Another Half-Assed (More Like Half-Handed) Blog

Posted on June 12, 2015 in Game Recap
Jones Rounds Third as Sandoval Looks On (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Jones Rounds Third as Sandoval Looks On (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Are we mailing it in less than halfway through the season? Well, no. Your pal Righty broke his left hand. If anything I’m taking this whole “Righty” thing too seriously. I broke it diving headfirst into first base. I was out. Kids, never ever slide headfirst.

My posts will be brief until I figure out a good system for blogging with one hand.

The good news about this game was that the offense scored a halfway respectable amount of runs (5!). They even had some timely hitting including this two-out two-run double by Panda in the top of the 4th, and this two-out RBI single by Xander in the top of the 6th. Papi homered in the top of the 8th (his first in 69 at-bats) and topped it off with a beautiful little bat toss. All three of the aforementioned plays brought the Sox to within one run at the time.

They also played good defense, with the play of the night coming from – who else – Dustin “Sunset” Pedroia. He made a full extension stop on a wicked one hopper from Crush Davis that was practically past him when he snagged it. Bogaerts would get in on the fun later in the game, making a diving stop on a grounder up the middle. I may or may not have predicted that this was coming from Xander (scroll to the notes).

The bad news was that Wade Miley was ineffective. He went just four innings, giving up 5 earned runs on 9 hits, including 3 home runs. Worse still, when Farrell told him between innings that he was done he threw a full-blown temper tantrum, ranting and raving and caterwauling all the way down the tunnel. As Orsillo said on the broadcast, if you’re Miley how can you complain after the outing you just had?

Steven Wright and Taz were effective in relief but the Red Sox could never fully climb out of the hole that Miley put them in.

Notes:

-I have to say, Siri is a pretty good secretary. Dictating this recap wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought it would be.

-Adam Jones is my favorite player in the AL East that’s not on the Red Sox. So good and so likable, a real treat to watch.

Most Half-Assed Blog of the Year

Posted on June 11, 2015 in Game Recap, Random Stuff

These are Skittles.

The Red Sox lost yesterday, 5-2 to the Orioles. I’m gonna give it to you straight here, people. I have neither the time nor the inclination to do a great job on this recap. I watched this game in fits and starts, and it’s just not gonna happen. I can tell you a few things though.

The Red Sox had two extra-base hits: one by Brock Holt in the 3rd inning that knocked in Dustin Pedroia, and one by Pedroia to lead off the 6th. He eventually scored in that inning as well. So Pedey, who’s now hitting an impressive .312, scored both the Sox’ runs. I don’t know what to say about this offense anymore. Just, what a colossal disappointment.

Paying Rick Porcello continues to be a joke of a decision.  I don’t quite understand why it is that he gets off easy and Justin Masterson got roasted.

At least our bullpen is still pretty good. Tommy Layne pitched two-thirds of an inning, and his ERA is still down at 2.41. Ogando is going to be back sub-4.00 pretty soon after going two scoreless innings last night.

This team is now 27-33, 6.5 games back of 1st place in the AL East. Somehow, and this is probably a good thing, it feels like Boston has been a lot worse than that.

Okay, I’m sick of talking about this team. Let’s talk about something else. Like…Starburst. In general, my favorite flavor of candy is orange, but I think orange just might be the worst Starburst flavor. I don’t quite understand the hate for lemon – yesterday at work, there was an open bag of Starburst, and some savage had been stacking the lemon outside the bag because they were unwanted. They’re delicious! I don’t get it. Very lemony.  I don’t usually like cherry-flavored candy at all, but Starburst does it right – I don’t think I’m breaking new ground with that one. The king is obviously strawberry.

It should also be noted that Skittles are forever tainted by switching the green Skittle from lime to green apple. I don’t care how much you like apple-flavoredy candy (I’ll admit I’m already biased against it), it just doesn’t go with the other flavors in the bag. I’ll go so far as to say that it ruins the “eat all the flavors at once” move. The rainbow just doesn’t taste the way it should.

Offense Forgets to Show Up

Posted on June 10, 2015 in Game Recap, Players, Prospects

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I’ve been itching to cover an Eduardo Rodriguez start since he got the call from Pawtucket. All season, every time a starter turned in a bad performance I’d tell my friends they should give Rodriguez a turn. It got to the point where it was a little irrational. “Well, yeah, Buchholz went 8 and struck out 11 and didn’t walk anyone. But I’d still like to see what Rodriguez can do.” My friends now refer to him as “your boy” when they’re talking to me, which I take as a huge compliment.

Anyway. Eddie (he needs a nickname. Any suggestions?) was once again impressive, but in a different way than his first two dominant starts. He didn’t have great command of his slider or changeup, but battled through and turned in 6 shutout innings, essentially with one pitch – six of his seven strikeouts came on his fastball.  It helps when your one pitch is a lively 95 MPH hairy heater, but still superb work by the rookie.

His crucial sequence came in the bottom of the 5th. After surrendering a leadoff single to J.J. Hardy, Rodriguez hit Ryan Flaherty when he was trying to bunt, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. The next batter was Manny Machado, who he coerced into a fielder’s choice on a 1-1 changeup, one of only two outs he’d record with that pitch all night. Rodriguez followed that with big back-to-back strikeouts of Delmon Young and Adam Jones. After the strikeout of Jones, Eduardo was FIRED UP. Jones didn’t like Rodriguez’s reaction too much, and kind of sarcastically grinned in his direction as he was walking towards the dugout.

Pitchers IP  H  R ER BB SO HR ERA
Rodríguez 6.0 3 0 0 3 7 0 0.44

When the Red Sox acquired him, the Orioles scouts were sad to see Eduardo go and said he had another level, another gear that facing major league competition would bring out of him. I don’t know how they could possibly know such a thing, but a 0.44 ERA over his first three starts suggests that they knew what they were talking about. This one must’ve been hard for them to watch.

The lone run in this game came in the bottom of the 7th on a wild pitch from Matt Barnes. With runners on first and third with no one out, Barnes shook off Swihart, who I assume called for something hard, and threw a first pitch changeup that went about 55 feet. It’s a pitch that Swihart might block 8/10 times, but he lifted up on it slightly and it got away. Definitely a wild pitch, but still blockable. That was enough for the O’s to win the game 1-0.

Notes:

-The Red Sox lineup looked like it was filled with graduates from the Milford Academy.

Milford Academy

-0-8 with RISP.

-Not helping: Hanley fouled a ball off of his knee and had to leave the game. Let’s hope it’s just a bruise.

–Mookie has hit a rough patch. He’s batting just .156 since May 30.

-Don and Jerry have been comically bad at predicting the outcome of reviewed plays this season. Their chuckles and self-deprecating humor after the call is made almost makes the multi-minute delays palatable.

-If anyone suggests “E-Rod” for Rodriguez’s nickname you will be tarred and feathered and publicly shamed for lack of originality.

-The Red Sox had the #7 overall pick in this year’s draft and selected Arkansas outfielder Andrew Benintendi. I was somewhat surprised that they didn’t take Carson Fulmer (RHP, Vanderbilt), who was taken by the White Sox with the next pick, and who the Red Sox were very high on leading up to the draft. Fulmer was considered to be the best pitcher in the draft, but two others were taken ahead of him, including the Twins taking a college reliever with the 6th pick – I can’t quite figure that one.

Benintendi (is that Italian for “good Nintendo”?) shot up the boards after hitting .380/.489/.715 with 19 homers in 221 ABs this season. He’s got a sweet, compact lefty stroke and the potential to be a gold glove outfielder. With such a high ceiling, he was probably too tantalizing for the Red Sox brass to pass on. Definitely no reason to be upset if you’re a Sox fan.*

*Obviously I reserve the right to backtrack on this statement if Fulmer is the next Pedro and Benintendi is the next Billy Beane.

Seven Runs? What Are We, the 1927 Yankees?

Posted on June 8, 2015 in Game Recap

X gonna give it to ya.

Clay Buchholz didn’t pitch well, but neither did he pitch badly enough to cost Boston the game. He took the A’s down in order in the 1st, but the hits started and kept coming in the 2nd, eventually adding up to 3 runs for Oakland by the time Clay stranded runners on first and second to end the inning.

The 3rd inning went fairly smoothly, but back-to-back doubles started the 4th, making it 4-0, Oakland. After a walk and an infield single, the A’s had the bases loaded with no outs. But Buchholz dug deep for two consecutive strikeouts on Marcus Semien and Stephen Vogt, and got Billy “Country Breakfast” Butler to ground out to semi-miraculously get out of the jam.

Clay’s night ended when, after retiring the first two batters of the fifth inning, he gave up an infield single and a double. His pitch count had climbed to 102 at this point anyway, so Farrell came out and called upon Steven Wright, who only hours earlier had officially moved from the starting rotation to the bullpen. Wright escaped from Buchholz’s jam to begin an impressive outing of long relief. He ultimately gave the Sox 3 and 1/3 innings of shutout pitching, only giving up a single and a walk, in a game in which the Sox couldn’t afford to fall further behind.

The Sox’ offense, facing off against Kendall Graveman, the 5th man in the Oakland rotation, struggled to get anything going for 7 innings. There were opportunities, of course, as there have usually been for Boston in 2015. A man on second with 2 outs in the 1st. Men on second and third with 2 outs in the 2nd. Men on first and second with no outs in the 3rd. But after each of these situations resulted in abject failure, Boston’s next 12 batters went 0 for 12 from the 4th to the 7th. Not inspiring stuff.

Things changed, thankfully, in the bottom of the eighth. Graveman, attempting to sit down his 14th consecutive batter in Rusney Castillo, made his first and last real mistake of the afternoon, giving up a full count solo home run into the Monster seats. Bob Melvin gave Graveman the quick hook after this, hoping to quell any momentum the Sox might’ve gotten out of Castillo’s bomb. He brought in Evan Scribner (who entered with a 2.01 ERA), but the reliever promptly gave up three consecutive singles and another run, shortening the deficit to 2. Melvin yanked Scribner after he failed to record an out, bringing in the lefty Drew Pomeranz to face Big Papi. Pomeranz did record an out, but it came in the form of a sacrifice fly, and the lead shrank to 1.

With the lead down to 1 with Hanley Ramirez on first and one out, Melvin finally bit the bullet and brought in his bespectabled closer, Tyler Clippard, who entered the game with a 2.25 ERA of his own. Clippard struck out Mike Napoli to record the second out of the inning, and it appeared for a moment as though the Red Sox would, yet again, fall short. But Pablo Sandoval kept the rally alive, swinging on the first pitch and sending a single off the bottom of the big green wall in left. And Xander Bogaerts, after falling behind in the count on 2 foul balls back to the netting behind home plate, rallied back in the count long enough to allow Mookie Betts, pinch running for Panda, to steal second, and to give himself the chance to line a double off the Monster, driving in the tying and go-ahead runs. X gonna give it to ya indeed.

Alejandro de Aza pinch hit for Sandy Leon and got in on the fun with an RBI single, advancing to second base in the process. And Rusney Castillo brought it full circle by knocking in de Aza to cap the inning (and game) total at 7. Overall, probably the most fun offensive inning for the Red Sox in a good long while.

Now with a save situation on his hands and Koji Uehara having worked on 3 consecutive days and 4 of the past 5, Farrell elected to bring in the lefty Tommy Layne for the save. Tommy did an admirable job, getting the A’s to go 1-2-3 with 2 strikeouts. Can’t do too much better than that.