Red Sox Lose Second Game of Yankees Series – PLUS Bonus Patriots’ Draft Opinions!

Posted on May 3, 2015 in Game Recap, Random Stuff

On the bright side, Wade Miley pitched well. He wasn’t great, but with one of the highest-powered offenses in MLB behind him, any pitcher can expect to win the majority of games in which he only gives up three runs through seven innings. But not yesterday. This is not to say, of course, that Miley was particularly great – there’s a reason his ERA is still 7.15. And the runs scored by the Yankees had Wade’s fingerprints all over them. But credit where credit’s due: this was a good start,  and it certainly helps our bullpen that our starters are finally stretching a little bit. Here’s to more of yesterday and less of April.

Ellsbury singled to lead off, and after Gardner struck out swinging, he stole second during A-Rod’s first at-bat of the day. Unfortunately, I was listening to the radio broadcast in the car, and there’s no video available online, but still…welcome to the big leagues, Blake Swihart. Both Rodriguez and Teixeira grounded out to end the inning and strand Jacoby.

To lead off the third inning, Miley gave up another single, this time to Didi GreGLORIOUS, who advanced to second on a wild pitch. No video of that either, but it’d prove costly, as he was driven in in short order by Brett Gardner, who was himself thrown out at third by a deceivingly lazy Hanley Ramirez relay (remind you of anyone?) to a quick-handed Xander Bogaerts, who flicked it to Pablo for the out.

But still. The run scored, and the Sox found themselves down 1-0. Dustin Pedroia put the situation right in the bottom of the 4th – when will pitchers learn not to give him this pitch? – but he led off the inning, so it was just a solo shot (with a “La Luna!” from Don).

Tie game, 1-1. This inning also featured an inning-ending double play with men on 1st and 2nd by Mike Napoli.

In the top of the 5th, the Yankees came right back and got to Miley for the only time, really, on the night. Chase Headley led off with a double, and Gregorio Petit singled immediately after him, on a high blooper to center field, but Headley was forced to hold midway between 2nd and 3rd to avoid being doubled off. Gregorius, in a tie game with no outs and men on 1st and 2nd, showed bunt on the 1st pitch he got from Miley, who then (fairly inexplicably) gave him an easily buntable ball down the middle of the plate, advancing both runners as Sandoval threw to Napoli for the out at 1st. After a savvy play by Napoli, staring down Headley as he scooped an Ellsbury grounder and tagged 1st base, Brett Gardner hit a two-out single to left. Hanley probably let too much time elapse winding up for the throw home for it to be an effective one, and both runners scored to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead.

The bottom of the 5th was bereft of an offensive response by the Sox, save for this ugly little poke to the right side of the infield by Swihart for his first major league hit. It was one of three good non-Betances-facing at-bats on the night for the rookie, getting two full counts and a 9-pitch at-bat in the 3rd inning that ended in a strikeout.

The 5th inning also featured a small world moment: a friend of the blog who I was watching the game with, Reeves, saw this Red Sox staffer catch a foul ball cleanly and give it to a kid in the section and yelled, “Oh my God, that’s my friend’s dad!” This was followed by a Facebook check so the group could compare their faces and Reeves texting a video to her friend for verification. And she was right! It was her friend’s dad! Truly, a magical moment. You’re welcome.

Miley would sit down the next six Yankees in order before being lifted as his pitch count crossed the century mark. In the bottom of the 7th, Swihart drew a tough full count walk with two outs, prompting Eovaldi’s removal from the game in favor of feel-good story Chris Martin, and scored from first on a Mookie Betts double that was a couple feet short of clearing the Monster.

But no other Red Sox batter would get to 2nd base after Betts was stranded to end the 7th – after a Hanley Ramirez walk (he was clearly frustrated that he wasn’t given something to hit), 5 consecutive Red Sox struck out to end the game, the last four by a clearly intimidating Dellin Betances to get the save. Swihart struck out looking on three pitches, poor kid, to end the game. By the time the bottom of the 9th rolled around, though, it would’ve taken more than a single run to tie it up anyway: Alexi Ogando gave up a solo home run to Chris Young in the top of the inning to give New York some insurance. 

But enough about that, let’s get to the good stuff: the NFL Draft! It used to be my favorite weekend of bloated nonsense television coverage of the year, and now it’s a somewhat less enjoyable weeknight barrage of bloated nonsense television coverage. Now, I have neither the time nor the inclination to set down all of my amateur thoughts on each of the Patriots’ picks like I have any idea of what I’m talking about, because I don’t. I’m just gonna tell you what I think New England got with each pick in a few words.

  • Malcom Brown, DT: Wilfork. Duh. More realistically, a step up athletically over similarly-shaped Wilfork protégés of recent years (Myron Pryor, Sealver Siliga, etc.)
  • Jordan Richards, S: Patrick Chung’s new sidekick/competition. Maybe he’ll push Tavon Wilson and Alfonzo Dennard to give a little more, because they’re officially on the bubble (especially Dennard – cutting him makes the most sense financially if he’s not gonna play again, like in 2014). No one would be saying this is too early for him if this was a 3rd round pick, which it basically was.
  • Geneo Grissom, DE: Decent pass rushing end. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we need those. No one would be saying this is too early for him if this was a 4th round pick, which it basically was.
  • Trey Flowers, DE: Maybe more of a hand in the dirt type of end than Grissom. Think the old Seymour/Warren combo. But don’t, because I don’t want anyone to think he’s as good as those guys based on the opinion of Lefty, an idiot. Besides, he’d need to put on weight for that role anyway. Probably more like Jarvis Green.
  • Tre Jackson, G: Big boy, run blocker. Get behind him and move your feet.
  • Shaq Mason, C: More interior depth. Probably the clearest sign that Dan Connolly probably isn’t coming back. Can’t have had much experience pass blocking at Georgia Tech. Competition for Stork, who was good, not great as a rookie.
  • Joe Cardona, LS: Goodbye, Danny Aiken.
  • Matthew Wells, OLB: He’s 6’2″, 222 pounds, plays outside linebacker, runs a 4.4 40-yard dash, and is legally blind in one eye. Your guess is as good as mine.
  • A.J. Derby, TE: The next Julian Edelman! More likely he’ll be cut – our late-round tight end picks don’t seem to stick around (Lee Smith, Andy Stokes).
  • Darryl Roberts, CB: The next Willie Andrews! The on-field version.
  • Xzavier Dickson, DE: The next Tully Banta-Cain! Great name, no confusion on pronunciation.

Sox Lose a Tough One, Hanigan Gets Hurt

Posted on May 2, 2015 in Game Recap
A-Rod hits number 660 (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

A-Rod hits number 660 (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

The Red Sox lost a close one to the rival Yankees by a score of 3-2 on a night where the ball just wouldn’t bounce the Sox’ way.

Lefties were hitting .275 against Justin Masterson coming into the game, so the Yankees started 9 lefties against him. He managed to turn in a quality start, despite looking downright wild at times, missing spots badly and giving up two hits to Carlos Beltran, who came in hitting .162. But he was able to limit damage by inducing a healthy amount of groundouts and his final line was such:

Boston IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Masterson 6.0+ 6 2 2 3 2 0 4.71

His third walk was the costliest, walking the number 9 hitter Didi Gregorius, who came in hitting .206 and was 0-2 at that point in the game. Didi would come around to score the game-tying run.

It was frustrating that the Red Sox only managed 2 runs off of Sabathia. CC was 0-6 with a 6.13 ERA over his last 7 starts (dating back to last season). Even when the Sox made outs, no one looked particularly fooled or off-balance. A lot of comfortable at-bats ended in outs. As Eck said, CC only had “mediocre gas.” (Eck’s baseball phrases are the silver lining of the games that Jerry can’t do. Eck is great, but he doesn’t have the same chemistry with Orsillo that Jerry does.)

Tangent: I don’t get people who don’t like baseball or think it’s boring. Sabathia and Masterson were far from dominant tonight, yet the game was low-scoring, which is usually the type of game people groan about the most. But it was still fun to see the starters play chess with the hitters. Every single curveball thrown is cool to me. A guy is throwing a ball with so much torque and velocity that the ball breaks sharply over the course of 60 feet and 6 inches, and ends up where he wants it, within a fraction of a second.

Anyway, A-Rod hit the game winning home run on a center-cut, 3-0 fastball from Tazawa in the bottom of the 8th. It was the 660th of his career, tying him with Willie Mays for 4th all-time. It was one of those weird baseball moments where you could sense what was coming before it happened. Because it was his first at-bat of the game, Don and Eck were talking about how Rodriguez’s next homer would be #660, and when Taz fell behind 3-0 you knew A-Roid was going to have the green light. After he hit it Eck was salty, mentioning that Willie Mays was his hero growing up. He said A-Rod “cheated” on a 3-0 fastball, and that anyone could do that. Which is kind of true, but irrelevant, and this one was a laser, leaving the yard at 116.3 MPH. It was the first pinch-hit homerun of his career.

Offensive Highlights:

In Napoli‘s first two ABs it looked like he was still bailing early on pitches. His front shoulder and hips were clearing the zone way too early. In his 3rd at-bat Nap’s front side finally stayed closed, allowing him to drive the ball to right-center with authority for a ground rule double. The bounce was unfortunate because had the ball stayed in the yard, Hanley would have scored from first.

Panda had another ball that hit high off the Monster go for a single. This one was his second hit from the right side of the plate in 2015. He also had a nice turn to start a double play while he was positioned between the second baseman and the first baseman on a shift (I know that’s not an offensive highlight).

Xander has been featuring a slightly more open stance of late and it worked for him tonight. He saw a lot of pitches, while doubling, and drawing a walk.

Allen Craig homered! Nothing about it was pretty. He hit a fastball, but looked like he was swinging at something offspeed, and it barely cleared the wall, but I’ll take it and I’m sure Craig will too. He struck out looking on fastballs in his other two at-bats, but still. A big step in the right direction.

Ryan Hanigan:

Hanigan has been consistently putting together impressive at-bats. His first was an 11-pitch affair ending in him hitting a frozen rope that Jacoby Ellsbury had to catch over-the-shoulder in deep centerfield. Jacoby is probably one of only four or five guys in the league who make that catch. In the 4th Hanigan had another great AB that ended in a double. It should’ve been an RBI double but some jackass reached out and tried to catch it, forcing Bogaerts to go back to 3rd base, where he would be stranded. The “fan” was ejected for interfering with a ball in play, but the worst part of the whole affair was that it was an absolute can of corn, a room service hop that was just reaching the top of its arc when it hit the guy’s glove, and he dropped it.

Then Hanigan got hit in the hand again (say that out loud!). In the top of the 7th Tommy Layne hit Teixeira in the hand with an 0-2 pitch, and the ball ricocheted directly onto Hanigan’s hand. This was a fluky play, but my God. When the hell is Hanigan going to learn to put his hand behind his leg or back? He’s already gotten hit on his throwing hand a bunch of times this year; you’d think he’d be more conscious about his hand positioning. That’s one of the first things I tell my little leaguers when they get behind the dish.

You knew it was going to be bad when Ryan had to leave the game. All of the other times he’s been hit he’s stayed in. It turns out that Hanigan suffered a fracture to his 5th metatarsal (according to Farrell), and will need surgery. This is a huge loss. As we just discussed, he’s been having great at-bats and getting on base at a good clip. He’s also been lauded as a stabilizing force for the pitching staff.

He’ll definitely be missed, but at the same time, how stabilizing could he be if the staff had the worst ERA in league? Would they have been that much worse without him? Again, this is a big loss. But I don’t think it’s catastrophic.

My first thought after hearing “surgery” was “Salty is a free agent.” Despite his throwing issues in the 2013 World Series, I’d still welcome him back with open arms. My second thought was “it’s Swihart time.” By the end of the night, the general consensus was that Blake would be called up for tomorrow’s game. That doesn’t mean they won’t continue to explore external options, but it’s exciting news in the mean time, even though it comes at a cost.

Notes:

-Don Orsillo is always so smudge about his closed broadcasting booth protecting him from “the elements.” NESN will pan to the rest of the broadcasters looking like they’re going skating on the Frog Pond in February, and Don is sitting in there with the window closed wearing just his suit.

-A-Rod has almost come full circle for me. I’ve liked him and despised him, and now I’m just kind of ambivalent about him. Now there are so many Yankees fans hating him that I kind of want him to do well. In some alternate universe, 15-year-old Righty is losing his mind.

-Sox in April: 113 runs – 3rd in MLB … 91 walks – 1st in MLB … 5.04 ERA – last in MLB.

-I guess the Yankees are allowed to grow facial hair now? Most of the starters had mustaches. From what I hear, Brett Gardner started the trend. Wonder how The Boss felt about ‘staches?

-There were some half-hearted boos for Stephen Drew in his first at-bat. I imagine some drunk dude named Sully sitting in the right-centerfield bleachers recognized his name, and the fact that he used to play for the Sox and is now on the Yankees, and booed reflexively.

Guest Post: Why I Hate Brian McCann by Slick Deals, a Yankee Fan

Posted on May 1, 2015 in Players, Random Stuff

When the blogging bullpen phone went off I’ll admit that I was a bit nervous. Not because I had nothing to write about but because I have so goddamn much to write about. There’s Tanaka’s elbow (which hasn’t received NEARLY enough coverage!), Carlos Beltran’s attempt to make the entire state of New York hate his guts, Brett Gardner’s mustache brigade, Didi Gregorious not giving me a single chance this season to use “GreGLORIOUS”…you get the point. After some thought and bitching to Mike Arcudi, I decided to go with a topic that comes straight from the heart: how much I fucking hate Brian McCann. Since I have the devastating double play combination of having ADD and being grammatically challenged I’m going to do this section style.

Integrity of the Game: I cannot tell you how much having the typical “unwritten rules” dumbass on my favorite team pisses me off. It’s legitimately impossible to be that guy and not be full of yourself. Like I can completely picture Brian rolling out of bed, staggering to the bathroom and having that moment where he slowly raises his head, looks at himself in the mirror, and says “Today is going to be a good day, because you’re going to do it the right way”. His nickname on Baseball-Reference.com is literally listed as “Fun Police”. Vomit.

His Face: Look at that smug little grin…It’s the most punchable face I’ve ever seen.

McCann

Performance: Simply put, he is awful. It’s not acceptable to be considered a “hitting catcher” and have had an on-base percentage of .286 last year. Everyone just gives him a pass because he occasionally hits over 20 home runs…yet they somehow fail to notice that he has never ONCE hit 25! Throw in the fact that he hit .230 and hit into the 5th most double plays for a catcher in 2014 and you can see why my patience is wearing thin. Yet even if Brian McCann’t hit (had to), at least he is a pretty good fielder…but that’s not worth $17 million.

Prospects: On November 23, 2013, the New York Yankees signed Brian McCann to a five year, $85 million contract with a vesting option for a sixth year. This stands as the largest contract ever given to a free agent catcher…and also the largest roadblock for the plethora of catching talent currently in the Yankees farm system. In fact, outside of high-powered arms, one could argue that catcher was the 2nd deepest position in the system at this time. Players of note include J.R. Murphy and Gary Sanchez. This article does a great job of detailing the top 5 guys but lets just stick to these two…since I actually knew who they were at the time of the McCann signing.

  • Gary Sanchez: Ranked the 52nd best prospect by Baseball America in 2013, Gary is rated as a 50 bat, 65 power (!!), 30 speed, 45 defense and a 60 arm on the caveman-esque 20-80 scale and was projected to reach the show some time in 2015. At the time he was 20 years old…and probably damn pissed off.
  • John Ryan Murphy: I love this kid, I’ve had a mancrush on him for over 3 years and for whatever reason I think he is going to be better than Sanchez (scouts obviously disagree with me). There’s just something about this kid that is special, he is quick on his feet and plays the position fluidly. I was at a random Yankees game a last year when he was playing and on the side TVs in the bleachers they showed a long quote from a 75 year old coach in the minor league system…I can’t find it anywhere but he legitimately said that J.R. was the best catcher he had ever seen at any level at any point. I’m glad I at least have a possibly senile old man on my side!

Look, I’ll scream when he hits a clutch hit and I’ll cheer for him to do well but literally nothing about this guy makes me like him…especially his face.

Porcello Dominates with a Little Help from Mookie and Hanley

Posted on April 30, 2015 in Game Recap
Hanley loses his helmet again ((AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Hanley loses his helmet again ((AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Lefty and Righty headed out to the ol’ ballpark again for the game tonight. It was a brisk but comfortable 51 degrees at game time and – okay, I’m just reading from my scorecard. We grabbed some cheap right field grandstand seats with some friends for a birthday and then sat 10 rows closer, in the fancy red seats with cupholders. It was the height of luxury.

Rick Porcello started off the game with a walk, but then struck out the side before running into an odd little rough patch in the 2nd inning, giving up a run (the only Jays’ run of the night). When I say this was an odd rough patch, I mean it: Kevin Pillar doubled, Michael Saunders reached on an error (on Porcello himself, failing to touch his foot to first base on a flip from Mike Napoli), and Dalton Pompey was hit by the very next pitch. With the bases loaded and no one out, Porcello gave up what might’ve been a single to Josh Thole over Xander Bogaerts’ head. Instead, Saunders misread the play (thinking that Bogaerts had caught the ball), hanging back at second as the ball hit the grass in center field, and Mookie Betts was able to throw him out fairly easily on a force play at third. Pillar came in from third, but with men on 1st and 2nd and one out, Porcello got Ryan Goins to ground into a double play, Dustin Pedroia to Napoli, to end the inning.

From the 3rd inning to the 6th, Porcello was dominant. That’s coming from someone who hasn’t been Rick’s biggest fan so far. Of course, it helps when you don’t give up a home run for the very first time this year. But even if he had, 13 up and 13 down is very impressive (I’m counting the double play to end the 2nd). He did have a little help in the 3rd inning from Mookie. This happened to happen while I was getting food underneath, watching it on one of the TVs hung up between concessions menus while the crowd gasped and screamed and shouted, “Mooooookie.”

But overall, Porcello looked great. The 7th inning got a liiiiiittle hairy, with a single by Edwin Encarnacion and a walk by Saunders, but the inning ended with two runners stranded and no runs having crossed the plate.

Meanwhile, the Sox had only two real offensive stretches of success themselves, in the 3rd and 7th innings. R.A. Dickey actually had a pretty good day. With Ryan Hanigan and Pedroia both on base with singles and one out, David Ortiz hit a looper to right field that scored Hanigan easily, but Pedroia was tagged out at third after Saunders’ throw home was cut off. With Ortiz on first and the game tied 1-1 with two outs, even on a night when he struck out three times, Hanley Ramirez did it again. Without his helmet. Again. An absolute cannon shot. Again.

In the bottom of the 7th, after back-to-back singles by Brock Holt and Bogaerts, Hanigan laid down a serviceable sacrifice bunt to set up Betts with men on 2nd and 3rd and one out. He came through, delivering a single to right field. The available video for this moment is SEVEN MINUTES LONG and it definitely felt longer than that in the ballpark. It could’ve been 25 minutes for all I knew. There must have been some kind of debacle with the replay system, because it was by far the longest duration of replay (in any sport) that I can remember. And on a very easy call to make – Bogaerts was out by a mile trying to score from 2nd, and didn’t even touch home.

But Holt had already come around from 3rd to get the Sox an insurance run to put them up 4-1.

The rest of the game was mercifully quick and dirty after the horrific replay delay. We finally had one of those games that goes just the way you draw it up – starter, setup man, closer – without any messy long relief. Junichi Tazawa gave up a leadoff single to Goins before putting down the top of the Blue Jays’ order, including a strikeout of Bautista on a well-placed outside fastball to end the inning. And Koji looked great for the second consecutive outing, striking out the side (including back-to-back strikeouts on fastballs – not splitters! – to start the inning) for the save.

Sox win the series! And now everyone – including us – gets a welcome day off.