Category: Game Recap

I’m So Tired, Yankees Take Game 2

Posted on September 2, 2015 in Game Recap
yankees take game 2

Thatta boy, Rick. (Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports)

Following on from the moving day debacle, by the time the Red Sox played on Tuesday night, I had been awake for 34.5 of the last 37 hours. Not exactly ideal. But you’ll probably be impressed when I tell you I managed to stay awake until the 8th inning before passing out. That’s right, only the best, most intrepid reporting for Lefty and Righty’s loyal readership.

Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, the Red Sox couldn’t muster enough offense to back up Rick Porcello in his second start since returning from the disabled list. And for the second straight game, Porcello looked like he just might be worth $80 million.

Seriously, I can’t emphasize enough just how dominant Porcello was. Six Yankee lefties went down looking at the two-seam action on his sinker as it hugged the inside corner and he had 13 strikeouts in total. You have to see it to believe it. He was electric. He looked angry. I couldn’t believe that this was the same guy who left flat crap up in the zone from April to July.

Things looked especially good early on, as Porcello went 9 up, 9 down in the first 3 innings (with some help from a Pedey-esque pick by Brock Holt at second base to start an inning-ending double play in the 3rd).

In the bottom half of the inning, Jackie Bradley, Jr. doubled off the Monster and Pablo Sandoval singled on what looked like an impossibly low pitch (I guess that’s what Panda brings to the table) with two outs to bring Bradley home. It didn’t look like a fantastic opportunity to score, but Brett Gardner biffed it on one hop and lost any chance to throw home. 1-0, Red Sox.

Although Porcello gave up a deep looping hit by Alex Rodriguez to left field, Bradley kept the slow-moving DH at first base with a typically strong throw into second base. Porcello struck out the next two batters and everything seemed to be under control. But Travis Shaw let a tough but fieldable ground ball from Didi Gregorius bounce under his glove (somehow this is not an available video to watch), and Gregorius and Rodriguez advanced to second and third, respectively. Stephen Drew, batting .203 on the season, stepped to the plate and poked a double to the gap in left-center to score both runs, and the Sox were suddenly losing, a development that Porcello definitely didn’t deserve (alliteration!).

The Sox offense mostly fell victim to bad timing in this one. Bradley doubled again in the 5th, but everyone else struck out around him. To be fair, Michael Pineda had a pretty good game himself, striking out 7 over 6 innings. But even when relievers came in, the Sox struggled to make a significant enough impact to score. When Holt and Blake Swihart singled off Justin Wilson and Dellin Betances, respectively, with two outs in the 7th, Bradley came up again after having already hit two doubles, but struck out to end the inning.

At this point, in the top of the 8th, Porcello made his only actual mistake of the night: he tried to sneak an inside fastball past Brett Gardner, and Gardner knew it was coming. He hooked it down the right field line for a home run around the Pesky Pole to extend the Yankee lead to 3-1.

Betances clearly didn’t have his best stuff, but he didn’t need it because the Sox shot themselves in the foot in the 8th. Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts both singled around a Sandoval fly out, so with runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out and David Ortiz at the plate, Lovullo put on the double steal, or a hit and run, or something. It didn’t work out.

I’m pretty sure he was safe. He looks safe to me. But I guess there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn it? Whatever. Anyway, the other main problem with the Red Sox lineup last night reared its head as Ortiz had to finish his at-bat down in the count 1-2. He struck out on the very next pitch to strike out for the 4th time in the game and earn his first golden sombrero of 2015!

SombreroTime_r1

Boston went quietly to Andrew Miller in the 9th. Rusney Castillo was hit by a pitch, but everyone else struck out, including Swihart’s second check-swing strikeout of the night. 3-1, Yankees, final.

Notes:

1. Jackie Bradley, who has a .938 OPS, the highest on the team, is still batting in the 9-hole. You don’t have to be a stathead to see the need for a change there. He’s the only member of the team who didn’t have 4 plate appearances in this game.

2. Noe Ramirez struck out A-Rod and Chase Headley in the 9th to bring his ERA down from 5.40 to 4.76. It’s the first time he hasn’t given up a run for the Sox this year.

3. The moving day post was one of our more popular posts in a while, perhaps because the Facebook description was: “Read this if you enjoy reading about the misery of others!” I guess what I’m saying is that you guys are bad people.

Red Sox Beat Yankees

Posted on September 1, 2015 in Game Recap

As most of you know, Lefty and I moved yesterday. It was a day that played out like a Greek Tragedy, and being completely devoid of energy today and not having seen a pitch of the game yesterday, I was unable to blog last night’s 4-3 victory over the Yankees in a timely fashion. But here is a lighting-round recap of what happened, in no particular order:

  1. Sox won.
  2. Ortiz homered, which gives him 495 on his career.
  3. Eduardo Rodriguez had a shaky start, but got big outs in big spots to limit the damage and earn the win.
  4. Jackie Bradley Jr. continued to be ridiculous in the field, gunning down a run at the plate with a 92 MPH, 246 foot throw from left (according to statcast).
  5. Mookie hit a two-run dinger.
  6. Jean Machi did his damnedest to blow the save, but was unable, giving the Sox the win.

Notes:

-Ortiz now has a good chance of hitting #500 this season. I really hope he does so Don can call it. It only seems right.

–De Aza was traded to the Giants.

-When Hanley comes back from his latest injury, it won’t be in the outfield. It seems like he’ll be playing first from here on out. On nights he feels like playing, that is.

 

Sox Can’t Complete Sweep, Lefty and Righty Do Moving Day

Posted on September 1, 2015 in Game Recap, Random Stuff
sox can't complete sweep

Everyone admires Papi's handiwork. (AP Photo)

This is already late, and it’s going to be short and sweet on top of that. And there aren’t going to be any fun videos or examples of my sharp wit. Lefty and Righty are moving today, and things aren’t going particularly well. I’m writing this on my phone on the way to pick up our U-Haul.

Boston’s still playing well, and they have a chance to cap off August in style tonight against the Yankees. But playing well isn’t going to be enough to make any real noise. They hit well against acclaimed Mets phenom Noah Syndergaard, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to conquer Wade Miley’s current susceptibility to contact.

David Ortiz hit the 494th home run of his career in the 6th inning…

UPDATE: It is now like 20 hours after I started this post, and I was up till 6 a.m., and it’s likely that no one’s that interested in a recap of the Mets game that we lost.

Instead, here’s a timeline of our move:

All day up until 6 p.m. – Relentless, ineffective packing.

6 p.m.– Let’s go get the U-Haul! That won’t take long!

7 p.m. – Okay, we’re ready to pack the U-Haul!

8 p.m. – Gee, we sure do have a lot of stuff.

9 p.m. – First off, where in the name of all that is holy is our pizza? Secondly, we are screwed.

10 p.m. – Finally on our way over to the new place! But first, let’s pick up this couch from my brother’s old roommates and oh never mind, the pullout bed is made of jagged steel designed to drive mortal men insane.

11 p.m. – Progress is slow. The mood is grim. We are sweating very badly. I am developing several rashes.

12 a.m. – Why is this happening.

12:10 a.m. – One of our new neighbors from next door (not in our apartment building thankfully) comes outside and delivers this line to me as I’m standing there leaning on the last thing we took out of the U-Haul: “No. No. Ten minutes and that’s it.”

Me (sweating): “Uh, what?”

Him: “Something something you guys are being noisy something something Allston is THAT way (aggressive pointing gesture) something something I’m calling the cops.”

Me (depressed): “Wait, can’t we just talk about this – wait, stop calling the cops, don’t dial –”

Him: “Hello, yes, I’m a very angry middle-aged man. Instead of having a rational conversation with this young tired fellow, I’m calling the cops while he stares at me. It’s a really good time.” (Hangs up).

Him (to me): “They said to call 911.”

Me: “…okay. Well, we’re leaving, and we probably won’t be back for another few hours.”

Him (spluttering angrily at the idea of us doing any more moving, threatening to call 911 if he hears any more noise, walking back to his apartment): “Something something Allston is THAT way (pointing).”

Me: “What’s your name?”

Him: “I live at [address].”

[door closes]

Scene.

I am very depressed at this point.

12:30 a.m. – We head back to our old residence to clean up and put together our second truckload. It takes a long time. We are miserable.

2 a.m. (???) – We finish packing up. No one is happy. Everyone is unhappy.

2:15 a.m. – We double park the U-Haul and proceed to unload everything into the lobby of our apartment as quietly as possible. It actually starts to become not so miserable because it kind of feels like we’re playing Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell or some other sneaky video game.

4:08 a.m. – We officially get everything into the new apartment. Much whispered rejoicing.

4:10 a.m. – I flip the bird in the general direction of the mean guy from earlier. Well, his apartment building. Whatever.

4:30 a.m. – We bring the U-Haul back to the U-Haul Center. We then have some trouble getting an Uber but eventually we get one.

5:00 a.m. – We arrive at our new place. I start organizing my bed and get ready to pass out…until I realize that I left my backpack at the U-Haul place. I kid you not.

5:15 a.m. – I get in another Uber and head back to the U-Haul Center, where the early workers have taken my backpack inside. I am very, very grateful that nothing has happened to it.

5:40 a.m. – I get back home. I shower.

5:55 a.m. – Bed. Sleep. But only 2.5 hours of it. Ain’t life grand?

Joe Kelly Making Late Push for Cy Young

Posted on August 30, 2015 in Game Recap
Cool, calm, collected, Cy Young hopeful Joe Kelly. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Cool, calm, collected, Cy Young hopeful Joe Kelly. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Before the season started, Joe Kelly predicted that he would win the AL Cy Young Award. Obviously he made this claim tongue-in-cheek, but I think he really had high expectations for himself. Clearly things haven’t worked out that way for him given his ineffectiveness and eventual demotion in the middle of the season, but August has been a different story.

Pumpsie went 6-0 with a 2.68 ERA this month, finally living up to some of that tantalizing potential. The difference can mainly be attributed to mixing in a much higher percentage of offspeed pitches and trusting his defense.

Yesterday, he held the first-place Mets to one run in 7.1 innings, out-dueling Jacob deGrom and again inducing 14 groundouts. I say again because that’s the exact number of groundouts he got in his last outing against the White Sox. This outing was very similar in many ways. Yesterday:

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Kelly (W, 8-6) 7.1 5 1 1 2 2 0 4.94

Against Chicago:

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Kelly (W, 7-6) 7.1 5 2 2 1 4 1 5.18

I think the 14 groundouts in each start is the key. I don’t know if he’s intentionally pitching to contact and trusting his defense to make plays like this double play by Brock Holt!, this ranging play by Bogaerts, and this diving stop by Sandoval:

But if he is, it seems to be working. It’ll be interesting to see if this trend continues for the rest of the season.

The offense was provided by an RBI double by the Panda, a fielder’s choice by Holt, and this shooting star of a homerun by Mookie.

Jean Machi had a perfect 9th for the save.

Notes:

-Red Sox have played their best against the best this season. Add Harvey and deGrom to the list of aces they’ve beaten in 2015. Which is cool, but also frustrating because this team had a lot of potential that they didn’t live up to. They’re trying to and add one more to the list today, as they face off with Noah Syndergaard right now, trying for a sweep.