Orsillo vs. Francona was easily the best part of the game.
Henry Owens, making his last start of 2015, got into trouble right away in the 1st inning. He walked two consecutive Indians, and a Carlos Santana single to center field had Francisco Lindor coming around from second base. But Mookie Betts delivered an absolute strike to Blake Swihart to cut Lindor down at the plate, and Owens got out of the inning clean.
By the time Owens came back out in the bottom of the 3rd inning, the Boston offense had managed only a single by Swihart, but he’d been eliminated on a 4-6-3 double play by Jackie Bradley, Jr. to end the top of the 3rd, so they’d technically gone 9 up, 9 down.
Without any run support behind him, Owens loaded the bases with 1 out. Santana came up next, and he didn’t waste his second chance with runners in scoring position, clearing the bases with a double to center to make it 3-0, Cleveland. Santana himself came around on an RBI single by Chris Johnson to make it 4-0 before Owens escaped.
The Red Sox’ offense did its best to respond in the top of the 4th. Xander Bogaerts started a 2-out rally with an RBI single, and David Ortiz finished it with a 2-run home run, the 503rd of his career.
Dustin Pedroia kept the momentum going in the bottom of the 4th by flipping to first for the out on a good leadoff bunt by Abraham Almonte.
With the score still 4-2 in the bottom of the 5th, Owens got Ryan Raburn to pop out before completely falling to pieces. He walked Santana on four pitches and threw three more balls to Yan Gomes before throwing a strike and giving up a double just out of Betts’ reach that scored Santana. Bradley made an attempt at throwing home for the out, and it probably would have been the greatest throw of all time if it had traveled straight to home plate, but Swihart caught it slightly up the third base line.
Rich Hill deals in the rain. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
The Sox fell in a rain-soaked affair on Thursday night in New York. Given the forecast and the extra-inning game last night, manager Torey Lovullo gave most of his starters the night off. Let’s just say the lineup was, uh, not the Red Sox’ best.
Betts
Bradley
Bogaerts
Shaw
Castillo
Craig
Marrero
Leon
Rutledge
For those of you keeping score at home, that’s only two (2) players who played the whole season with the big club. Predictably, there weren’t any offensive fireworks. The Red Sox were held to one run on seven singles by a washed up C.C. Sabathia, and sometimes-starter sometimes-reliever Adam Warren.
Two of those hits came off the bat of Markus Lynn Betts, one of which was an RBI single, accounting for Boston’s only run. It was a great at-bat by Mookie. After falling behind 1-2, he laid off of a changeup in the dirt. C.C. then tried to double up on the changeups, and Betts was ready for it, lining it into centerfield.
Mookie also had a homer taken away from him in the 7th by the wind and the rain. Hit it about as far as you can to left field in Yankee stadium without it going out — the wind and rain clearly knocked it down. He’s really dialed in and is now hitting .297 for the year. During the game NESN flashed an interesting stat, courtesy of Alex Speier:
Betts and Bogaerts have the opportunity to be the first pair of teammates aged 22 or younger to hit .300 since 1939.
Pretty cool. Just another reminder that the future is bright in Boston.
Surprise ace Rich Hill toed the rubber for the Red Sox and pitched well, but wasn’t dominant as we’ve come to expect. His only bad inning was the second, when his breaking ball wasn’t the widow-maker we know and love, and he left a couple of fastballs up in the zone.
Outside of that, he was pretty sharp
but thanks to the 37-pitch second inning, Rich was only able to go six.
Pitchers
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
HR
PC-ST
ERA
Hill (L, 2-1)
6.0
4
2
2
3
6
1
102-67
1.55
The Yankees got to the bullpen for a pair of runs, and the Sox would lose by a final score of 4-1.
Notes:
-In the bottom of the 4th, Rusney uncorked an absolutely incredible throw from right to hold a runner at third. He caught a routine fly ball in right field, so it wasn’t that it was a really long throw, it was just functionally and aesthetically perfect. Catch slightly over right shoulder, quick transfer, and uncork an absolute seed, on a line, hip-high to the catcher.
-In the top of the 5th, the broadcast cut to a suspicious-looking NYPD officer sporting an orange rain slicker. I don’t know what he was doing out there but it seems like he was kind of in the way…
The Yankees’ Brendan Ryan obviously thought Jean was far from the best, because he threw his bat at Jean while trying to make contact on a hit-and-run in the 6th.
Mookie knows it's all about pizza and charity. (MLB Photo)
Masahiro Tanaka, in his first outing since September 18th, was one pitch away from getting out of the first inning clean last night. But Xander Bogaerts didn’t bite on the next three pitches (all balls), and eventually singled. David Ortiz walked on five pitches, and Travis Shaw gave the Red Sox an early 3-0 lead with one swing of the bat.
The Yankees, however, got a run back in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Wade Miley allowed a 2-out rally of his own. Chris Young singled, Greg Bird drew a tough walk, and Robert Refsnyder hit a ground rule double over Brock Holt’s head in right field to make it 3-1, Boston.
Dustin Pedroia hit a ground rule double of his own to start off the 3rd inning, and after a fly out by Bogaerts moved him to third base, Big Papi drove him in with an opposite field single to get back the run that Miley had surrendered.
Miley was in trouble for pretty much his entire outing after the first inning, but he got out of most of the jams with help from his defense. With 1 out in the 3rd and Chase Headley on first, Alex Rodriguez hit a ground ball down the third base line, and Devin Marrero made a sweet pick to get his glove on the ball. By the time he turned to fire to second base, however, it was too late to get Headley. He got a second chance to nab Headley two pitches later, though, and made the most of it with a line drive double play to get out of the inning.
In the top of the 5th, Tanaka had maybe the nastiest strikeout of the season against Bogaerts. I have nothing but good things to say about Bogaerts’ performance this year, but if there’s an area he needs to improve, it’s not swinging at ridiculous pitches. He looks like an absolute idiot here.
After allowing two consecutive 2-out singles in the 4th inning without consequences, Miley wasn’t so fortunate in the 5th. Jacoby Ellsbury hit a first-pitch double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. A-Rod walked with 1 out, and then the hits kept coming: Carlos Beltran hit a ground rule double into the Yankees bullpen (4-2). Brian McCann grounded out to Shaw at first, who elected to tag the base rather than throw home to get A-Rod (4-3…also, I can’t find an angle of this that explains why Shaw wasn’t able to throw out Rodriguez, who is slow as molasses at this point). And Young hit a ground ball down the line that Marrero did well to stop (preventing a double by knocking it into the 3rd base umpire), but it was enough to go down as an infield single to score Beltran (tie game, 4-4).
Miley walked the next two batters (Bird and Refsnyder) to load the bases before getting Didi Gregorious to fly out and end the inning.
David Ortiz missed a home run by maybe two feet in the top of the 6th, settling for a leadoff double off reliever Justin Wilson. But he was stranded at second, and in the bottom half of the inning, A-Rod did him one better, hitting a two-out bomb to left field off Matt Barnes to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead.
With two outs in the top of the 7th, and perhaps realizing the gravity of the situation (wait a second, we have a lead at home and our magic number is 1!), Joe Girardi elected to bring in force of nature Dellin Betances to face Mookie Betts. Game over, right? Wrong. As dominant as he is, he started Betts off with two balls, and even the best pitchers will still try to even up that count with a fastball. He left it high and inside and in the zone.
If you listen closely, you can hear Betances’ cry of agony. So sweet, so sweet, the tears of unfathomable sadness.
Heath Hembree walked the leadoff man, McCann, in the bottom half of the inning. Rico Noel ran for him and promptly stole second and advanced to third on a fly out. But Tommy Layne managed to strand him there with a strikeout of John Ryan Murphy and another Gregorius fly out (with an intentional walk of Refsnyder mixed in).
Layne retired the leadoff man, Ellsbury, the long way in the 8th: by walking him and picking him off.
The second out of the inning was equally impressive (I know we’re getting pretty granular here): after two more walks (another by Layne and one by Noe Ramirez), Jean Machi came in to face Carlos Beltran. Machi got Beltran to ground a ball down the first base line, which might have been a double, but turned out to be a tremendous play by Shaw to get the out at second base.
With men on the corners, Machi walked Dustin Ackley on five pitches before getting Brett Gardner to ground out with the bases loaded.
Jean is far from the best.
But he got the job done, so what can I say? Oh Jean, you got me again!
The 9th and 10th innings passed with little drama, with Alexi Ogando and Andrew Miller both pitching two strong innings. In the 11th, however, New York was forced to turn to Andrew Bailey instead. Travis Shaw immediately hit an infield single, and despite Holt’s failed bunt attempt, he advanced to third with one out on a hit and run with Blake Swihart. Marrero got to be the hero, driving in the game-winning run on a single up the middle. 6-5, Red Sox.
Chasen Shreve relieved Bailey, but only fared worse. Jackie Bradley, Jr. laid down Jerry Remy’s favorite – the safety squeeze – past the pitcher to score Swihart from third. 7-5.
Given the opportunity, Mookie Betts thought, “Why not?” and hit his second home run of the game to put the game effectively out of reach. 9-5, Boston.
Robbie Ross, Jr. did a typically unclean yet scoreless job in the 11th, giving the Red Sox their 6th straight win and keeping the Yankees out of the playoffs for another day.
But what was the real reason for Mookie Betts’ double home run performance tonight? Mookie, any thoughts?
The secret behind Mookie Betts’ two-homer game? Giving a homeless guy a pizza. pic.twitter.com/MgpFWOfv0W
Oh boy.”I guess giving pizza to homeless people is…good, I guess.” Absolutely legendary, and if you think I’m not giving a pizza to a bum on the street before I play softball this weekend, you’re crazy. I mean, I’m not superstitious or anything, but I am a little stitious. Definitely stitious enough to try this.
Staked with a 6-0 first inning lead, Rick Porcello responded favorably, shutting down the Yankees in order in the home half. Just kidding, he gave up four runs, including a two-run home run to Dustin Ackley. 6-4 Good Guys.
In fairness to Freddie, that’s all the Yankees would get. He would go seven more innings, surrendering only two hits, walking one man, and hitting one man for a final line of:
Pitchers
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
HR
ERA
Porcello (W, 9-14)
8.0
6
4
4
1
8
1
5.02
Not bad, considering.
After the explosive first inning, Pineda retired 11 straight Red Sox batters before Mookie took him deep on a roadkill-flat slider on the first pitch of the 5th. 7-4 Good Guys.
Unless the Yankees starters flip a switch once we hit October, their postseason run will be a short one, even if they do win the play-in game. I mean the Wild Card “round.” Nova, Sabathia, and Pineda all have ERAs of 4.20 or higher. Severino has been great, Tanaka solid, and maybe they can steal a game by coupling a decent start with their stellar bullpen, but I wouldn’t put money on it.
Anywhoo, the Red Sox offense wasn’t done. Swihart was a man on a mission last night and in top of the eighth he connected for his second round-tripper of the night, this one a two-run job. 9-4 Good Guys.
Jackie, Mookie, and Xander loaded the bases in the 9th, and Josh Rutledge rounded out the scoring with yet another RBI fielder’s choice. 10-4 Good Guys.
Notes:
-Jackie Bradley Jr.did this in the field:
If it seems like he’s made two catches like this in each game of this series, that’s because he has. He was also 2-4 with a double and a run scored. It’s good to see him piece together back-to-back good games, hopefully that continues through the end of the week.
-The Red Sox now have a positive run differential on the season at +4.
-The Sox’ fifth straight win matches their season-high.
