Author: Righty

Lightning Recap: Rangers Win Gm. One 5-3, Astros win Gm. One 5-2

Posted on October 9, 2015 in Game Recap, Random Stuff

Rangers Win 5-3, Up 1-0 in ALDS

As you’ve most likely heard by now, David Price is now 0-6 in his career in games he’s started in the playoffs.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Price (L, 0-1) 7.0 5 5 5 2 5 2 6.43

The Rangers’ eight and nine hitters Rougned Odor and Robinson Chirinos each went deep, with Odor also getting plunked twice, scoring three of the Rangers’ five runs, and turning in a couple of nice plays in the field. He seemed to be at the heart of everything big that happened in this game.

Yovani Gallardo was good enough, limiting Toronto’s high-octane offense to two runs over five.

A lot of key injuries in this one, as Adrian Beltre strained his back early in this one, and had to leave after hitting a bullet up the middle for an RBI single. He’s tough as nails, but not playing in today’s game.

For the Jays, likely MVP Josh Donaldson got kneed in the head by Odor while breaking up a double play, and had to leave with concussion-like symptoms.

Jose Bautista also left the game with hamstring tightness. Both are in the lineup for Toronto today.

Red Sox Spin:

-Not so sure I’m crazy about throwing a long-term deal at Price. I know that given his body of work, Price is bound to have playoff success at some point. But the way things stand now, I don’t want him anywhere near my playoff roster.

-Mike Napoli was 0-3 with two strikeouts and a walk.

Astros Win 5-2, Up 1-0 in ALDS

Quintessential Collin McHugh in this one, going six, allowing two runs, and only striking out one, but inducing a lot of weak contact. However, both of the runs McHugh surrendered were solo home runs by the Royals’ Kendrys Morales, neither of which qualified as “weak contact.”

The Astros’ flavor of offense similarly surprised no one. They got three hits from Jose Altuve, slugged a pair of dingers, and struck out FOURTEEN times.

Homers from George Springer, who had a great game:

And Colby Rasmus, who for the second time in two games, ambushed an unsuspecting pitcher by going deep on the first pitch he sees from said pitcher.

Springer’s homer came off Chris Young, who entered in relief for Royals’ starter Yordano Ventura in the top of the third after a long rain delay. He struck out six straight Astros at one point, and the announcing crew couldn’t get over how tall he is (6’10”). When he faced Altuve it was apparently the biggest height discrepancy in playoff history.

Today:

-March Madness style slate of four back-to-back-to-back-to-back games today. Great one going on right now in the Jays-Rangers series.

Lighting Playoff Recap: Houston 3, New York 0

Posted on October 7, 2015 in Game Recap, Random Stuff

We know it’s tough to keep track of every MLB playoff game, especially in the early rounds when some games start way too early and some games start way too late. So throughout the playoffs, we’ll try to do really quick recaps of every game so you can stay up-to-date.

Dallas deals, defeats damn Yankees. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Dallas deals, defeats damn Yankees. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Cy Young hopeful Dallas Keuchel tossed six innings of shutout ball, striking out seven (including Brett Gardner three times).

The ‘Stros hit two solo home runs off of Masahiro Tanaka, one by Colby Rasmus and one by Carlos Gomez. Both featured above-average bat flips.

Rasmus:

Gomez:

I’m sure this didn’t sit well with the self-appointed Czar of Baseball’s Unwritten Rules, Brian McCann, who has a history with Gomez

Surprised McCann didn’t try to start a fight after this one, too.

Houston cruised to a 3-0 victory, and Astros pitching held the Yankees’ offense to just three singles.

Red Sox spin:

Jacoby Ellsbury didn’t start for the Yankees. Former GM Ben Cherington has to feel pretty good about that.

Tonight:

Arrieta vs. Cole in a one-game playoff. Both teams deserve better as 97 and 98-win teams, but as a fan you can’t ask for a better matchup.

Shutout by the Tribe

Posted on October 4, 2015 in Game Recap
Craig Breslow performed admirably in his second career start. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane)

Craig Breslow performed admirably in his second career start. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane)

Craig Breslow made his second career start on Saturday and performed admirably, giving up only five hits and walking no one over five and one-third innings. Unfortunately two of those hits were solo home runs, one by Carlos Santana, and one by Ryan Raburn. Still, a solid effort by the little brainiac.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Breslow (L, 0-4) 5.1 5 2 2 0 2 2 4.15

Under normal circumstances, the Sox would be in great position to pick up a W. But a Corey Kluber start isn’t “normal circumstances.” While his numbers aren’t what they were last year when he won the AL Cy Young Award, Kluber has still been very good.  His FIP is just 2.97, indicating that’s he’s been much better than his 3.49 ERA and 9-16 record would lead you to believe. Kluber will go from leading the league in wins to leading the league in losses without a huge drop off in production. It’s becoming harder and harder to defend the relevancy of that stat.

Anyway, Kluber was dominant, shutting out the Red Sox over 8 innings, allowing only three hits and walking two while striking out nine. Somewhat surprisingly, two of the Sox’ three hits came off the bat of Sandy Leon.

Rick Porcello takes the mound this afternoon to close out the season. Hopefully he and the offense can give us something to cheer for heading into what should be an exciting offseason.

Notes:

-As I mentioned, Lefty and I are playing each other in our fantasy league’s championship. He has Kluber, so it was doubly painful to watch him mow down the Red Sox hitters like he was riding a John Deere. Kluber’s outing was good for 60.2 points. If that wasn’t bad enough, that jerk (Lefty) also had Max Scherzer, who if you haven’t heard, threw a 17-strikeout no-hitter. That’s good for 100.4 points. On top of all of that, my two aces Sonny Gray and David Price each missed their last scheduled start.

-Thus concludes my 81st game recap and my season covering Red Sox games. I’ll probably write an in-depth post on my experiences sometime after the season ends, but for now thanks for reading Mom, Dad, Lish, Paul and Jared’s family! I know we had other assorted family and friends read at various points of the season but you guys were our rocks.

Red Sox Drop Finale to Yankees

Posted on October 2, 2015 in Game Recap
Rich Hill deals in the rain. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Rich Hill deals in the rain. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

The Sox fell in a rain-soaked affair on Thursday night in New York. Given the forecast and the extra-inning game last night, manager Torey Lovullo gave most of his starters the night off. Let’s just say the lineup was, uh, not the Red Sox’ best.

  1. Betts
  2. Bradley
  3. Bogaerts
  4. Shaw
  5. Castillo
  6. Craig
  7. Marrero
  8. Leon
  9. Rutledge

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s only two (2) players who played the whole season with the big club. Predictably, there weren’t any offensive fireworks. The Red Sox were held to one run on seven singles by a washed up C.C. Sabathia, and sometimes-starter sometimes-reliever Adam Warren.

Two of those hits came off the bat of Markus Lynn Betts, one of which was an RBI single, accounting for Boston’s only run. It was a great at-bat by Mookie. After falling behind 1-2, he laid off of a changeup in the dirt. C.C. then tried to double up on the changeups, and Betts was ready for it, lining it into centerfield.

Mookie also had a homer taken away from him in the 7th by the wind and the rain. Hit it about as far as you can to left field in Yankee stadium without it going out — the wind and rain clearly knocked it down. He’s really dialed in and is now hitting .297 for the year. During the game NESN flashed an interesting stat, courtesy of Alex Speier:

Betts and Bogaerts have the opportunity to be the first pair of teammates aged 22 or younger to hit .300 since 1939.

Pretty cool. Just another reminder that the future is bright in Boston.

Surprise ace Rich Hill toed the rubber for the Red Sox and pitched well, but wasn’t dominant as we’ve come to expect. His only bad inning was the second, when his breaking ball wasn’t the widow-maker we know and love, and he left a couple of fastballs up in the zone.

Outside of that, he was pretty sharp

but thanks to the 37-pitch second inning, Rich was only able to go six.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA
Hill (L, 2-1) 6.0 4 2 2 3 6 1 102-67 1.55

The Yankees got to the bullpen for a pair of runs, and the Sox would lose by a final score of 4-1.

Notes:

-In the bottom of the 4th, Rusney uncorked an absolutely incredible throw from right to hold a runner at third. He caught a routine fly ball in right field, so it wasn’t that it was a really long throw, it was just functionally and aesthetically perfect. Catch slightly over right shoulder, quick transfer, and uncork an absolute seed, on a line, hip-high to the catcher.

-In the top of the 5th, the broadcast cut to a suspicious-looking NYPD officer sporting an orange rain slicker. I don’t know what he was doing out there but it seems like he was kind of in the way…

Ahh he got me again!

The Yankees’ Brendan Ryan obviously thought Jean was far from the best, because he threw his bat at Jean while trying to make contact on a hit-and-run in the 6th.