Rick Porcello was tasked with shutting them down. For the most part Freddie did just that, surrendering 4 runs, 3 earned in 7.1 innings. He pitched better than the 4 runs would lead you to believe, as he left the game having surrendered only two. The other two runs come plateward after Noe Ramirez surrendered a single to Joey Bats that hit high off the top of the Monster, and is a homerun in every other ballpark in America. The first two runs Porcello surrendered were via the longball, which continues to plague him despite his recent turnaround. Both pitches were left up in the zone, another Porcello bugaboo, but to be fair we are talking about the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays who mash baseballs like Thanksgiving potatoes.

The first dinger was hit by MVP frontrunner Josh Donaldson, his 37th of the year and 100th of his career. His swing is beautifully violent, like a coiled cobra launching a sneak attack on an unsuspecting rodent.

Everything gets uncorked at once in a highly coordinated, sophisticated, and well-located strike.

Notes:

-More good news for the offense: Dustin Pedrioa is aiming to return to the lineup tonight.

-As Lefty pointed out the other day, it’s a little bit ridiculous that the Sox continue to bat JBJ, the hottest hitter in baseball, last in the order. I’m sure their reasoning is 1) you don’t want to change a single thing that is happening right now for fear of losing some of the magic and 2) you definitely want him coming up with men on base because there’s a good chance he’ll drive them in.

-The Sox are now tied for 4th place in the AL East.

Red Sox Sweep the Worst Team in Baseball…I’ll Take It

Posted on September 7, 2015 in Game Recap

This seems to be a bit of a trend with Red Sox starters.

The Red Sox took care of business against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday afternoon, completing a three-game sweep of by far the worst team in baseball. Boston hasn’t swept a three-game series since June 5-7, when they swept the Oakland A’s. Beating the teams you should beat is a good step in the right direction, especially considering that the Sox only find themselves one game behind the Baltimore Orioles for 4th place in the AL East. Getting out of last place would be nice, if only because it would stop people from calling them the “last-place Red Sox.”

Some lineup stuff: Brock Holt got the start at third base in place of Pablo Sandoval, who’s still out with back tightness. Supposedly, he’ll be back for the Labor Day opener against the Blue Jays today. Holt’s shift to third opened up second base for Josh Rutledge to get a start. Rusney Castillo and Jackie Bradley, Jr. continued to play each other’s recent positions, with Castillo taking left field and Bradley manning the right field spot.

The offense took care of business early in this one. With two outs in the bottom of the 1st, Xander Bogaerts singled and David Ortiz took advantage of the opportunity.

Phillies starter Jerad Eickhoff tried to sneak a low, inside-ish fastball on a 3-1 count, and Big Papi showed off his still-incredible bat speed to take it deep to right for home run number 497 of his career and a 2-0 lead.

Castillo doubled down the right field line to keep the good vibes going in the bottom of the 2nd inning, but he also harshed on those vibes pretty hard by getting too good a jump on an attempted steal of third. Eickhoff, alerted by shouting from his infielders, saw Castillo out of the corner of his eye and threw to Cody Asche at third for the inning’s first out.

Ryan Hanigan, however, took the next pitch after Castillo’s aborted steal to right field for a single, and Rutledge drew a walk after a tough 9-pitch at-bat. With this setup, Jackie Bradley did yet another Jackie Bradley thing, smacking a triple into the right field corner to score both runners. Mookie Betts played his part too, reaching across the plate to single a breaking ball into left field to bring Bradley home and extend the lead to 5-0. Holt singled and Bogaerts walked to load the bases, and Ortiz hit a deep fly ball to center field, flirting with 498 but settling for a sacrifice fly to score Boston’s sixth and final run of the game. Ortiz left the game after this RBI with tightness in his right calf, but he’s back in the lineup for today’s game, so no worries there.

Philadelphia responded to some extent in the top of the 3rd inning: Freddy Galvis singled, Odubel Herrera walked, and Cesar Hernandez singled to bring Galvis around from second. But Eduardo Rodriguez settled down to get out of the jam, going 1-2-3 from that point forward to end the Phillies’ half of the 3rd.

Rodriguez also nearly gave up another run in the 4th inning, but Mookie Betts traveled a long way to track down a fly ball that might’ve landed over the wall in the triangle.

The Sox threatened again in the bottom of the 6th, drawing three walks from reliever Dalier Hinojosa to load the bases, but it came to nothing.

Philly got a run off Robbie Ross, Jr. in the 9th, but it was aided by Freddy Galvis’ advancing to second on defensive indifference.

Notes:

The Red Sox taped Henry Owens to a pole in the dugout, and taped his mouth shut too. More than anything, this clip just makes me think about how much I’m gonna miss Don Orsillo.

Owens isn’t in bad company with this kind of treatment: