I’m tired again. Don’t make me make a real title.

Posted on May 12, 2015 in Game Recap

The most elegant of slides (Ben Margot/AP)

You guys are very lucky that you have the intrepid reporters of Lefty and Righty covering this West Coast trip. You don’t have to stay up late, and you get all the in-depth analysis that you’d expect from someone who watched the game live, like:

Porcello was okay. He certainly wasn’t lights out, but with a WHIP of 2.00 over 5 innings, you might expect to see more runs on the board for the A’s. So there was clearly some half-decent situational pitching going on. It was, I will say, pretty tough to watch him just give two consecutive leads right back to Oakland after the offense worked to tie the game up. He was a little too hittable last night, and that’s just going to naturally happen once in a while with a sinker-based repertoire.

The offense was good. They clearly weren’t blowing the doors off Scott Kazmir (who looked pretty good, by the way), but they battled back three separate times after losing the lead. Farrell had them playing some aggressive baseball to drum up runs, with multiple hit-and-runs being put on, including the Sox’ first run of the game on an Ortiz single with Pedroia running from first. The other hit-and-run came as part of three consecutive singles in the top of the 7th, with Swihart scooting one through the right side of the infield to move Bogaerts to third. Betts would then knock in Bogaerts to tie the game for the third time with his second hit of the night and send Blake to third, from where Swihart would score the go-ahead run on a would-be inning-ending double play ball by Pedroia.

Ramirez still looks hurt. I don’t really have much more to say, but he’s jogging around like he’s still hurt and making some questionable decisions at the plate.

Victorino wasn’t good. Contributed a big fat nothing at the plate (two pop-outs, two fly outs) and didn’t come close to running down or cutting off a few balls in the gap. He was lifted for Bradley, Jr. after regulation (Bradley walked in his only plate appearance, but got thrown out on a baserunning error moments later to end the inning. The Red Sox right fielders, everyone!).

The defense was good…for both teams. After Alexi Ogando put runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs, Mike Napoli completely saved his bacon by snaring a liner to end the inning. What goes around comes around, though: in the top of the 10th, Napoli hit a sharp one himself in the top of the 10th with Pedroia on 2nd, but the second replacement first baseman of the night for Oakland, Mark Canha, kept the game going (for one more inning, anyway).

Panda. 0-4 before this.

Notes:

  • Matt Barnes was solid as the Sox’ second-to-last resort (Steven Wright was the last arm in the pen), and got the win for his trouble.
  • Ortiz hit a double with no outs in the top of the 6th, down one, with Hanley due up. Unfortunately, he was picked off second base pretty quickly. Bad call or no (it was), it wasn’t Papi’s finest baserunning moment.
  • The return of Edward Mujica! He must’ve felt pretty good, setting down Ramirez, Napoli (by strikeout!), and Sandoval in order in the 8th. But we got the win. Suckaaaa.

Red Sox Win One! Homers and Buchholz Get the Job Done

Posted on May 11, 2015 in Game Recap
"Having less hair makes it easier to throw!" (Peter Power(/The Canadian Press via AP)

“Having less hair makes it easier to throw!” (Peter Power(/The Canadian Press via AP)

The Red Sox won. God that feels good to type. I’m going to be typing a lot of words and phrases pertaining to this game that I haven’t in a while. Seems like it’s been almost a month. I hope I don’t pull a muscle…

The Red Sox’ bats got off to a hot start (… and I’m already sore). Mookie Betts tripled to right-center on what was almost the catch of the month by Kevin Pillar, but he wasn’t able to hang on. Pedey grounded out on the next pitch, and voilà! The Sox had the lead.

But they weren’t done yet. Papi walked, Hanley grounded into a fielder’s choice, Panda doubled, and Napoli swatted a R.A. Dickey knuckleball like it was a fly that stayed on his kitchen counter for a second too long. Maybe if the fly wasn’t hot dogging it next to your food (pun!), you could try and escort it out the window. But when they taunt you like that, you have no choice but to show them who’s boss and squash them. (The last two sentences weren’t an extended analogy for the homer, just a little life lesson from your pal Righty.)

Even better than the homerun itself was the fact that Nap kept his front shoulder closed on this one, and really drove the ball with authority to left-centerfield. He’s had a couple of extra base hits recently, but his front side still looked like it was flying open which made him hit pitches that were middle/in to the opposite field. That definitely wasn’t the case here. Sox lead 4-0 in the first.

Now finally staked with a lead, a Red Sox starter can go out there, throw strikes, and have some quick innings. Except it didn’t happen that way because Clay Buchholz doesn’t play by your rules. “Why get a normal haircut when I can look like this?”

“Why set down the side ‘in order’ when I can do it in whatever order I damn well please?” He walked the first batter he faced, induced a double play, walked the next two batters he faced, then got a groundout to end the inning. But when it was all said and done, Clay would turn in a quality start en route to his second win of the season (and only the second win for the team in games Clay has started). The first was opening day.

Boston IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Buchholz (W, 2-4) 6.1 7 3 3 3 3 0 5.73

He was hardly dominant, but thanks to the offense looking more like itself (or what we all hope it ends up looking like), he didn’t have to be. Sandoval would leave the yard with a man on in the fifth giving the Sox pitching staff 6 whole runs to work with! Taz and Uehara combined for 2.2 innings of scoreless relief, and just like that the Red Sox are back in the win column.

Notes:

-Pedey did this in the field. We should never take these kinds of plays for granted, even though we know he does it night in and night out. Yes, I used the majestic plural because in this case I know what’s best for you so you should listen to me.

–Jackie Bradley Jr. returned to the lineup and picked up right where he left off, going 0 for 4 with a strikeout.

-It’s going to be a tall task to keep the momentum of this win going; the Sox now head out on a West Coast trip to face the A’s and Mariners. This should also be interesting for me and Lefty, since we struggle to get the blogs out on time when the games end at 10:10PM.

This Team Kinda Sucks, Huh?

Posted on May 10, 2015 in Game Recap

One of the best hits of the night! (AP Photo)

It’s the truth. It could just be a funk, a phase, something to work through. But as of this moment, they suck. It’s all bad. I barely want to even talk about it. But the mission is to write one of these for every game. So, well, here you go.

Joe Kelly sucked: Three terrible innings (3.0 IP, 7 walks, 3 hits, 5 ER), two easy ones, and a 6th inning he was navigating pretty successfully before getting replaced with Matt Barnes, who quickly made sure that the runner Kelly left on first would count against his ERA.

Allen Craig sucked (sorry, did I say sucked?) sucks: Another 0-fer. Add it to the list. I liked the part of the game when Don Orsillo tried to tell us that Craig has gone 260 games or something without making an error. Listen Don, you’re great, but a. that’s not that impressive for an outfielder and b. who cares? I’d gladly trade an error now and then for a guy who could at least hit above the Mendoza line.

To be fair, he was robbed of a weird bloop that went over Donaldson’s head and into the waiting glove of shortstop Ryan Goins. Either way, when your best at-bat of the night is a 1-out broken bat failure with men on 2nd and 3rd, and your other three appearances are strikeouts…well, it’s just a pretty grim state of affairs.

Blake Swihart (has) sucked: I want to believe. I really do. But except for a relative propensity for working his at-bats to deep counts, he really hasn’t done a whole lot. He’s 2-22 since being called up, and one of those hits was an infield miracle. And the pitchers certainly haven’t improved with his arrival either.

Mike Napoli sucks: A first-pitch-swinging double the opposite way notwithstanding (better lucky than good sometimes, right?), he looked no less lost than he has all season. It’s really a toss-up as to whether he’s gonna find his bat again. If I were a betting man, I’m not sure I’d count on it.

Hanley Ramirez sucked is hurt: Okay, I guess he gets a free pass. But he’s definitely not 100%, and he’s gimping around out there. It’s embarrassing.

We weren’t very lucky. That sucked: In addition to Craig’s would-be short bloop single, Ortiz also came up short (or, I guess, a little long?) on a bloop to left.

The team sucks: And at least it seems like everyone knows it. The team called a players-only meeting after yesterday’s loss, so at least they’re doing SOMETHING. And Jackie Bradley, Jr. is on his way up to Toronto from Pawtucket. Supposedly, Craig’s getting sent down in his place. So at least we’re not standing still. Also, Mujica was traded, for a player to be named later OR cash considerations. I think that speaks volumes.

Okay, that’s enough of that. Let’s move on. Happy Mother’s Day!

Losing Stinks.

Posted on May 9, 2015 in Game Recap
Dang it! (Darren Calabrese\The Canadian Press via AP)

Dang it! (Darren Calabrese\The Canadian Press via AP)

Wade Miley had a halfway decent start but the Red Sox’ bats were deader than Zed. They were shutout, losing by a count of 7-0. It’s a sad state of affairs when my first thought when looking at this pitching line:

Boston IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Miley (L, 1-4) 6.0 8 4 4 1 8 2 6.91

is “Nice! Pretty good start.” Donaldson, Bautista, and Encarnacion comined to go 6 for 11 and score 4 runs. This isn’t surprising because they are the Jays’ three best hitters, but Joey Bats and Encarnacion came into this game hitting .198 and .216, respectively. It seems like the Red Sox’ pitching staff has made a habit of helping good hitters get out of slumps (see: Longoria, Evan). I’m all for selflessness and helping your fellow man, but maybe help the guys on your own team first. That’s actually not a bad idea. Maybe the Sox hitters should take live batting practice against the Sox starters. Either way, one party is coming out of it with a boost in confidence. I’m a genius.

Papi was serving a one-game suspension for inadvertently bumping an umpire when he got tossed in April. He had to serve it last night because he appealed and lost. Obviously he had no way of knowing Hanley would get hurt when he decided to appeal instead of serving right away, but this couldn’t have come at a worse time.

The 9 they trotted out there featured four guys hitting under .200 and rookie Travis Shaw who was hitting .189 in Pawtucket before yesterday’s call-up. The team managed only two hits all night (Mookie and Pedey, obvi). The Red Sox had a decent amount of baserunners thanks to 22 year-old starter Aaron Sanchez walking the same number of batters as 11 year-old starter Nicky for my Little League team (5). Unfortunately the hometown nine continued to struggle hitting with men on, going 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position. They’re 4-52 with RISP this month.

Usually there’s some silver linings to include when recapping losses, but this one was pretty bad top to bottom. On RedSox.com the video highlights from last night’s game are:

  1. Catching Bautista in a pickle.
  2. Turning a double play on a baserunning mistake.
  3. Shaw’s first major league at-bat (a fielder’s choice that should’ve been a double play).

Notes:

-Hanley hit off a tee and took swings in the cages yesterday. He can’t get back in the lineup fast enough.

-It looks like the Red Sox will hire former Indians pitching coach Carl Willis to replace Juan Nieves. I bet he has all the answers!

-My Little League team lost 11-1.

-The night is darkest just before the dawn.