Thanks to Friday’s 19-inning epic, the Red Sox found themselves in a potentially hazardous situation on Saturday. Games of that length always have the potential to screw up the bullpen, especially this early in the season, and with Joe Kelly coming back from a biceps injury, there was no way he was throwing more than 100 pitches yesterday. After playing 2.1 games worth of baseball on Friday night, it was imperative for Kelly to stretch those 100 pitches as far as possible.

Kelly was able to go 7 strong, saving the bullpen from back-to-back extended appearances within a matter of hours. It’s difficult to overstate how important that is. An extra inning night game followed by a day game, combined with a short outing by your starter, can negatively affect your bullpen for weeks or months at a time (sometimes the whole season). This has a much greater effect on the rest of the year than any other early season event or individual performance. In recent years managers have even resorted to sticking position players on the mound in competitive 9-inning ballgames in April and May to save their bullpen for the long haul.

Quick Tangent: Having a guy like Steven Wright at the back end of the pen is a huge luxury. Even though he got sent down to make room for Kelly, and even though he almost singlehandedly drove Lefty to an early grave Friday night/early Saturday morning, he did the pitching staff a huge service by going five of the ten extra frames.

I was flying back to Boston during this one, so I wasn’t able to watch it live (me and Lefty are really on fire here). But from what I saw Kelly looked sharp, having good bite to his slider and a lively 2-seamer. He topped out at 98 MPH on the gun, which is not bad for someone making his first start since mid-March due to an injury to his pitching arm. The result was allowing 1 run on only 1 hit, walking 2, and striking out a career-high 8 men on 93 pitches. After his control briefly abandoned him in the 2nd inning, Joe settled into a nice little groove, setting down 17 straight Yankees (actually I shouldn’t assume, maybe some of them are gay. Or whatever this is.) before exiting.

As expected, Brock Holt and Daniel Nava have been carrying the offensive load for this otherwise light-hitting Sox team. The pair combined to go 6 for 8, with 5 RBIs, 2 runs, a walk, and didn’t leave anyone on base. Really though, this is the beauty of being so deep at every position. They rested some regulars, and Ortiz, Napoli, Sandoval, and Craig combined to go 1-18, but they tied a season-high by putting up 8 runs. The Red Sox were definitely the beneficiaries of some real. Shoddy. Yankees. Defense, but I’ll take it.

Notes:

-It’s early, but it looks like it’s going to be a long season for the Yankees. While this makes me somewhat happy, I really miss the heated rivalry of the late 90s/early 00s.

-Joe Kelly desperately needs a nickname. I’m thinking something old-school like “Pumpsie” since he’s pumping the strike zone with high-octane heat. Let’s try and top that. Any suggestions?

-It was good to see Pedey smoke a double after bouncing into a pair of frustrating double plays earlier in the game.

-The 6-12th rounds of the Garcia-Peterson fight were awesome.

I’m gonna try to keep this short and sweet, because I’ve got a wedding to go to and I’m completely exhausted. I’m going to reference my notes a lot, because gimme a break, I watched more than two games’ worth of baseball and now I have to write comprehensively about it? I AM ONLY ONE MAN.

Let’s start things off in the sixth: Daniel Nava played great in the first nine innings of this one, going 2-3 and getting hit by a pitch. One of those two hits came here, with a grounder through the right side knocking in Pablo Sandoval and Mike Napoli, who’d both previously advanced to 2nd and 3rd on a wild pitch by Eovaldi.

In the bottom half of the inning though, Wade Miley ran into trouble for the first time and got pulled in favor of Robbie Ross, Jr. after walking two batters and giving up a hit to two others. With one run in, one out, and the bases loaded, Ross came in and got two outs, one of them a sacrifice fly from McCann.

In the 8th, Brett Gardner got a one-out single off Junichi Tazawa, but Sandy León caught the speedster stealing with an absolutely perfect throw. León looked solid in his first start for the Sox, also laying down a solid (if ultimately meaningless) sacrifice bunt in the top of the 13th inning.

Edward Mujica blew the save with two outs in the ninth, an event that would ruin my evening completely. Headley took him deep. I don’t even want to think about it. We know what Mujica is, yes? His stuff just isn’t good enough for him to be a closer…unless it is sometimes.

Since I’m pressed for time and the next game starts in…a half hour, I’m going to revert to my scribbled extra inning notes, with a little extra commentary:

1. Are we sure Mike Napoli’s sleep apnea getting cured was a good thing? He was 0-8 with a walk, and he had a golden sombrero in extra innings alone. I know it’s great that he’s dreaming again and everything, but is it possible that his dreams are now CRAZY INTENSE because he hasn’t had any in so long? Poor guy probably wakes up 8 times a night drenched in sweat because of the hellborne nightmares he’s having, and doesn’t want to tell anyone ’cause he’s embarrassed.

2. “Bad K by Mookie Betts in 13th (all swinging) and 15th (looked twice, then swinging), both with runner in scoring position. Did it again in 17th.” I think that says it all. Mookie’s playing fine, but striking out three times with a chance to put your team ahead with a single, twice to end the inning is a tough look when I am very tired and am getting viscerally angry with every Red Sox failure.

3. David Ortiz is the man.

4. Some lights went out in the 12th. I came pretty close to falling asleep at this point.

5. That catch Hanley Ramirez made to end the 12th inning was incredibly Manny-esque, just stumbling around slowly, making it as difficult as possible. But also simultaneously impressive. And as Righty pointed out, they both have the same last name! Hmmmmmm….

6. Dustin Pedroia biffed a double play in the 14th. It didn’t end up mattering, as Drew flew out to right to end the inning, but still, Laser Show hasn’t exactly been lights out defensively so far. Then again, I spent 7 hours sitting in front of a TV/radio last night, so I feel a little hypocritical calling anyone out for athletic lapses. Plus, he ended up making up for it later.

7. A-Rod’s swing is still beautiful. That double in the 11th…what a bastard.

8. The leads we surrendered…they happened. Steven Wright gave up a home run to Teixeira that I felt coming. It happened too many times with Wakefield to ever feel comfortable with a one-run lead being protected by a knuckleballer.

9. Okay, Betts made up for the strikeouts with a sacrifice fly. Fine.

10. Play of the year so far.

The Red Sox took the last game of the opening series of the 2015 campaign in ugly, yet effective fashion. It was 42 degrees in Philly at first pitch, and most of the players looked like they were headed to a Pats home game in mid-December, not taking the field for a regular season game. When Pedroia grounded out to short in the bottom of the first, I couldn’t tell if it was Freddy Galvis or Moses from Attack the Block who fielded the ball.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Galvis. pic.twitter.com/ejcgdZiSFl

— Eric Chesterton (@CF_Larue) April 9, 2015

Before we go any further, I need to point out that I watched this game at a bar in Austin, so if I get any of the details wrong, blame it on the overattentive waitresses (no, I don’t need any more fried pickles, I just finished the first 18 you brought me) or the guy from Vermont who shot the breeze with me while he was waiting for his buddy to show up. It was better than Glansberging, but I missed some plays as a result. Also I was trying to watch the Bruins at the same time (honestly, what the hell guys).

Anyway, all of the scoring in this one came in an uncomely 3rd inning, starting with the Red Sox’ 6 spot in the top half of the frame. All the “action” came with two outs, and it was one of the lamest rallies you’ll ever see. Here’s how it went down:

1. Ortiz pulls one weakly to the right side, but it gets deep into the shift, and he beats the throw from Utley. Infield single.
2. Hanley hits a comebacker that Phillies starter David Buchanan stabs at, knocking it over his head onto the grass behind him. Instead of picking it up and pocketing it, he throws off-balance to first, missing Ryan Howard. Infield single and the runners advance on the error.
3. Panda walks.
4. Victorino hits a grounder to deep third. Cody Asche makes a backhand stop, looks at second, then tries to throw the Flyin’ Hawaiian out at first. No chance. Infield single, Ortiz scores
5. Hanigan walks with the bases loaded, Hanley scores.
6. With the bases still drunk, Xander hits a high looper down the right field line that drops in front of Francoeur, hitting the lip of grass where it borders the dirt surrounding the foul line. It squirts by Frenchy, all three baserunners score, Xander ends up at third with a triple.
7. The pitcher Justin Masterson hits a line drive up the middle, Xander scores from third. This was by far the hardest hit ball of the sequence (can’t say of the inning because Mookie was robbed by Ruf to lead off the inning, who snagged a screamer an inch off the grass).

After being spotted six runs, you would hope your pitcher would respond by challenging the opposing hitters and throwing up a zero. Alas, Masterson allowed an infield single, a walk, uncorked a wild pitch, another walk, and then a clean single, allowing the Phils to get two runs right back. This one bad inning aside, Masterson pitched a good game, allowing only one other hit while striking out seven, and true to form, induced seven groundouts and only one flyout. I don’t remember his slider being so sharp on his first go-round with the Sox; it really compliments his sinker (like, Slider: “Hey Sinker, I love your shoes!” Sinker: “Thanks! I got them from DSW.”)

Notes:

–Joe Kelly‘s biceps tendinitis has healed well enough for him to start on Saturday versus the Yankees, but I wouldn’t expect him to pitch deep into the game.

-Bogaerts had a great game, reaching base all 5 times he was up. Sometimes all it takes is a blooper and a bleeder to get a guy going and that may have been the case with Xander. His final hit of the night came on an outside pitch, which he drove to right field with authority.

-Sox are 2-0 when I recap and winless when Lefty recaps.

Gotta say, I’m pretty jealous of Righty right about now. Guy gets to write about this awesome Opening Day win with five home runs and a dominant Buchholz performance and everyone’s dancing and la di da, we’re going to go 162-0!

No, the way life really works is Rick Porcello gets outpitched by Aaron Harang the day after getting an $80 million contract extension, the infield’s two best fielders show that they’re not infallible, both committing errors behind the first sinkerballer in the rotation, and the offense doesn’t show up. We’re going 81-81. Book it.

Okay, so hopefully the truth lies somewhere in the middle. But in the meantime, what went wrong here?

Oh, the weather outside is weather: There were a lot of bundled up Sox tonight, a lot of long sleeves out there, Bogaerts was wearing that goofy head shell thing, I think Nava might’ve been wearing a full-on hoodie…I’m probably projecting here because I hate playing sports in cold weather so much myself, but it’s possible that some guys were just tight tonight because of the cold. EXCELLENT ANALYSIS LEFTY, GROUNDBREAKING STUFF.

Aaron Harang: That’s right, this big sleepy-eyed dude had eight strikeouts, getting everyone but Betts and Nava (he Nava struck him out…). It felt like Harang was leaving stuff up in the zone all night, but he got away with it, as the Sox just couldn’t seem to drive the ball and, when they didn’t swing, home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi was calling high strikes all night (for both sides, to be fair). Classic Harang: doesn’t look like someone who would ever be called dominant, occasionally somehow is anyway.

Rick Porcello: I dunno. He looks like a perfectly fine pitcher to me. But I’m not sure that he’s a guy with the potential that an $80 million contract extension indicates. He feels like a high-floor, low-ceiling kind of guy. He was hittable but definitely in control until the sixth inning, when Howard worked a full count before striking out and Ruf worked a full count before walking. He was up in the high 80s of pitch count at that point. The home run by Francoeur, one batter (Asche, with a single) later, was just a slider left hanging out over the plate. Too easy.

Notice that the guy who caught Francoeur’s home run was wearing a Red Sox pullover and could not have looked more happy or been clapping more enthusiastically. Very confusing stuff.

Anyway, Porcello looked powerful and fresh up there most of the night, but his stuff isn’t exactly lightning and smoke, so he has to be mentally sharp – he’s not going to be able to get away with mistakes like someone with more dynamic stuff might.

Bad Luck/Missed Opportunities: Call it whatever you want, but by the time the Red Sox offense showed up in the 7^th inning after six innings of utter futility, things just weren’t bouncing in the right direction. Harang, on apparently strict instructions not to give Pedroia anything inside, got him to a full count but eventually gave in, conceding first base, and then gave up his second hit of the night to Sandoval, who’d also been responsible for Harang’s first surrendered hit. Looking good, right?

Next, Hanley stepped up and worked a nine-pitch at-bat, eventually getting solid contact on a ball that tailed off away from center fielder Ben Revere…who ended up tracking it down anyway, covering a lot of ground to get to it. Ramirez would be Harang’s last batter of the game. To replace him, the Phillies brought in Jeanmar Gomez, he of the Venezuelan last name and the…French (?) first name, to get the last two outs of the inning. Napoli, like Ramirez, also had a long at-bat, but it ended in pretty much the worst possible way: a sharp liner to short with Pedroia running the bases the slightest bit too aggressively, getting doubled off at second to end the inning.

In the 8^th inning, after the Phillies added an insurance run in the bottom of the 7^th (which I’ll get to momentarily), Boston missed its chance to capitalize on Ken Giles pooping his pants on national television. The Sox got three walks and two runs out of him, true, after Sandberg’s decision to move Darin Ruf to first base backfired immediately when Nava reached on Ruf’s bobbled attempt to field a relatively routine groundball. But Ortiz’s pinch-hit strikeout and Betts’ third fly-out of the night quickly put two outs on the board, and yeah, Hanley’s inning-ending almost-grand slam would’ve probably been out of the park on a less windy night, but it just wasn’t tonight.

Defensive Miscues: In the 4^th, you could tell Pedroia was feeling particularly slick after he made a great play to throw out Howard. The next batter, Ruf, grounded one towards second base, and Pedroia tried to do a little too much, or thought he had enough time to not totally step into it, or…well, I don’t know what happened, I’m just some guy. But he didn’t step into his throw whatsoever and tried to flip it almost 90 feet from a casual-looking sidearm, ending up landing the looping throw well short of first base. Not his best. He was otherwise great defensively – he just made a mental mistake. Still, Napoli’s picked worse throws before, so he might’ve gotten away with it on another day.

Speaking of worse throws, Sandoval’s double-clutch, crow-hopping throw into the dirt on Ben Revere gifted the Phillies a man on third base with no outs, leading to the eventual insurance run by way of a Chase Utley sacrifice fly. For a guy who’s supposed to be a pretty good defensive third baseman, that was about as ugly as it gets.

Bright Spots:

– Robbie Ross, Jr. and Alexi Ogando both looked very competent. Ross got screwed by Sandoval’s botched throw in the 7^th, but struck out two after that (although the sacrifice fly he gave up to Utley was right in his wheelhouse and went a little too deep for comfort*). Ogando was particularly efficient, going three up and three down in eight pitches, though he may have benefited from the free-swinging bats of a home team with a two-run lead in the bottom of the 8^th.

– Bogaerts looked good on defense, charging a soft liner, making a couple quick tosses to Pedroia on fielders’ choices, etc. Nothing choppy to report so far on a guy with some defensive question marks coming into the season.

– Sandoval was the only guy with a multi-hit game (two singles) and he drew a walk to bring in the Sox’ last run of the night. That said, the walk was probably the easiest he’ll draw all year, with all four pitches high and away. No, it was not an intentional walk. Just a very shitty one.

– Don and Jerry putting on gloves and hats:

Highlights: 1. I’m pretty sure Don was wearing batting gloves. 2. “Yes…it’s for my dome.” 3. Later, Jerry says he’s perfectly fine, that his head is the only part of his body that is not cold and doesn’t need any protection. 4. The next inning starts and Jerry is now wearing a hat and talking about how warm it is.

 

*That’s what she said.

P.S. This got really wordy. Sorry about that. Brevity is the soul of wit, etc. I’ll tighten it up next time.