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.