Category: Game Recap

A Little Housekeeping – Brian Johnson Called Up

Posted on July 12, 2015 in Game Recap, Random Stuff
brian johnson called up

Get ready to see a lot more of this face. (John Wilcox/Boston Herald)

Once again I journeyed into the black hole that is New Hampshire and once again I slacked on my blogging duties. There’s already been another game since Saturday’s Game 2 against the Yankees, and you’re probably already familiar with what happened, so this is going to be mostly housekeeping.

How great has it been to have Alejandro De Aza on this team? He’s a sparkplug, flat out, and okay, he occasionally takes a bad angle in the field, but he gives it his all on every play. It’s not just that – he’s hitting for average, and even though the power of a few weeks ago has abandoned him, he’s forcing Farrell to keep him in the lineup until his bat falters. In the 2nd inning on Saturday, he singled to lead off, stole second, advanced to third on a bad throw, and scored on a Hanigan groundout to tie the game. That’s good hustle! Maybe one day I’ll say that the trade was a mistake – maybe Joe Gunkel goes on to do great things (like he’s doing in AA with the Orioles’ Bowie Baysox), but for now, De Aza is one of the main reasons that the Red Sox are still in contention.

Eduardo Rodriguez continued to be his normal strong self. It seems unfair that his ERA is up above 3.50, considering that in all but two starts, he’s allowed 2 earned runs or less. It’s really been a remarkable and impressive run, and it’s a shame that those two bad games are haunting his stats. The two strikeouts he recorded on Saturday were a little disappointing, but it was probably just a fluke.

Hanley Ramirez hit another home run on Saturday, his 19th of the year.

If you told me at the beginning of the year that he was going to hit .275 with 30 home runs and 85 RBIs, I would have said jeez, we’re pretty bad at getting runners on base ahead of Hanley. Either that or historically terrible at hitting with RISP. But I also would have taken that line, because that’s a pretty good line. And who knows? Maybe it’ll even end up better than that.

Koji Uehara had one of his more hittable outings, giving up a Chris Young double off the Monster with 1 out and a Brian McCann 410-foot fly out to the center field triangle to end the game. Just something to keep your eye on. I love the guy, but he worries me sometimes.

Clay Buchholz was placed on the 15-day disabled list yesterday with “right forearm tightness,” so you can all breathe a temporary sigh of relief. The MRI found no structural damage, so we don’t even need to think about our old friend Tommy John. What it does mean is that Brian Johnson, Pawtucket’s golden boy, got the call-up. So all you believers, get ready to see at least a couple starts from the lefty after the All-Star Game.

And that’s all I got. Stay tuned for tomorrow morning’s recap of today’s final game before the break.

 

Rick Porcello Is Okay, Sox Win

Posted on July 9, 2015 in Game Recap

Rick Porcello pitched and I guess he didn't completely screw it up. (Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports Images)

I have so much going on right now that I feel like I’m going to explode, so this is going to be short and (thanks to the Sox) sweet.

First, on Rick Porcello. Put me down as unimpressed. Yes, it’s great and lovely that things do seem to turn out better when you don’t give up any home runs, especially when you’re almost always working with runners on base. But I’m not going to pretend that there was a massive improvement just because runners didn’t cross home plate. Porcello’s WHIP actually worsened in this one. He gave up 8 hits and a walk over 6 innings and frankly, he was lucky to give up only 2 runs. Of course, he’s been unlucky for certain stretches this season, but you should expect to be unlucky when you give up the amount of solid contact he does. His ground ball to fly ball ratio was an improvement over recent output, with 14 ground balls and 7 fly balls, but no matter how good you think you are at inducing double plays, putting runners on base will come back to bite you.

In the event of this game, though, okay. Two runs over six innings, hey, that’s a quality start, and I can’t seriously fault him. So let’s look at some bright spots.

Porcello put runners on first and second in both the 2nd and 3rd innings, but got out of both situations with ground outs, including this double play. In the bottom of the 3rd, the Sox took the lead with the help of Marlins pitcher Tom Koehler, who committed one of those pitcher errors that lets his ERA stay low. With runners on second and third, All-Star Brock Holt pulled a ground ball to the right side of the infield to score Ryan Hanigan. With two outs and a runner in scoring position, as he often does, Xander Bogaerts came through, tapping a ball out to the edge of the infield grass, giving shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria an impossible play and scoring Mookie Betts from third. Papi was up next and, well, he homered into the Green Monster like he sometimes does, and the Sox were up 4-0.

Porcello had a typical poor inning in the top of the 4th, giving up five consecutive singles and two runs along the way. The guy puts himself in position to fail. If he’d given up a home run or even a double with the bases loaded instead of two consecutive ground outs, I would be singing a different tune today, as would a few others.

Anyway, things mostly stayed to form for the rest of the game. Ortiz led off the 6th with a ground rule double into the triangle, and might have scored on Hanley Ramirez’s ensuing single if the situation called for more aggressive baserunning. In course of fact, he ended up scoring on Pablo Sandoval’s double play ball to Hechavarria, making the score 5-2, Red Sox.

Probably the best part of the game was Alejandro De Aza reaching on an error (again by the pitcher, but this time it was reliever Sam Dyson), advancing to second on a hit-and-run fielder’s choice, stealing third, and then scoring on the horrible throw down by catcher J.T. Realmuto to make it 6-2, Red Sox. The Marlins got one back in the 8th on a Michael Morse solo shot off Matt Barnes to center, but in my mind (this is clearly the thought process of a stupid fan) that just meant a save opportunity for Koji. He came through with three straight outs, including a swinging strikeout of Dee Gordon (still hitting .333!) on a high fastball to end it.

Xander Comes Through Again in the Clutch #XforASG

Posted on July 8, 2015 in Game Recap, Players
Xander Bogaerts: Such the Man #XforASG

Xander Bogaerts: Such the Man #XforASG (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Cliché alert: Xander Bogaerts “strengthened his case” to be the AL’s selection in the Final Vote ballots for the All-Star Game. #XforASG. He was once again big with runners in scoring position. He was once again big with two outs. He was once again big late in a game. And he was once again big with two outs and runners in scoring position late in a game.

Don’t believe me? Just look at these clutch stats:

Hitting with ducks on the pond on was the Achilles Heel of this team early on and The X has produced all year long in that situation (.379 on the year before last night UPDATE: now .388).

Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the 7th, Xander came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. On the 8th pitch of a tough at-bat, he lined a 99 MPH fastball through the right side. The runners were off with the pitch, and all three would cross home safely, giving the Red Sox a 4-3 lead. They would win by that same score.

Wade Miley started and was strong, submitting a quality start and racking up a season-high 9 strikeouts.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Miley 6.2 7 3 3 2 9 0 4.50

A nice bounce back start from Wade after the seven-hit, seven-walk debacle last week.

After not pitching for 5 straight games and sparking rumors that he may be hurt, Tazawa has picked up right where he left off, making back-to-back shutout appearances. Last night he went one and a third, picking up the win in the process.

Notes:

-I wish Mookie would go back to “team high socks”. With Pedroia out and Napoli not playing, we need everyone on board that we can get. Xander is still going strong.

–Travis Shaw was recalled from AAA and collected his first Major League hit, plus a couple more.

-The Yankees and Orioles both lost. The Red Sox are only 5 games out in the division.

-Tune in tonight to see if the Sox can finally capture that elusive 4th straight win.

Do the right thing. Vote for Xander.

Hanley the Hero

Posted on July 6, 2015 in Game Recap

Imagine how far it would have gone if he'd used TWO arms. (ESPN Photo)

Righty’s right. I was in New Hampshire, and we definitely don’t have Internet. We don’t have cell phone service either. My plan had been to venture out to find some on the 4th to do some writing, but come on. You weren’t gonna read it anyway. Let’s be honest. So I’m gonna break down yesterday’s game and maybe if you’re lucky I’ll post a little something about Friday’s game too. Hey, five games til the All-Star break!

The Sox came back to win the game and the series on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Boston. The scoring got started in the 2nd inning, after Hanley Ramirez got excited and was caught trying to go from first to third on a Pablo Sandoval single. Victorino flied out, but De Aza drew a walk and Ryan Hanigan, perhaps inspired by Sandy León’s 3-4 performance on Saturday, drove in Sandoval with a clean single to right field on a full count.

Eduardo Rodriguez only gave up one run on the day, but like his opponent Lance McCullers, labored through five innings and 101 pitches (seriously, that was what they both ended up with). The lone Astros run, which tied the game in the 4th, came by way of a pretty standard walk, single, and single to drive in the runner on second.

With the game still tied in the 6th, the Astros brought in their best reliever, Will Harris, he of the 0.93 ERA through 38.2 innings. This game wouldn’t hurt his ERA, but neither was he particularly effective. After Hanley led off by reaching on an error by Puerto Rican phenom shortstop Carlos Correa, Pablo Sandoval sliced a double into the left field corner, where Evan Gattis had enough trouble fielding the ball to let Ramirez score.

Hanigan came through again with two outs to get Sandoval home from third, and the Sox left the inning up 3-1.

But after a clean 6th inning in relief of Rodriguez, Alexi Ogando ran into trouble in the 7th. With his ERA under 3.00 for the first time since May 1 after a sterling June (1.84 ERA), he found himself over the 3.00 mark once again after back-to-back two-out home runs into the Monster by Correa and Gattis. Correa’s came with Jose Altuve on second base, and the Sox found themselves down by a run going into the bottom of the 7th. 4-3, Astros.

Harris got Xander Bogaerts looking to start the 7th, but got pulled so the lefty Tony Sipp could face David Ortiz, who finally drew a walk after 11 pitches. And then Hanley did this:

5-4, Red Sox. The remainder of the game passed by fairly uneventfully. Tazawa got a hold, Uehara got the save. Colby Rasmus tried bunting Preston Tucker to second base (after a Buckner-esque error by Brock Holt at second base) with two strikes and biffed it. If I have any other thoughts on this one, I might include them in the breakdown of Friday’s game, but for now this’ll have to do.