Game 21: Red Sox 2 The Rain Gods 6

Dank, Dreary, and Dismal - Detroit

A tightly-knit game in the rain comes unraveled fast as Crochet drops stitches into the zone

Well, we got knocked out by the Tigers’ ace yesterday, so the appropriate comeback is to throw our ace out the next day. And we have that with Garrett Crochet. Unfortunately Garrett is coming off his career-worst start (don’t trigger me, you can read the recap I did five days ago), and the guy going for the other team is Framber Valdez, late of the Houston Astros. 

It’s hard to believe Valdez is 32 and now has 1100+ IP in the majors, but every enfant terrible turns into a veteran workhorse eventually (or they’re out of baseball early). Valdez has pretty much always looked like he could throw no-hit stuff every outing, and he will be tough. It was a sign the Tigers were very, very serious about competing that they signed him as a free agent to be Skubal’s wingman.

The lineup is a new one for the Sox on the year, with Monasterio getting a start and batting second (!), Willson at DH, Narvaez back at catcher (after Wong has been in the lineup, and productive, the last three games), and IKF at second instead of spelling Durbin at third. They also moved Cedanne down a couple of notches to 6th and have Wilyer, who’s been ever so slightly scuffling (making good contact, but hitting it right at them) into 5th. The real surprise here is Trevor Story in clean-up; I suppose this is trying to capture lightning in a bottle, since Trevor has had a couple of good games in a row, and also I’m sure the Sox have all the analytics on matchups against Valdez. Me, I am far too lazy to investigate why this might be. I have to believe there’s an actual reason to hit Monasterio second here and not just an attaboy from the manager. In any event, it’s a sort of new-look. 

We are starting at 4:30, which is weird, but it turns out the game was indeed scheduled originally at 1:30 but the Sox looked at the forecast and moved it back. The rain let up, the tarp is off, so kudos. In the old days, the clubs would have never done this as a courtesy to the fans a day in advance, as the Sox did yesterday. Nor of course were the weather forecasts as good as they are now. I once explained to one of my kids the weather forecasts used to be limited to three days (and you would read them on page two of the newspaper) and they looked at me like it was time to put me in a home already. Two signs of progress, and a welcome relief I wasn’t sundowning about the start time. I guess I should look at my phone instead of the printed schedule on the fridge. PROGRESS. I’m not being snarky here. 

Unis: yellow for the second day in a row. I was under the impression that Sunday after two days in a row of alternate uniforms were supposed to always be the traditional home white. It can’t be an effort to move more merch because there’s a jersey shortage out there right now (no: really) due to the recall of last year’s awful Nike design and the WBC taking up a lot of available shirt production, following materials shortages induced by the idiotic tariffs.

Matt Vierling hits a two out double off Crochet in the first, and the way the ball drags towards left, and the way Roman played it very tentatively, had it make a funny low-speed carom off the metal of the monster. This indicates the field is playing wet, for sure. You can cover the infield but the outfield, nope, and it will play heavy all day. 

Carlos Narvaez calls for an ABS review on a 2-2 pitch with two outs, and it is AGONIZINGLY close, less than a tenth of an inch off the plate, and the call is confirmed. Hard to blame Carlos there, although he’s been very quick on the appeal. But the very next pitch, the next hitter doubles off the wall and already we’re down 1-0. It’s a game of…tenths of inches. The next guy whiffs and we’re out of it, but this started out looking like a quick, damp first inning, but Crochet is already up to 25 pitches.

The Tigers call for an ABS challenge on the very first pitch to Roman Anthony, and it is indeed a strike by a couple of tenths. Valdez has a pitch that tails inside that must look very fat for a second before it looks terrifying and if he can hit that for strikes it’s going to be a bad day at the plate for the home town team.

Boy, weird things keep happening with ABS: Contreras appeared to have tapped his head for a challenge, but the ump at the plate didn’t notice, the first base ump said it was a challenge, and then Contreras either said it wasn’t a challenge but a helmet tap, or the home plate ump said, nope, too late. And the crazy thing was it would have been overturned to a ball. So Contreras is down 0-2…and LAUNCHES ONE OVER THE MONSTER! Mammoth! We are tied 1-1! That was amazingly welcome.

Trevor singles and steals with Wilyer up and two outs. 

It has been misting a bit more aggressively at Fenway and equipment is obviously wet. Trevor’s uniform is already muddy from his slide into second.

Wilyer takes the count to 3-2 and fouls off a couple more, then draws the walk, running Valdez’ PC up into the 20s, and this is definitely an equalizer of an inning in that regard. Cedanne whiffs but that leaves Valdez at 26 pitches and that’s a decent first inning, or at least a decent bottom of the inning.

How would you describe the blue in the Sox’ yellow uniforms? It’s not Dodger Blue, but it’s also not Royals blue, it’s a kind of creamier cross between the two. I like the design for the “B” on the caps, too, and NESN today has got its transition graphics using that same B with the connect color in-filled. 

In the 5th Jamai Jones hits a rocket off Crochet, who had been cruising and up to 7 Ks, off the stanchion in center. It was an amazing shot. 2-1 Tigers, with Crochet up to 72 pitches. We are informed the weather is getting really bad in about thirty minutes, so this has to be played like sudden death innings.  Crochet is losing his spots, as he gives up a four pitch walk to Gleyber Torres, and then a single, and the bullpen stirs. This is an incredibly critical juncture of this game: still a one run game, but with the day about to end for Crochet one way or another. Dirk Diggler Dirty Dingler Dillon works the count to 3-1.

One pitch too many: it’s a homer to dead center, disappearing behind the fence near the pole, and it’s now 5-1 Tigers and a good outing by Crochet is now ashes. Soggy ashes. Horrible 3-1 pitch selection by Crochet (and maybe Narvaez) Crochet gives up a few more baserunners before eventually slogging out of it at 93 pitches and five innings, five earned runs.

In the meantime, Framber Valdez has been his classic self, and gets through five with 85 pitches. I am positive he won’t last long, but I am equally positive this game may get called due to rain with the Sox behind. They go quietly in the fifth and we’re in the delay of game phase for the Tigers.

Hats off to Caleb Durbin - literally - in the 6th (with Ryan Watson pitching) — he has an inbetweener he cuts off in front of Story (as you’re supposed to) and Story elbows him in the head, and Durbin’s cap goes flying. But he stays with the play and gets the runner by a half a step. Good bang bang play, not quite a defensive gem, but a nice play.

The Sox are going down rather quietly as the rain gets worse and the fans look utterly miserable. I know it’s raining in my heart. Valdez manages to get through six with 98 pitches, one run, 3 hits, 2 walks, and 7 Ks. All in all a really, really good outing, especially in this weather.

Kyle Finnegan on to pitch for Detroit. Narvaez gets a two out double in the bottom of the 7th and Alex plays it like it’s a multi inning game, pinch hitting Marcelo for IKF. It is 43 degrees in Boston right now and still raining. Mayer works a good count but fouls out to third base and that’s that.

Two outs nobody on in the eighth and water is visibly pooling in front of home plate. Willson Contreras can let his tears drain there, unnoticed, as he grounds out for the third out.

Roman Anthony, as he takes the field, has a noticeably red nose. How much fun it must be to stand out in the middle of an open field during a forty degree rain storm.

Jack Anderson, by the by, has pitched another two excellent — perfect —  innings after Watson took the sixth (gave up two hits but no damage). He does give up a lead off hit in the ninth and one wonders how sacrificial his outing is going to be. He was at only about 20 pitches to start the frame. Then a walk, and I’m wondering about the sacrifice theory. Then the dinkiest book-rule double you’ve ever seen drops off the foul line and then into the netting. Oops, the Umps completely missed it — they didn’t call it a double. The run still scores — 6-1 — but I guess on a day of misery we should be grateful for minor breaks. I'm still giving Anderson full credit here for an excellent outing.

Nice double play Durbin stepping on the bag and throwing across to Monasterio, who stretches. We are back to a runner on second and two outs. Then the next batter drops a single to left, Roman fields it on one hop, and has a dead line on the runner and he is OUT. BASERUNNER KILL! And that’s a nice thing to see from Roman, given his early season throwing troubles from left. 

The ninth has our 4-5-6 hitters, Story-Abreu-Rafaela. Everybody’s breath is visible now. The pitcher, Seabold, who has less reason to be cold than anybody else on the field, somehow looks more miserable.

Trevor strikes out, but Wilyer hits a dribbler to third for an infield hit. Hope is a thing that is soggy.  Cedanne reaches way outside for a meek swinging strike three and it’s left up to the worst hitter in the majors, Caleb Durbin. (Yes, that is not hyperbole. Among hitters who qualify for the batting title, he has the lowest OPS in the majors, at .400 (it was at .330 a few days ago). 

Oh ye naysayers — Durbin doubles off the wall and it’s 6-2. Hope is still dripping. Only four more doubles like that and we've tied it up...Yoshida on to pinch hit for Narvaez. Masa grounds out quietly to second and yellow jackets and all the Sox have lost this agonizing game. I bet it felt a lot longer than two hours forty minutes.

Tomorrow is Patriot’s Day — Marathon Day — Boston Strong day — and we will face off again against the Tigers at 11. They will need to shake this off fast and try to split the series, because otherwise we’ll be reopening the hole created by the first ten games. We’ve gone 6-5 since that start and that won’t be good enough to climb back into contention without a significant winning streak. 

Takewaways: Garrett Crochet is not the pitcher he was last year. Rain or no rain, he is just not sharp for as long as a starter needs to be, and hasn’t been sharp out of the gate all but one of his starts this year. The Sox offense sputtered against another good Tiger pitching outing, but neither did they get purchase against three innings of bullpen work. The cold and misery of today certainly probably killed any esprit de corps that might’ve spurred a rally.

Game 20: Red Sox 1, Tarik Skubal's Team 4

A Damned Fine Pitcher and a Sputtering Offense is No Formula for a Sox Victory

Brayan Bello should be taken out of the rotation, it pains me to add

Unis: yellow city uniforms. Opponent: Tarik Skubal and that team he plays for. Oh, right, the Tigers of Detroit.

Talk about a tall order: coming off a 1-0 victory in extras, the Sox face off against Skubal, or “Tarp Skull” as my spellchecker wants to correct it to. As in, best pitcher in the majors whose name is not Paul Skenes. I guess we could argue about Skenes vs Skubal (“Scenes vs. Skull”).

And, Brayan Bello is starting to make me look at the box scores for starters down in Worcester. He’s been maddeningly inconsistent in pitch quality, and a consistent loser all the way. It’s almost as if the Sox planned the matchup as a sacrificial loss. I mean, here’s your first inning: single, strikeout, single, walk, strikeout, walk a guy in, groundout. One run across like that. Nothing drives me more ape than walking in a run, unless it’s walking in a guy in the first. 

Bello then goes on to retire seven straight and you think, oh, he’s bearing down. But then a solo shot to Kerry Carpenter (always a nail in our feet), and the wheels come off a bit with a double and a batter later a sac fly and like that we’re down 3-0. And then a single and we’re down 4-0. I mean, Bello is generating swing and miss, when he’s not generating swing-and-easy-contact, when he’s not walking guys. 84 PC in 4, 4 runs on 5 hits and Alex pulls the plug to start the fifth. 

Moran has a terrific outing in relief I will note: three innings, no runs, hit and a walk and three Ks. Nothing loud. He’s really done a good job for us. He left the game with a 1.35 ERA and if the Sox manage to come back and win, he’s my player of the game. (Barring somebody hitting four homers in extra innings). 

And the offense: oh lordy here we go again. Load the bases with nobody out in the fifth…and we get away with only one run, knocked in on a groundball double play no less. That’s one way of reducing our LOB count. That’s five baserunners we’ve either left on or had doubled up in innings where we were pressing Skubal against the rock, three left in scoring position.

“Red Sox will strand two” is not what I wanted to hear at the end of the sixth inning where we got two on with nobody out. That was the last chance to get to Skubal; he’s yanked to start the seventh, threw a 4 hitter and struck out 10 Sox. We’re going to see two guys and then our old friend Kenley Jansen.

What the team needs is a genuine rally: crooked numbers. They got used to not scoring yesterday and it’s a habit that’s hard to quit, apparently. But: we send 10 men to the plate in the last three innings, and the only one who gets on is Willson Contreras. Poof. We can’t even score on the relievers. 

Kenley indeed gets the save, which I guess is nice for him (he’s one of those closers who needs to reach some milestones to be considered for the Hall of Fame. He’s now at 481, three ahead of Lee Smith and in third all-time, but it took Lee a loooooong time to get into the Hall, and the guys ahead of him are Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman. Behind him is Kimbrel at 440 (and not counting, since he’s not closing), and we skip over John Franco (who deserves to be in IMHO), F-Rod (marginal call there), Billy Wagner and Eck already in, Joe Nathan at 377, and our own Aroldis Chapman at 370.

Now this is an interesting split because Jansen, Kimbrel, and Chapman are all 38 years old and each pitching in their 17th season. Chappie had  rough patch of four years where he was nobody’s closer, and average only 9 saves a year, working as a set up guy and day-off closer. Factor in another 80 saves if he’d been closing them, he’s right up there with Kenley and Kimbrel.

Now, I don’t think Kimbrel’s ever going to make it. He was indeed a completely dominant pitcher at one point, and a quite effective one for a while longer, but his late-career erosion is going to stick in the craw of voters. But here’s the thing: Kimbrel has a WAR Of 22.4 Jansen has a WAR of 24.4; and Aroldis has a WAR of 24.6. Hoffman’s was 28, and Rivera an unholy 56, which is maybe the largest deviation between a guy first in his category and one second in his category.

For a long time it looked like relievers were going to be the Kickers of MLB (there’s something like 2 1/2 place kickers in the NFL Hall of Fame, one of whom probably doesn’t belong, awaiting maybe 2 others who do), meaning specialist players who just weren’t considered the equal of other pitchers. But pitching has changed, analytics helps (although WAR is not the sine qua non here, since 28 is a paltry number relative to any position player who’s lasted 10 years and most mediocre starters), and while the saves statistic is actually pretty ridiculous, it has grown in importance, not faded, in the last few decades, despite the fact voters ought to know better.

So do I think Chappie has a shot? Indeed I do. But he’s going to have to work longer than Kenley. Jansen was associated with the dominant years of the Dodgers (relatively speaking, since the 90s at least) and Kimbrel’s associated with no team in particular (I know he seems like a Red Sox, given his role on the 2018 team, but he was only with the club for three years and is now on his…takes off socks…12th team! Yoiks!) Chapman had a string of good years with the Yankees, before his unfortunate 2022, and was a dominant closer in both leagues, always good when it comes to sticking in voters’ minds. But Jansen and Kimbrel have both topped 100 MPH on fastballs — barely — while Chapman is still throwing 105 MPH fastballs and average over 100 on some outings at the age of 38. I have a feeling that with two or three good years — one hopes with a memorable winner so he can finally get a ring — he might have a shot at it, ten years into the Statcast era and with new metrics playing more of a role in quality assessment. 

To get back to Jansen, whose stint with the Sox was short and sandwiched between those of Kimbrel and Chapman, I think he’s likely a lock on the hall if he reaches 500 saves. That may seem arbitrary, since it is arbitrary, but it’s what it’s going to take to develop that 75% consensus in the hardest category of player to assess properly, the relief pitcher.

Chapman: realistically it’s a long shot just because of the saves number, but heck, people came to appreciate Billy Wagner for the magnificent pitcher he was despite having fewer saves than non-HoFers ahead of him on the saves list, and I think — if he pitches well through the end of his Sox contract, and has one more key career highlight, like walking off the mound in the clinching game of the World Series — he will also get in eventually.

So why did I yammer on so long about these three Red Sox — two of them ex-Red Sox? Because I am disappointed with the game result and all I can say is Tarik Skubal (Tarp Skull, to you and me) is a fantastic pitcher and while I think the game was in reach, maybe it really wasn’t. Good pitchers get out of jams and that’s what Skubal did. And absent another Ranger Suarez-like performance from our pitching, it wasn’t coming today.

So I am going to dust myself off and put the yellow jersey back in the closet for tomorrow’s game.

Takeaways: Brayan Bello does not deserve to keep his spot in the rotation. It is that simple. If he can’t pitch more than four, let him labor in long relief for a while, since Jovani Moran has actually put in more quality innings than Bello has, the only problem with that plan is we’d be stuck with Brayan in middle relief. Although one expects one of the triple A guys to come up instead. Tarik Skubal is an amazing pitcher and we likely would have lost even without blowing two really good opportunities to put up crooked numbers. The concern about the lack of offense continues but maybe we can give the boys a mulligan for today.

--

Post-Game Addendum: 

I did a little poking around and...Bello has two more minor league year options, and is not close to the five year service threshold (he's at 3.082 coming into today's game) so a visit to AAA is entirely within the realm of possibility. And I think something the Sox should consider.

Game 19: Red Sox 1, Detroit 0 (10 innings)

A City Connect Gem

The Sox do all the little things right in a pitchers' duel and I find that yes, I can breathe

To call this the most satisfying game of the year would be like calling the Grand Canyon a good tourist destination, the Sistine Chapel a decent art work, Beethoven’s 9th a nice little tune. All technically true but such descriptions cannot convey the joy and relief of what is absolutely the best Red Sox win and game of the year. 

Yes, we missed some opportunities at the plate, yes, we had some dangerous moments of putting on multiple runners in a scoreless game late, but we got out of every situation and in the end it was some clutch hitting — situational hitting, on a Baltimore chop, no less, by our mighty mini Masa Yoshida, for the walk-off, extra innings win after 10 1/2 scoreless innings.

In the first inning, one had a sinking feeling with a no out, one on double against Suarez, but Marcelo Mayer instantly, INSTANTLY called to the dugout for a review. And indeed, they caught him with a perfect, PERFECT tag, and we have a baserunner kill and a Replay Overturn from the get-go indicated this game was going to go better than it looked like it was going to go. Suarez wriggled out of the early pressure and essentially cruised the rest of the way. 

Cruise? He crushed it. It was a no-hitter after the first, with only a single walk the rest of his gorgeous 8 inning, 93 pitch masterpiece, spreading contact, pitching to the corners, striking out guys in key situations (with only 4 K on the day), and in general being the best Ran-her Suarez he can possibly be. This is the guy who dominated for the Phils two years ago. I’ve seen Pedro, Clemens, Chris Sale pitch at Fenway at the peak of their powers, and some fantastic games, and this was most certainly as good as any start I’ve seen.

Did I say seen? I refuse to pay the extortion of extra charges for streamed games (tonight's was Apple TV), so I listened to this game entirely on the radio. And then I watched the condensed game, and then I watched the entire game over again when it became available on the MLB feed. It was just that enjoyable, and I got to listen to a full Sox radio broadcast the old-fashioned way, letting the broadcasters paint the picture. I do not get where the flack for Dave Fleming is coming from, because he did an exquisite job conveying the situations and the excitement of this game and other than his unfortunate predilection to quote "Coming to America" in dialect, he always does a good job. I'm warming to Will Middlebrooks as well (more on that in another off-day post).

It’s not like the club didn’t get into some tense situations. Chapman came on in the 9th in a scoreless tie, and gave up a walk, a single, and a double. Normally you’d be saying, oh crap, we’re going to blow it again, but nope. First, Marcelo calls for the replay AGAIN on an extremely close steal attempt by Javier Baez after the initial baserunner got on, and AGAIN the Sox prevailed. Marcelo is one of the sharpest infielders I’ve seen play in some time, and the mental acuity of being on top of the instant replay challenges is a new kind of skill that he really seems to have in full. Still, the double came with a runner on and two out, and runners at second and third is serious trouble in a scoreless game. But Chapman rose to the occasion and whiffed Dillon Dingler (NOT his porn name, thank you) to send it to extra innings.

The Sox took what were some dumb chances on the basepaths, particularly Durbin advancing on a two-out fly ball from second to third, and Duran scampering to third in the tenth on a wild pitch. But nothing succeeds like success: on close plays, they were both safe, and Duran’s base advance proved critical, as it pulled in the infield and there’s no way Yoshida’s chopper would have been a hit if it hadn’t (and of course that was the winning run). 

So here’s where we acknowledge the Tigers’ Casey Mize matched Suarez nearly pitch for pitch for seven innings. He only gave up three hits, the loudest of which was a two-out double by Caleb Durbin, and a single walk, and struck out seven. Normally that’s the kind of outing that spells doom for any club, but particularly for this one this year, and they had super timely pitching in relief as well. The winning run that scored was unearned (zombie runner). It was a pitcher's dual from start to finish and those kinds of games are rare enough that they're a particular pleasure.

The Sox were great on defense, but also missed a few (Contreras running into the tarp and losing both his wind and the ball when he smacked into it made ME lose my breath, too), so the back and forth all game was part of what made this a thrill. That the Sox always came up with the play in the end — some great picks and tosses by Story, the aforementioned play by Marcelo — virtually every Sox had a good play in the field. 

And let’s not discount Suarez’ fielding — he’s one of the slickest infielders I’ve seen, and I am lumping the fielding duties of pitchers in with a lot of great full-time infielders.  Here’s some fun fielding info on Suarez: since 2021, he’s lead ALL MLB pitchers in Defensive Runs Saved (for what that’s worth). He still hasn’t won a gold glove, but he was ineligible due to falling short of the innings pitched requirement in 2022 and 2024. But he did get a Fielding Bible Award in 2022, which is not subject to the strange qualification rules of MLB. He fields cleanly, throws easily to bases, is always there on the coverage, lands in a good fielding position, and generally has his head in the game as much as any pitcher I’ve seen. 

Takeaways: the best game of the season thus far, a taut pitchers’ duel where the Sox made the plays they should have and came up with a small ball win in extra innings. Ranger Suarez threw a great game and the Sox won in a walk-off for the SEVENTH time in their Fenway Green City Connect unis. This was a great win. I'm still on a bit of a high coming off it. I wish I could bottle this feeling and market it as City Connect Fenway Green.

Game 18: Red Sox 9 Twin Cities 5

 It’s So Taxing to be a Sox Fan

The boys win a laugher, until the 9th, which stifled my mirth and took six months off my life

Today is Jackie Robinson day, and it’s maybe the best thing MLB has done in the last 30 years, to make this a sort of playing holiday. I have a Jackie Robinson story that’s actually about Frank Robinson, but it’s kind of an unsettling reminder of how bad things used to be in both this country in general and baseball in particular — I was at the first game (Frank) Robinson managed — and given all the $U@ that’s happened this year, I don’t really feel like it. Let’s just say the Sox still have some things to make up here, particularly to fans. Onward.

First off: Contreras is day to day. That is….good news? Back injuries are a black art to diagnose and treat. Fingers crossed. Monasterio in at first, Roman in right field as Abreu gets his first break of the year, Cedanne in Center, Roman in left, Yoshida DHing, and IKF at third. Wong catching, of course, day game following a night game. 

So the championship formula was there today: sensational pitching, from our rookie, no less, Connelly Early, and a gigantic pile of runs from all quarters, nine to be precise. They were scored in three outbursts over four innings, and in the middle inning where they didn’t score they managed to load the bases with nobody out and still didn’t plate anybody. It’s one of those moments that are highly frustrating until you look up and see the team has managed a 9-1 lead, anyway.

We also saw a dinger (Trevor Story #2), small ball writ large (Wong with a perfect suicide squeeze, this with one out, too, in an inning where the Sox had already scored, so put that one in the old memory file for odd moments to squeeze), and for once stellar Sox defense (great plays by IKF and Cedanne) and a double-error by a Twinkie that was a serious Little League moment — dropped a grounder, fell down while recovering the ball, threw the ball away, letting the runner on and a run score and then the next batter was Trevor, hitting a three run homer. A little of everything, including a steal - by Wong! whoa, he’s sneaky.

The disturbing part of the game was the 9th, where Ryan Watson gave up four runs in short order — the last three on a homer. Ryan has pitched pretty well but I can’t help but think the Sox have gone to that well too much this past week, after using Coulombe and Whitlock in the 7th and 8th. I choose to forget that happened because I was getting a little panicky when it was going on in real time, and at this point I will calm myself down by breathing deeply and focusing on how Early went 6, gave up only a hefty solo shot in the first but settled down entirely after that, giving up only 2 walks and one additional hit. I didn’t get stats on his swing and miss rate, but it was a really nice array of outs — 5 Ks and a mixture of groundouts and easy flies, save for one circus catch by Cedanne.

Takeaways: Connelly Early is the early season ace, and the Sox offense, if not exactly firing on all cylinders, finally put together a tough game. We scored a season high nine runs and took advantage of the other team’s miscues. It helped they had terrible pitching but you can’t time your great starts optimally. We split the road trip, by some miracle. 

Game 17: Red Sox 0 Minnesotans 6

 Worse and Worserer

The Sox hit the magic twin combination of ineffective offense against a budding star and a poor performance by their own aging vet

The first thing that must be said is Mick Abel did not come out of nowhere. He was a first round pick, albeit in the weirdo draft of 2020. He was the prize pig in the deal that sent Jhoan Duran to the Phils, no slouch he. After a bit of a rough start to his minor league career — mostly BB and HR — but bear in mind that class of 2020 essentially missed a year and a half of development time — he really dominated AAA last year for both the Phils’ and Twins’ affiliates. He cut his walk rate in half and his HR rate by 2/3. Yeah, he got battered in cups of coffee with both clubs last year, and had some difficulty out of the gate this year, but the 7 innings of shutout, shutdown baseball he threw against the Sox tonight did not come out of nowhere. It was the first fantastic start of his major league career and it's just a R#U@@()ing pity it had to come against us.

There’s a formula to work on rookie pitchers finding their feet, particularly ones who’ve barely scraped 100 IP a year. And that’s to work smart: get the pitch count up, make them throw inside strikes, make them throw their worst pitches. And the Sox, to my eyes, did nothing of the sort today. Other than Roman and Yoshida, who each went 2 for 4, that was it. They literally couldn’t put back to back batters on base all night. Drew only one walk. Whiffed 12 times. 

So it seems like a dogpile to blame this on Sonny Grey, given the game would have been lost if he’d given up only one run. But Sunny got pummeled with nine hits and a walk tonight, lasting only four and being lucky to give up only five runs. He wasn’t wild, as has happened with him at times; he was just a little too easy in the zone. The Twins had a game plan and they jumped on him. The quote on the post game interview: “I just didn’t feel like myself.” Oh, OK. 

Major League Debut tonight for Jack Anderson, investigative columnist for the Worcester Press prior to joining the Sox today. If you get that joke, you are even older than I am, as I barely remember Jack Anderson from his radio spotlight program, back when nationally syndicated columnists both did actual journalism and appeared on media other than podcasts. Anderson came up basically for a fresh arm, near as I can tell, with Tyler Carmensandiego (OK, Sananiego, but I have made that mistake verbally twice now) having been used up the last few days (your ace only lasting for five outs tends to do that) and the Sox needing a sacrificial arm in the majors. Jack is 26 and another lite beer league guy, having been a 19th round pick for the Tigers from Florida State — a round that doesn’t even exist anymore — and worked his way up nearly entirely as a reliever (I count nine minor league starts, total, among his mere 282+ career minor league IP). He has got a fastball and can throw strikes, that much is certain, and it was nice to see him strike out the side in his first taste of life in the big leagues, albeit already down by five runs. He did give up a solo shot, but otherwise held down the fort for three innings, and we welcome him to the ecosystem that is the shuttle bus between Woo and the Fens. 

What was disturbing AF from the bullpen was to see Chapman come in for a mop up inning in the 8th, presumably to get the work, since the Sox haven’t had a save situation since (checks notes), I dunno, June of last year? I can’t remember that far back, in any event. It’s just never ever a good sign to burn your closer in a meaningless game situation with another game on tap for tomorrow. He did at least strikeout the side. 

OK and we’ll get to the possible real disaster of the game, which was that Willson Contreras was taken out in the fifth after being hit by a pitch in the fourth. “Back tightness” is the official report, which can be just a twinge and they took him out as a precaution, or something horrible, as back problems can be. We will just have to wait and watch there. Andrew Monasterio finished out the game at first (he is reasonably smooth there, considering he’s a utility man). 

Takeaways: the offense is really starting to look like everybody could use another year in AAA.  Sonny Grey was bad, the bullpen was good again albeit in only four innings since the Twins didn’t even have to bath in the 9th, but we’re also reaching down into AAA for innings and that’s not a good sign in April. Nice major league debut for Jack Anderson but I am afraid I’ll remember this either as the game where Willson Contreras got hurt or Mick Abel started his Hall of Fame career against Our Sox, depending on what horizon you’re looking at.  I’m at a loss here about how bad this team is right now, and the bad tonight was simply being out played and out pitched. At least it wasn’t Crochet giving up 11 runs in less than two innings.

Game 16: Red Sox 4 Minnesota Twins 13

Career Day

We've had five Worst Losses of the Year and it's not even tax day

There's no proper lede here because I couldn't bear to keep game notes up after the first inning. But hey, we won this game, 6 to 2! If you don't count the first two innings! And I did watch it until the bitter end, if somewhat half-heartedly and quarter-minded.

So there are all kinds of Bad Losses, and it's arguable whether losing leads late, or twice in a game, as has happened to this club multiple times this year are worse than being blown out. But being down 11-0 is pretty bad, and I'd argue it's the worst loss of the year not so much for the blowout but for this having been ceded by our ace, who is being paid $611 a year or something like that. 

I happened to be at Greg Maddux' worst loss of his career, where he gave up nine runs in only two on way to something like a 17-1 loss for the Atlanta team. It was helped along, the internet tells me, by two unearned runs, and Crochet only gave up one unearned yesterday in the shaky but not disastrous first (yet another throwing error by Trevor Story, itself a cause for concern). It was the awful second inning, wherein Garrett couldn't even get out of the inning, that was the cause for concern.

How do you manage to be left in to give up 11 runs? Well, as my spouse hopefully points out, that's a privilege only true aces are afforded. Your typical rookie getting bombed early gets a far earlier hook. You have to be a pitcher of Crochet's -- or Maddux' -- caliber to be able to give up that many runs that early. Is that a silver lining? No it is not. 

What happened? His velocity was way TF down, that's what happened. And why was it down? Here's the NESN analysis:

Crochet is coming off a 107-pitch outing, his longest of the season, and more pitches than he planned to throw in his third turn through the rotation. Last season, he threw 102 pitches in his second start of the season and saw his velocity fall in his third start before returning to normal. 

So: let's recall that definition of insanity. It's still April, and we're throwing our guy out there for 107 pitches and then not giving him any extra rest. This is on the club at least 50% here for not managing their prize pig: and for once I am going to blame the brain trust here, Andrew Bailey and Alex Cora. They have access to far better analytics than the pitch count, to be sure, but PC is a pretty good indicator of workload and stress. Three walks, two homers, zero strikeouts, 55 pitches, 30 for strikes. Five extra base hits. Twice as many earned runs as outs recorded. 

So, yes, this is the worst outing of Crochet's career and it's likely it will forever be so (knock on wood). 

I will peer hard for silver linings: first off, the boys came back and scored three runs right away. It was early yet and that's the way comebacks happen. As it was they ended up losing by "only" seven runs, which (does math) means they outscored the Twins 6-2 after the second inning. The two runs given up were solo shots yielded by Ryan Watson, who is already eating innings for us admirably. Tyler Samaniego pitched two perfect innings, and Moran gave up only two walks in two and a third and no hits. Duran hit his first homer of the year and looked good doing it (although he looks good doing nearly everything). Roman got on three times, Durbin finally had a multihit game, 7 of 9 starters got hits, we got on base 14 times. In short everybody was doing their job except Crochet (and arguably, Trevor Story).

Bad news courtesy "Fan"graphs

So was it really the Worst Loss of the Year (the fifth such game, by my designation?) $&!# YES. You come off a series win and are on the verge of a winning streak against a team that can't hit lefties, and your ace gives up this $#@*? WORST LOSS OF THE YEAR.

Takeaways: Garrett Crochet has what will likely be the worst loss of his career. It is inexplicable how flat he pitched. The offense wasn't bad in defeat, but the game was over by the top of the third. Duran got his first home of the year and the bullpen was decent, with only Ryan Watson giving up a couple of runs and otherwise pitching 5 2/3 scoreless. Are these silver linings? No they are not. There are no silver linings in a bad loss to your ace like this, in last place, after finally showing some verve in the last week.

Game 15: Red Sox 9 St. Louis 3

Miracles Abound

We get back to back good offensive days, a homer, and somehow the Sox are no longer in 5th place in the division...and only two back from the division leaders

It’s Brayan Bello going out today, after a “confounding” start, where he had 14 or 15 swing and misses and still walked four guys and couldn’t even get into the middle innings. It’s a day game and I think it’s his first day game start.

He’s going up against Andre Pallante, also the Cards’ fifth starter, who is another organization guy and pretty close in seasonal age to Bello (27 to 26). They’re both “little” righties, right around six feet, so not the prototypical modern hulking starters with long deliveries. Unlike Bello he wasn’t touted early on, and was an innings eater last year, but also gave up 21 HR in only 163 IP, and gave up a walk for every two strikeouts. 

Of course the issue with the Sox this year has been homers; they’ve only hit nine so far (compare to Jordan Walker’s six all by himself for the Cards) and that’s the fourth fewest in the majors. And Pallante is the kind of guy you want to beat with the big sticks. Yesterday’s season-high five run outburst in the top of the ninth was quite welcome, but it came without benefit of a single extra base hit!

The other puzzling part is this very, very speedy team hasn’t been running much. Only six steals, and the only guy with as many as two is Duran. It may simply have been an issue of lack of running situations but I can recall a half dozen times where I expected the runner to go and he didn’t even really show.

The Cards have two really exciting young players in their lineups. One is JJ Wetherholt, who’s been leading off and hasn’t shown a lot just yet, but was judged the most adept hitting talent to come out of the draft two years ago and made it from college to the bigs in less than a year and a half. The other is Jordan Walker, the guy who seemed can’t miss as a 20 year old three years ago but who struggled up and down, perhaps in part because the Cards seem to have lost their touch with younger hitters. They play them inconsistently, and a lot of guys who were deemed top prospects, from our old friend Tyler O’Neill to Nolan Gorman and Alec Burleson (both in the lineup today) have seen great play at times but have largely been really inconsistent. But they stuck with Walker and he’s looked like a monster thus far this year, with an OPS of 1.092 coming into the game.

Pregame quotation of the year from Caleb Durbin, who’d never even visited Boston prior to the first home series: “It’s going to take a little while to get used to the roads.”  I like his biggest pet peeve: “Fans not paying attention to the game.”

It’s yesterday’s lineup with Anthony still DHing, only with Wong hitting 8th instead of Narvaez for the traditional back up catcher’s Sunday start. Anthony we might speculate is being held out of left field while he tries to get his accuracy back on throws. Jaren in left batting third, no Yoshida, leaving AL MVP Wilyer Abreu as the only OFer who has started every game in the field. 

Roman works the count full and fouls off one, so is being patient but flies out softly and we’re underway. Durbin gets plunked. The kid is built like a fireplug and he kind of reminds me of an old school number two hitter, not a classic cornerman but more the slow-footed second sacker who can do all the little things well except run, including taking a ball for the team. Only Durbin can indeed run: I’d like to see him on base enough to get a chance to go. Duran is baffled by a knuckle curve for strike three, bringing Contreras up. They’ve thrown over to first three times now. Contreras works the count full, and saves his timeout for this moment and disrupts it.

The TV is either experimenting with a lot of new camera angles in the first or they’ve got one out of order. as we very gratifyingly see a third base dugout view of pitches actually being delivered and pickoff attempts to first. Without any camera changes. It’s highly unconventional and I heartily approve. Among other things it gives us a good view of the stands, showing it half-full, if that. 

WILLSON HOMERS! Fantastic shot, but they don’t even show this on the TV angle, sticking to the third base camera, which makes me think they’re only doing this because of some glitch down in the truck. It’s fn watching Contreras round the bases but I’d like to see that homer. Willson is delivering the right handed power we were looking for in the off-season, and is leading the club with three dingers. He’s no Pete Alonso but the guy is a gamer. 

Wilyer strikes out to end the inning but that was a very nice two out homer. And the TV snaps back to the center field camera for the last whiff, which does make me think somebody was asleep at the directorial switch (or the mixer was on the fritz briefly). So much for the “let’s watch the whole game from the third base dugout” approach. A boy can dream! 

Sox up 2-0 in the first! I like first inning leads! Let’s see Brayan come out throwing.

What happened to the Wallyhead before? It’s back in the dugout, Dave reports, but there’s no accounting for where it had gone. 

Nice play by Cedanne on a sharply hit 3-1 pitch by Wetherholt! Sliding, diving catch forward to pick if up. We’ll call that one a Defensive Gem already! Especially since if he’d missed it, it would have been three bases and maybe even an inside the parker. 

ABS drama: Burleson with two outs and nobody on in the first on an 0-1 count gets away with it, as it’s just barely a ball inside. No matter, as he grounds out on the next pitch. Nice inning by Brayan, particularly the way he seemed to completely ignore the ABS replay. 10 pitches, albeit only five for strikes.

Trevor leads off with a single to start the second, and now we’re going to see about the running game. Marcelo is straddling the Mendoza line but plunks a dinker into left field and we have a rally again. Connor Wong up and showing bunt: back to scientific baseball? After fouling off the first he takes another pitch and then swings on 1-1 so I guess the bunt is off. Wong pops a little loop to the second baseman and it’s one down. Cedanne gets plunked and Cedanne throws down the bat again in disgust like he did yesterday. He’s feeling it — almost the same spot as yesterday. Injuries to the hands are a big danger zone in baseball. But he’s OK and we have the bases loaded and one out and the top of the order up. Boy do we need a big hit here. Instead Roman goes the other way and what normally would have been a ground ball double play produces a run because there’s nobody there to cover second! They have to retire Anthony at first, he gets an RBI, and the Sox are up 3-0 with runners at second and third and Durbin up.  Durbin grounds out, I feel like we should have gotten more out of that inning, but it’s a three nil lead so I should not kvetch too much just yet about lost opportunities.

Old Busch. Note the ballpark wasn't aligned with
the arch, but it was pretty visible from all
across the lower bowl.
 

The St. Louis ballpark bothers me. I haven’t been to it yet but I went to old Busch a few times. I didn’t like the old park, which was nearly identical to Riverfront, Three Rivers, The Vet (all of which I suffered through as well), but you could see more of the Arch. If you’re building a retro park facing directly at one of the most iconic national monuments — unique in the world, really — why not show more of it? It barely peeks above right center. If I had built the ballpark there would have been a cut out, and I would also have demolished the building that blocks the view of the left base of the arch, even if it had to come out of the construction budget. St. Louis has to show itself off, there isn’t a lot more to show than the Arch. They at least oriented the ballpark correctly, compared to the old one, but it is a major missed opportunity. 

New Busch. They aligned the arch with homeplate, but 
it's surprisingly hard to spot and completely obscured
from many parts of the field. The new construction
since the 1960's has added obstructions between
the park and the arch, even though the new park
site is right next to the site of the old park. 

GOOD LORD JORDAN WALKER DEMOLISHES ANOTHER ONE to lead off the second. At least there was nobody on. Bello kind of shakes his head and smirks as if to say ‘whatta ya gonna do about that??’ Sox up 3-1. Brayan bounces back attacking the next hitters and gets them retired in order after that, and that’s what we like to see from this kid. If you have to get beat by their best, not a problem, work with that lead and then just get back to work. It’s the walks in front a guy like Walker that will kill you.

Pallante’s pitch count is over 40 after two and it would be very nice to get him into trouble again. Duran does work a 7 pitch count but grounds out. He kind of had to wait on a big looper and could only make weak contact. Contreras has a nice at-bat, working the inside part of the plate, and serves one into left for a single.  Season average up to .280 with an OPS of .938. Abreu gives a good rip to a ball but just gets under it and it’s a can of corn to right. Two outs for Trevor with a runner on first. Nice rip by Trevor, who does seem to be warming up, and it’s just a little too shallow to go for a double down the right field line, enough for Contreras to go to third. Time for a nice two out hit for Marcelo. I’m wondering here why Trevor hasn’t tried to steal after three pitches, as he draws a pickoff throw. Alas Marcelo grounds out, they did run Pallante’s pitch count to a whopping 63 after three, but they will have to really work on putting the nail in the coffin next inning. It’s still only a two run lead.

Brayan comes back with a nifty 1-2-3 inning on three ground balls and the ball is back in our court again against the struggling Pallante. This is definitely a good time for a put away inning. 

The Sox rally again in the 9th to counter two more solo blasts by the Cards, Bello gets out of trouble in the 6th and works into the 7th, the Sox pen holds it, and just like that the Sox are 6-9 and two games back of the Yanks, who are on a five game skid.

Takeaways: Bello finally has a pretty good game, not perfect, but he extracted himself from situations twice, which is the best sign for him moving forward. A two out big fly from Contreras got us started on the scoring, but we won despite the Cards out-homering us, thanks to a whole set of good situational hitting. It was good to see the season high for runs scored, especially with back to back days of decent run production.