Category: Game Recap

Jackie Bradley Is the Best Hitter in Baseball (for a Day)

Posted on August 16, 2015 in Game Recap
jackie bradley is the best hitter in baseball

What a great day. I can't wait until Jackie Bradley wins the Triple Crown. (Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports)

Guys, it’s a great day. The Red Sox have scored 37 runs in two games. The sun is shining. Boston is 8 games back from a wild card spot. There’s no need to dwell on the bad stuff. Let’s just talk about the good stuff that happened yesterday. There was a lot of it. I guess I’ll stick mostly to the extra base hits, because there were 11 of them.

But first, let’s start with the starting pitcher, currently mustachioed Wade Miley. He had 8 strikeouts in 7 innings, only allowing 4 hits. He only ran into a spot of trouble in the 3rd inning, after the Sox had scored their first five runs of the ballgame. It was one of his best starts of the year, and even on a day when Boston could’ve gotten away with a 10-run shellacking of its starting pitcher, it was a welcome performance.

PITCHERS IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Miley 7.0 4 2 2 3 8 0 4.58

As for the offense. Keep in mind that the first 9 runs of this came against Felix Hernandez. 6 time All-Star, 2010 Cy Young winner, 2.14 ERA in 2014, owner of a 3.14 ERA coming into yesterday.

Bottom of the 2nd, 0 outs, 0-1 count, bases empty, 0-0. Pablo Sandoval hits a solo home run to the front edge of the black tarp in center field.

Bottom of the 2nd, 1 out, 1-0 count, man on 1st, 1-0. Jackie Bradley, Jr. hits a two-run home run to almost the exact same spot as Sandoval in center.

Mookie Betts, Brock Holt, and Xander Bogaerts all singled after that, and David Ortiz hit a sacrifice fly to left field. 5-0, Red Sox.

Bottom of the 3rd, 0 outs, 3-1 count, man on 1st, 5-2. Alejandro De Aza comes around on an inside fastball and sends it down the right field line and out of the park. Two -run home run.

Bottom of the 3rd, 1 out, 0-1 count, bases empty, 7-2. Bradley doubles with a fly ball to left that scrapes the Green Monster on the way down.

Bottom of the 3rd, 1 out, 0-0 count, men on 1st and 2nd, 7-2. Holt lines a double over the first baseman’s head into right, scoring Bradley from 2nd and Betts from first.

At this point, formerly mustachioed reliever Danny Farquhar came into the game to relieve Hernandez, who left with this box score:

PITCHERS IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Hernandez 2.1 12 10 10 1 2 3 3.65

Still with one out, Ortiz hit another sacrifice fly to give the Sox their 10th run of the game. This one forced Austin Jackson back to the triangle and nearly gave Joe Castiglione a coronary. I can’t believe I fell for it (it’s classic Castiglione), but he shouted like it was the most obvious no-doubter in history only for…Jackson to catch it fairly easily. Unreal. He’s the best.

Bottom of the 4th, 1 out, 0-0 count, man on 2nd, 10-2. Blake Swihart pokes a double the opposite way to the gap in left-center to score Josh Rutledge.

Bottom of the 5th, 2 outs, 1-1 count, bases empty, 11-2. David Ortiz doubles off the Monster. Nothing else happened in this inning. I think Papi just wanted to get in on the extra base hit action.

Bottom of the 6th, 0 outs, 3-1 count, men on 1st and 3rd, 12-2 (Swihart had just singled in Rutledge). Bradley doubles again, this time off the right side of the Monster, scoring De Aza.

Betts drove in Holt on a ground out, and Ortiz singled home Bradley. 15-2, Red Sox.

Bottom of the 7th, 0 outs, 0-0 count, bases loaded, 15-2. Bradley doubles for the 3rd time, this time over Jackson’s head and off the wall in center field, scoring two runs.

Betts and Bogaerts each drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and a single, respectively. 19-2, Red Sox.

At this point, Tommy Layne arrived to remind us of how much he’s regressed, giving up 2 runs on Nelson Cruz’s 35th HR of the season and leaving a runner on base. Ryan Cook came in after that, and his second pitch was obviously taken deep to make it 19-6.

Bottom of the 8th, 2 outs, 2-2 count, man on 1st, 19-6. Swihart doubles to left-center again, off the wall, bringing Josh Rutledge around from first.

Bottom of the 8th, 2 outs, 1-2 count, man on 2nd, 20-6. Incredibly, Bradley hits his 2nd home run of the game, pulling it over the bullpen in right. Game, blouses.

I’m pretty sure that’s Robbie Ross, Jr. leaping to try to catch another home run.

Cook gave up another home run in the 9th, and 3 more runs would score, but Boston eked this one out 22-10. Why can’t every game be like this?

According to ESPN, Bradley’s day at the plate was the best of 2015 so far. What a game.

Red Sox Win 15-1

Posted on August 15, 2015 in Game Recap

Before I get to the game recap, there’s some sad news to report out of Red Sox nation. John Farrell announced before the game that he’s been diagnosed with lymphoma and will take a medical leave for the rest of the season. The good news is that Farrell described his cancer as “localized and highly curable”, they removed the full cancerous mass, and that they discovered it in Stage 1. They were able to catch it early because of his hernia surgery last weekend. Here’s wishing John a full and speedy recovery.

If I hit one, I hit two. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

If I hit one, I hit two. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

It goes without saying that everything baseball-related that happened last night is insignificant compared to Farrell’s health, but the game itself was one of the best of the season for the Red Sox. Just about everything went their way. In fact, there were so many good things that happened that putting them in paragraph form would take two geological ages, so I’ll recap them in bullets:

  • Rusney Castillo went oppo in the bottom of the first, and Robbie Ross Jr. absolutely ATE IT pursuing that ball in the bullpen. Wish we had a better replay of that. Rusney would later have to leave the game due to a left foot contusion. Alejandro De Aza had two hits after replacing him.
  • Travis Shaw went deep twice for the second time this season. Robbie Ross redeemed himself from the embarrassing performance he put on earlier and caught Shaw’s first one in his hat.

    He looked pretty pleased with himself. Glad someone is. Shaw’s second homer looked like it might’ve been catchable, but Mariner’s right fielder Seth Smith took his eye off the ball at the last second to brace himself before he crashed into the wall.
  • Mookie made an incredible catch in deep left centerfield, banging into the Monster and robbing Robbie Cano of extra bases.

    Look how far he ran to track down that ball! And then, at a dead sprint, he timed his jump perfectly. Betts also had two hits including a triple.
  • Jackie Bradley Jr. continues to hit the cover off the ball. Last night he was 3-5 with a double. He also made this dandy of a catch, possibly robbing Kyle Seager of his second dinger of the night. Jerry Remy echoed what Lefty and I said; he can’t remember anyone playing a better outfield than JBJ. The Rem Dawg of course played in the major leagues and has been around a lot longer than the two of us, so it’s higher praise but only slightly.
  • Sandoval had two doubles and three total hits. One of his doubles knocked in runner #500 of his career.
  • Brock Holt! had an RBI double, an RBI triple, and made a fine leaping grab with his back to the infield one play after JBJ’s catch.
  • Perhaps most shocking of all, Joe Kelly was downright effective over 6 full innings, striking out 6 and walking two, while only allowing one run on the gopher ball to Seager. It was Pumpsie’s best start (and first quality start) since June 6th, and he’s now won three games in a row.

Funny how things work out when you hit, pitch, and defend well.

Notes:

-8 out of 9 Red Sox starters plus De Aza had multi-hit games.

–Papi is now slashing .258/.349/.505 on the year.

–Steven Wright has been placed on the 7-day concussion disabled list after taking a ball to the neck during batting practice in Miami. Let’s hope he doesn’t miss much more than a week, he has been pitching well.

–Koji in a cast talking to interim manager Torey Lovullo makes me sad.

(Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

(Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

The Worst Inning of the Year

Posted on August 13, 2015 in Game Recap

I'm not really sure what's going on here, but Henry Owens is NOT HAPPY about it. (Joe Skipper/Getty Images North America)

I’ve definitely said that the Sox have hit rock bottom at various points in the season. But this really might be it. 14-6 is a pretty ugly score. In fact, it’s too ugly to really get bogged down in, so to avoid sending myself into a spiral of depression, I’m going to keep this one light.

It didn’t start out too well for Eduardo Rodriguez (whose ERA is now a no-longer-impressive 4.83), as he gave up Dee Gordon’s 6th career home run to make it 1-0. David Ortiz, however, led off the second inning with a solo shot of his own to tie the game at 1.

Rodriguez, unfazed by Ortiz’s attempt to be competitive, promptly walked the leadoff hitter and allowed three consecutive hits, including a triple by catcher J.T. Realmuto, to make it 3-1, Marlins. Dee Gordon would sacrifice Ichiro home to make it 4-1 by the time Rodriguez got out of the inning.

To their credit, Boston battled back from this deficit. The 4th inning saw Xander Bogaerts score, but the run unfortunately came on a double play ball from Rusney Castillo, one of three double plays grounded into by the Red Sox on the day. They even managed to get Marlins pitcher Adam Conley out of the game before he qualified for the win. Brock Holt singled in Jackie Bradley, Jr. from second base (Bradley had gotten there on a single and a two-strike bunt from Rodriguez), and Bogaerts slashed a double to right field off reliever Kyle Barraclough to score Holt from first to tie the game.

And then came the Red Sox’ worst defensive inning of the year. Let’s break this down, shall we?

Eduardo Rodriguez pitching. Single. Single. Single. Triple. 3 runs score.

Ryan Cook (came into the game with a sturdy 8.44 ERA, left with a slightly less good 14.29 mark) pitching. Single. Stolen base. Strikeout. Infield single (Xander really biffed this one, checking on the runner going to third instead of just throwing Gordon out at first). Stolen base. Single. Single. 3 runs score.

Robbie Ross, Jr. pitching. Fly out. Infield single. GRAND SLAM. Ground out. 4 runs score.

So all in all, 13 batters, 10 runs, 0 chance of redemption.

Ortiz hit a two-run home run in response in the top of the 7th. He was probably just angry. It meant much more to him personally than it did to the team, as it was the 491st of his career.

Tommy Layne, he of the 1.46 WHIP, is back from Pawtucket and pitched a scoreless inning, giving up only a walk.

All in all, not such a great trip to Florida.

The Post-Koji Era Starts Poorly.

Posted on August 12, 2015 in Game Recap
Marlins walk off with the win against Koji-less Red Sox. (Photo by Joe Skipper/Getty Images)

Marlins walk off with the win against Koji-less Red Sox. (Photo by Joe Skipper/Getty Images)

Somehow between Friday and yesterday Koji‘s X-Rays went from being negative to positive, and from him joking about missing the rest of the season, to him actually being slated to miss the remainder of 2015. This just about the worst piece of news the Red Sox could have received in regards to winning baseball games this year.

However, the Red Sox must continue to play and flew into Miami for a quick two game set with the Marlins, who are tied with the Phillies for the worst record in baseball. The game went entirely according to plan until a certain point late in the game (can you guess which inning?).

Steven Wright had the hill and was rock solid once again:

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Wright 5.0+ 5 2 2 5 4 0 4.09

He put two runners on to start the 6th and got the hook. Of course, the bullpen allowed both runs to score, but still a solid outing.

The offense did their job in support of him, building a 4-0 lead heading into that disappointing 6th inning.

Mookie Betts made his triumphant return to the Boston lineup and got right back into the swing of things with an RBI single in the 3rd and an RBI double in the 5th. He was 3-5 with two RBIs.

Jackie Bradley Jr. had two more hits, including a triple, and scored two runs. He’s been much more aggressive at the plate which is good to see. The only hypothesis I could come up with as to why he rakes at every single level besides the majors is because of his approach. I think MLB pitchers took advantage of his patience and pumped in strike one and strike two, meaning JBJ was always hitting behind in the count. That means he was seeing a steady diet of major league quality “out pitches”. That’s not a recipe for success no matter who you are. Swinging earlier in the count can help Jackie see better pitches to hit, and will also keep pitchers honest earlier in the count. Once he piles up a bunch of hits early in the count he’ll ideally be able to settle back into his old approach with greater success.

He also did this in the field:

I think what Lefty said the other day is dead accurate: he may be the best outfielder I’ve ever seen in my life. That’s why it’s so hard to give up on this guy. If he can even hit a little bit, he’s incredibly valuable.

Xander scored on a wild pitch and Rusney Castillo had a RBI triple to round out the Sox’ scoring at 4. After the two aforementioned Wright runs and another surrendered by a combination of Layne and Ogando in the 7th, the Red Sox entered the 9th inning with a 4-3 lead.

To be fair, new closer Junichi Tazawa came into the game with the thinnest of margins, but he certainly didn’t excel in his new role. The first batter of the inning hit the first pitch he saw 410 feet to dead center, but the yard held it for out #1. He then surrendered back-to-back singles and uncorked a wild pitch, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd. The next batter, Adeiny Hechavarria, lifted a sac fly and the game was tied. The save was blown. Koji’s absence was already felt.

The Red Sox went in order in their half of the 10th. In the bottom of the frame they brought in Craig Breslow who gave up a leadoff triple to Dee Gordon. Having a runner on 3rd with nobody out means the Marlins had an 84% chance of scoring Gordon and winning the game that inning. Breslow went to Yale and smartly surrendered a walkoff single to Justin Bour two batters later, as to not disturb the statistical norm of the situation that he found himself in. Game, Miami 5-4.

Notes:

–Xander was 2-4 and is still raking.