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 21: Red Sox 2 The Rain Gods 6
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
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.
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Old Busch. Note the ballpark wasn't aligned with |
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.
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| 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.
Game 14: Red Sox 7 Cardinals 1
Wherein the Sox Win the Small Ball Game, then Finally Put Up a Crooked Inning to Ice It
Not the formula I expected to mark the offense this season, but I'll take it
Leahy is pitching for St. Louis, Ranger Suarez for us. I keep wanting to call him Patrick Leahy but it’s Kyle Leahy. Too much New England. Suarez has been bad, and there’s speculation ABS is working against him by getting a lot of close calls called against him. He does work the edges and if the edges are bleeding, there maybe something to that.
The game tonight is on Fox and I won’t tell you anything about how the Fox unit does because I’m listening to the game on the radio and watching the TV with the volume turned down. For once the TV is ahead of the radio so I can pause it and get the two synched.
Roman is DHing tonight, Durbin second, Jarren 3rd in LF, then Contreras-Abreu-Story-Mayer-Narvaez-Rafaela as we’ve had the last few games.
I can’t believe Marcelo is only hitting .182 ; he’s looked like he’s had an idea all year, but he’s nearly as bad as the rest of the lineup in the box score. Rafaela, Yoshida, and Abreu are the only +WAR players in the lineup (well, on the club, since Yoshida isn't in the lineup tonight).
Sox go quietly 1-2-3 in the first. Suarez gives up a first pitch hit but the Sox turn a neat 6-4-3 double play on the next batter. Then…. a walk, and another walk. GRRRRRRR. Then an ABS challenge against the Sox on a called strike three, but Suarez comes back to get the guy swinging on the next pitch. Fingers crossed this is just an early hiccup.
In the second, Contreras is whacked on the back on the second pitch, putting on a runner for AL MVP Wilyer Abreu. But Wilyer grounds into a double play, so much for that. Trevor skies out and that’s it. Superfast. Leahy has thrown 19 pitches (14 for strikes) and Suarez has already thrown 27 (14 for strikes).
Ranger is throwing first pitch strikes but after that…and the Cards are swinging at them. Out-hit-out. Victor Scott the Sequel comes up as the number 9 hitter and Ranger’s got to go after him here. He grounds out to second, and it’s normally an easy play but Scott is so fast it almost looks close. Marcelo looking good out there, though. We will get to see him play short during his time with the Sox, I predict. (You do not need to be Karnak here.)
The Sox get a very satisfying rally in the third. Leadoff walk to Anthony, single by Duran, and then a one-out double by Contreras to score not only Anthony, but Jarren doing what he does best — so smoothly hustling all the way. He scored standing up…on a ball to left field! That is crazy. That was all the Sox got but it feels like they finagled a run there.
Suarez settles in and works the edges, and ends up lasting six full with only three hits and two walks, and six Ks. 84 pitches and Alex quits while we’re literally ahead. The little rally by the Sox put a ding in Leahy’s pitch count, however, and the Cards get into their bullpen in the 5th. It’s a really good outing by Suarez, in many ways maybe the best Sox start of the year. The Cards aren’t that fearsome offensively but settling down like that Suarez looked really good.
How can you have two appeals overturning the exact same play? We found out in the 7th when the Sox challenged a ridiculous hit by pitch call that was a foul tip strike three into Narvaez mitt for strike three. Only the umps, after overturning it, somehow called it a ball, for a 1-2 count instead of an 0-2 or strikeout. Then the CARDINALS challenged the SAME call, after a few minutes had transpired, claiming it was interference. If it was interference, why didn’t New York call it that on the initial review? It was interference, technically, because one of the leather strands of Narvaez’ glove hit the bat, but it was hardly the intent of the interference rule, which is when the catcher’s glove impedes the progress of the bat or alters its trajectory. The alleged interference only happened AFTER the ball had been fouled into the mitt. It was a call they got “right” twice and “wrong” three times.
This almost hurt the Sox as eventually that runner got to third base, but Danny Coulombe picked up Greg Weissert on the play by inducing a fly out to right.
Wow, in the top of the 8th we have the most outrageously bad call on a ball strike by the umpire on a withdrawn bunt attempt by Duran that was called a ball. It was almost as smack dab in the middle of the strikezone as you can get. Poor Duran smokes an 0-2 pitch into the gap but the left fielder makes a spectacular diving play to rob him of at least two bases. Poor Wilyer smokes another ball deep to center but it just hangs up a bit and the centerfielder circles back to catch it on the warning track.
Now we’re into the part of the bullpen that should dominate, but somehow I feel like we should have put up some insurance runs. There’s a special kind of anxiety for the 2026 Red Sox where our lack of offensive output always puts disaster just a couple of plays away. On comes Garrett Whitlock.
Whitlock gets Wetherholt to ground to first but has a very disconcerting slip on the base. It looks like an ankle breaker but Garrett is OK, thank goodness. At least for now. Second out on a strikeout K2-3 and Whitlock looking good…until…
Jordan freaking Walker first pitch swings and hits it so far Whitlock doesn’t even turn to look at it go out. 2-1 Red Sox and now we’re in the one-swing-can-tie-it territory.
My goodness Jordan Walker has looked good thus far this year. His approach at the plate has looked so much more comfortable. He’s now leading the majors in homers with six.
Whitlock comes right back and strikes out Nolan Gorman, and we’ll be entering the ninth with a lead. This is going to kill me. I really want the Sox to have, like, an 11 run top of the 9th. We just have not had an inning like that all year. In fact, I think the most we’ve scored in a single inning thus far is four, and three a couple of times, and that’s about it.
Trevor Story, who has always seemed to come up with runners in scoring position with mixed results thus far, leads off and works a walk, which is more like classic Trevor. Have we seen him run? Just that steal of home that was wasted the other day. He’s 1-1 in attempts this year.
Marcelo, who has looked great at the plate but has little to show for it, rips a ball down the left field line but Fermin in left makes another excellent play — up against that narrow wall at Busch Stadium III that plays almost like Fenway (or Wrigley) — and we move to Carlos Narvaez.
There’s a really good showing by Sox fans in St. Louis tonight, something that’s true wherever they go, but the Cards’ squishy teams in recent years have eroded the home fan base enough the Sox fans are really noticeable. Hard to tell from the crowd that’s full of red. The Sox and Cards’ reds have converged over the years so I can’t really tell them apart anymore. (Also: those classic Cardinals uniforms make yesterday’s City Connects look all the more worse.) The Sox are wearing their alternative red jerseys tonight, a look I also really like for a road uni.
Now Trevor has drawn two throws to first on Narvaez’ AB, and this is a great time to steal. He is indeed running, and Narvaez makes contact the other way into the hole the shortstop created, and it’s first and third. I mean, this is the epitome of old fashioned scientific baseball, which is not what I expected from the Sox this year.
Cedanne rips a first pitch single, Trevor scores, we get our run back! First and secon with one out. Cedanne looking like a steely eyed missile man on that one. Sox 3-1.
Now Roman comes up and the kid really needs a pick me up. Roman come sup medium aggressive and hits another first pitch into center, almost the exact place Cedanne hit it. 4-1!
Possible Alex Cora Questionable Management Call: no Cards lefty up in the pen, Yoshida on the bench, but he sticks with Durbin. That seems like a bad decision. BUT NO, Durbin singles, and Alex proves once again why he sits in the dugout and I sit on my living room couch. RBI, Sox up 5-1, and we’re still at first and second with only one out. AM I GETTING MY WISH FOR A BIG INNING? It’s already a crooked inning and this reliever, Svanson, has nothing nothing on the ball. Duran up now.
Jarren works the count full and fouls off a couple, and IT’S A BASE HIT! It’s a pile on!!! Station to station! All singles!! 6-1 RED SOX!
ANOTHER HIT! Contreras singles in a run, and that’s six consecutive hits! SEVEN TO ONE SOX! Man I’d still like to see a tater her to put the cherry on top in a big way, and here’s Wilyer Abreu. That will chase Svanson and we’ll see a lefty against Wilyer.
New pitcher is Jared Shuster, whom I cannot recall having seen. But he gets Wilyer to ground into what should have been a double play but the aforementioned Shuster is slow to cover and it’s first and third with two outs. Trevor Story back up — we have batted around!!! OUR FIRST BAT AROUND OF THE YEAR! Trevor flies out and that’s it, but finally, finally a nice inning. FIVE RUNS ACROSS! SIX RUN LEAD!
Now instead of Chapman we’re getting Rule Fiver Ryan Watson. It feels like we’ve hardly seen Chapman this year, and yet he has appeared in five games and has three saves (with one blown save, and a loss) this year, just over two weeks in. The impression may be because he’s only had one appearance this week, and that four days ago now.
Nice two strike advantage to Watson on the first batter, and a groundout to third is there for the first out. He gets another grounder on Jose Fermin but it skitters under Story’s glove for a single. I am not cocky about a six run lead: I want a shut down for morale. ANOTHER ground ball on the next batter, not quite hard enough for a DP and we are ONE OUT AWAY. The Cards are shinging like they have dinner reservations.
OH how I wish this was easier to take: Watson hits Nathan Church on the foot, and we have runners on first and second with two outs. Up is Yohel Pozo, whom I love without knowing anything about it, just for his weird name. He grounds to Contreras, and it’s an easy 3-1 out to end the inning. Nice job by young Watson.
Takeaways: fantastic start by Ranger Suarez after a moderately alarming start to the game. The Sox bullpen scuffles a little, but the Sox put together a big station to station inning in the top of the ninth when the Cards had pulled to within one, that scored five runs and made it from a tense game most of the way into a laugher in the box score. I WILL TAKE IT!
Game 13: Red Sox 2 Cardinals 3
No Splashdowns for the Sox
Wherein we blow yet another lead, and still can't get the big inning.
I almost missed the first pitch because I was watching the Artemis II - Orion capsule splash down. Here’s hoping the Sox launch a few moon shots of their own tonight. See what I did there? You’re welcome.
The Cards are wearing simply awful hats, which I take it are part of this year’s City Connect Uniforms. They look like an airport code. I do not know what “The Lou” means on the front of their uniforms. I have never ever heard of this particular city referred to as “The Lou”. “San Loo”, yes. Which would be “Holy Loo” aka “Blessed Toilet” or something like that.
It’s Connelly Early on the mound for the Sox, coming off a mezzo mezzo start after a good first start. Dustin May toes the slab for the Cards, our 2025 bust trade. If May contributed I don’t remember it. 1-4 with a 5.40 ERA and missed September with an elbow injury, only appeared in six games. Maybe fodder for the Craig Breslow lynch mob…
Duran leading off — I think for the first time this season — Durbin (!) in the number two spot, and Yoshida in the three spot. Rafaela in center and batting ninth, Narvaez catching and batting 8th, Story in the six spot tonight.
Ground ball-Ground Ball-Hit Batsman, and I suppose getting a baserunner in the first inning this way counts as a start...of a sort.
Willson Contreras, who was only with the Cards a couple of years, gets a nice ovation from the crowd. St. Louis fans are pretty nice.
Contreras with the ABS challenge on a called strike three in the first inning — and he loses. Inning over, ABS challenges already down to one. Dang it we didn't learn our lesson, after all.
So here we get to see JJ Wetherholt, super prospect, already, leading off. He’s been getting on but has only one XBH (a homer). I have admired this guy, was surprised he went low in the draft, relatively, but he’d been injured and played at West Virginia, hardly a locus for the scouting world. He agreeably flies out to center, and I hope his breakout comes at least three days from now.
Nice play to Contreras on a grounder, he got a really nice underhand sling to get the ball to Story, and Early was covering properly at first and stretching correctly. Didn’t quite turn the double play but a nice one, if not quite a defensive gem.
Jordan Walker is up with a runner on and two outs. He’s been insanely hot, after having literal up and down years. The Cards brought him up really young so it feels like he’s about 30, but he’s still just 23. Maybe one of those guys who had to develop at the major league level. It’s a really hard game to play. Good test for Early….who whiffs him.
Wilyer singles to lead off the second and we have a base runner. That seemed to be May’s undoing last year, in a small sample size. Trevor is…called out on strikes, after fighting off a couple of tough strikes. It was a good pitch across the bottom of the zone. Marcelo really gets a hold of one but it hangs up for a long flyout to the left center gap. He just really seems to be swinging well. Narvaez grounds out on a ball off…the pitcher’s head? No, it’s his hand? Shoulder? Will have to wait for the replay after the break. Weird play but May stuck with it and through out Narvaez pretty easily. We have left our first baserunner on.
I’m annoyed May is reaching 98 on the radar gun, because I don’t recall him doing that in Boston.
Oh dear, Cedanne almost makes another Willie Mays catch, he makes it there, but he doesn’t close the deal and it caroms off the wall for a double. Cedanne’s gold glove chances may have already dissipated. I have said it before but he’s not quite on his game defensively this year. He’s got an enormous gold chain around his neck; I wonder if it’s not aerodynamic or something.
Early walks the number six guy on a 3-1 count and there’s runners on first and second with nobody out. Carlos goes out to talk to the kid, which brings the rest of the infield in for a conference.
Whatever he said didn’t work because after a slider for a called strike he leaves one up for Fermin, who singles and we now have bases loaded and nobody out. Weak hitting catcher and speedy centerfielder coming up.
The kid comes back with a strikeout on a two two pitch, with a fastball up inside. Nice call. Now we can get out of it with a double play.
Well, he sort of gets the job done by getting an out, a lofty but easily fielded middle depth ball to left, no chance at the plate, so Duran throws it to third. Sox down 1-0, two on, two out.
Back around to the phenom Wetherholt and the top of the lineup. I hate it when the leadoff man gets looks in back to back innings to start the game. Early goes to 3-1 on him, maybe a little distracted, and then it’s a bad miss to load the bases again. Time for Andrew Bailey! Howdy, Andrew Bailey. Bailey spend a lot of time waggling his head between Early and Narvaez, so he has to be talking about how to deal with Herrera, who had a very loud long foul ball his last ups.
One of the fine arts of umpiring is knowing how to time breaking up a mound conference. You want to leave them just enough time to finish their business without belaboring it, and arrive just in time for them to break it up on their own. It’s part of the kabuki of a sport without timed timeouts. I had a little routine where I’d turn around and sweep the plate (never put your ass towards the crowd: they actually taught us that in umpire school) and then take a long five count to walk out to the mound. It was as good as a timer clock.
Early comes out with a nice strikeout and gets away with only the one runner scored, His pitch count is up over 40 already , though — 45, actually. Yikes.
Cedanne leads off the third; I always measure the progress of the game when I’m scoring it by how early and often batters get PAs in back to back innings, It is super obvious on the scoreboard, and just looking at that gives you a visual sense of the rhythm of the game. The Sox are on the quick-pace plan. Cedanne grounds out on the second pitch,
Wetherholt, who is that rarity, a top hitting prospect who came up playing second, makes a pretty spectacular spinning move to get Duran on a groundout. Durbin watches strike three on the outside corner — to be fair, it was one of those pitches you can’t do anything about, a looping curve that caught the outside corner — and the Sox are down in the 3rd.
Early gets a one pitch grounder to start the inning, but then is pretty lucky Jordan Walk only gets a single punching it the other way. A pitch to turn on. Runner on one out. Fly out but then he hits the next batter and again he’s in trouble, first and second with two outs.. Early comes back though on the next batter, working him oh two and pinning Fermin to the zone fouling off a couple of pitches, and whiffs him swinging on a nice pitch up and in. This is a lot of pitches — 59 now after three — but he is wriggling off the hook pretty well.
Professional Batsman and Hitter of Designation Masa Yoshida is on base for the second time tonight, this one the easier way on a sharp single. Yoshida hasn’t really been punishing the ball thus far, but he feels like he’s always in his at-bats. Hitting .295 and an OPS of .950.
I gotta take some yucks here: pickoff attempts at first. Masa is pretty savvy but he’s the slowest guy on the team. Maybe they saw those films of him stealing second uncontested last week when the pitcher and catcher ignored him.
Contreras flies out, bringing up AL MVP Wilyer Abreu. Wilyer’s average is all the way down to .396 after taking an Ofer last game. BAM, single, Yoshida the High IQ truck read it all the way and ends up on third. Yoshida runs super upright like he is a video game character. It’s a pleasure to watch.
Trevor Story up, again with runners in scoring position! Down by a run!
Trevor struggles a bit with the at bat but hangs in there and grounds to short. This would normally be a bad play but the contact play is on and Yoshida scores standing up. Tie game 1-1. Wehtherholt at second can’t quite handle the pivot and throws it away, so Story ends up on second with two out. Mayer raps what should have been a double down the line but Burleson, the Cardinals’ first sacker, manages to knock it down, so we have runners at first and third and Carlos Narvaez up.
OOOOO I LOVE THIS. Delayed double steal! Marcelo drew the throw and stops in the baseline, the catcher tries to catch him off the bag on the putative steal attempt, Trevor dashes home, the catcher doesn’t field the throw back cleanly, leaving Marcelo on second and the Sox now up 2-1! Ladies and gentleman, Milwaukee Brewers baseball! Rafaela grounds out softly — he’s seen a total of three pitches this game, to say he’s pressing is an understatement — but I’ll take it. Tag this one has Steals of Home.
May is up to 58 pitches himself, still shy of Early, but they’ve gotten to him and it’s the time of game where he’s going to be at risk of giving up a big inning. We’ll have to wait for the 5th.
Early facing the number 8-9-1 batters this inning. The infographic informs us that there have been only four Sox steals of home in the last ten years, one by Romy Gonzalez last year and three by Duran scattered over the last few years. It is exciting baseball to see them put on a called play like this and get a little league run.
Nice cross footed play by Durbin on a bounder right by third base, one-hopper across the field for the out. Super difficult play. Not quite a defensive gem but a good play. The kind of play your kid pitcher with a high pitch count really needs.
The speedy Victor Scott II has a swinging bunt that might as well have been a designed play, he’s on first place by the time Contreras fields it. This kid is REALLY FAST. I expect to see him on second shortly with one out and the Phenom Wetherholt up for the third time and Early’s pitch count over 70.
Whoa! Contreras fields a ball at first where he slips across the bag in the act of fielding it, but recovers his footing very quickly to get the runner at first unassisted. Two outs and a runner at second now.
The question for the Sox here is whether they get a reliever in there for the fifth or allow Connelly to work in the 80s when he’s missed quite a few pitches (and gotten lucky they weren’t tattooed). I guess they answer that by getting Zack Kelly up and throwing as Connelly goes to 3-2 on the number two hitter. The kid comes back and strikes out the batter on a sweeper at his shoelaces, fifth K, shutdown inning.
Masyn Winn is out of the game to start the top of the 5th, I wonder if getting hit by Early didn’t hurt him in some way.
Check me on last inning, that was Narvaez who was first pitching swinging of the out, and NOW Cedanne is up for first pitch swinging for the out. Forgive me if I had used my psychic powers a bit early.
Duran also first pitch swings for an out, of the pop-up variety. I hope there is a take sign. May looking better for a longer outing than Early is.
Oh dear, more “Coming to America” references by the radio guys. PLEASE DON’T DO DIALECT PLEASE DON’T DO DIALECT PLEASE PLEASE.
Durbin grounds out and it’s a six pitch inning for May. Looking pretty good for a guy with an ERA over 10 on the season.
Early out after one batter, and the relief pitcher Zach Kelly immediately gives up a hit to Jordan Walker. The guy looks like he’s comfortable and has fixed his swing. I will just feel fortunate he didn’t turn all the way on that ball. Early closes out with four and a third, 5 hits, 2 walks, 5 Ks, and one earned run on 86 pitches.
Dave drops yet another Coming to America reference into the banter, and I’m getting tense.
Runner off on a 3-2 cont, but no matter it’s a walk to Ramon Urias and now it’s two on and one out. Saggese, who came in for Winn, batting.
PLBBBT single to left, Duran throws a good ball just in front of the plate but he had no chance. Tie game 2-2 and still we have two on and only one out. That was a bad bad walk to Urias. I felt like Kelly was hurrying his pitch there.
Wild freaking pitch on a 2-2 count and now the force is off with only one out. This is a very very shaky outing by Kelly thus far. Sox bring the infield in. Sac fly to right and it’s a 3-2 St. Louis lead — one of those instances where the pitcher records the out but really didn’t get the job done after being 0-2 on the batter. Fermin looked bad striking out against Early.
Well, that was a bit of a gross inning of relief. Or 2/3 an inning of relief. Two super-earned runs for Kelly, who runs his season ERA up to 8.10. Now we have to get back in it and I take my first peak at win probability: we went from 62% to 34% just like that.
May still in for the sixth, against Yoshida. May’s pitch count at 64. I haven’t seen an ABS challenge in Yoshida’s arsenal yet this year: he’s got such presence at the plate, I wonder if he just declines to do so. In any event this time he grounds out and that brings Contreras to the plate. Willson gets fooled a whiffs and we’re up to AL MVP Wilyer Abreu, who has singled twice, and we need a big fly. OOOOOO he almost gets ahold of one but is just a bit too much under it and it’s a really high pop up on the infield for out three. This has been a bad set of innings for the Sox and I wouldn’t be shocked to see May out there for another inning at only 75 pitches and now dealing with the Sox pretty effectively.
Tyler Samaniego on for his second major league appearance, which makes me sigh with relief Kelly is out of the game. Ooops, sighed too soon: leadoff walk and the leadoff guy up again. Then walks the next guy.
OOOO OOO Carlos Narvaez with a successful ABS challenge by a tenth of an inch! And this helps the kid come back for the K. Flyout — this time Cedanne tracks it down, face forward, right at the wall — and another groundout and he gets out of it.
The Sox go quietly in the top of the inning — 1-2-3 (albeit with one challenge that does not go our way on a play at first) and now we’re down to our last six outs.
Weissert in now for the bottom of the 7th. 1-2-3 with a strikeout, and that’s the Weissert we saw last year.
Dave and Will are talking about Jim Abbott, for what reason I did not catch. I was at Fenway once — in the bleachers, which is where we always sat in those days — and got to watch him warmup from the bullpen. I mean, you know the bullpens at Fenway — you’re ten feet away from the pitcher. I got to see his ball transfer technique close up and it was incredibly smooth. He was pitching well that year as well and he was fantastic that day, throwing a shutout. The internet wayback machine tells me it was August 30, 1989. There’s all kinds of reasons brilliant pitchers have careers that don’t quite work out, but in Abbott’s case it had nothing to do with his disability. He was smooth. He did manage a ten year career, had a WAR of 19+, and got to 1674 IP. His ERA+ was 99 — pretty much the definition of an average player, nearly. But that means he belonged in the majors and I am very glad I got to see him play at his best, even if he did it beating the Red Sox, because he was an excellent pitcher.
Cedanne gets a leadoff double on a liner, and then tags up on a fly ball out to LEFT center, but manages to just barely beat a nearly perfect throw with a headfirst slide. That was a dumb, dumb play until it was a brilliant play. Because, you know, he was safe. Runner at third and one out. Durbin up in a big spot. OK next in line: Durbin gets whacked in the shoulder with the pitch.
Yoshida up, 3-2, but he lets a couple of fat pitches go by and strikes out. That was as bad an at-bat as I’ve seen from him all year, maybe all-time in non-injury years. I want to see him make a big swing. He’s gotten a two run double this year, and has been pesky and effective in getting on, but just doesn’t have much more in terms of hard contact.
Willson up with two out and the game more or less on the line. And…he flies out. Our win probability down to…13%. What a waste of a scoring opportunity.
Jovan Moran now in the game for the Sox.
The TV shows a close up of Caleb Durbin for some reason (I have the audio down and am listening to the radio). He looks for all the world like Clint Howard with a beard.
Pages, the number eight hitter, leads off with a double and as the ball sinks into the left center gap so too does the feeling at the pit of my stomach.
Great break, Scott — who has wheels but not a lot of power — tries to lay down a bunt but pops it up. Top of the lineup again.
JJ Wetherholt is a bubblegum bubble blower. He has one pop right before Moran delivers the pitch. If I’m a pitcher, I wait to time my pitch until that bubble comes out. It has to be distracting, subtly, or at least using up a part of the batter’s brain. Or buzz him, so we can see bubblegum all over his face. Moran does not take me up on my suggestion but does manage to strikeout Wetherholt for the big big second out.
Dave Fleming is off his game. He said Tyler Samaniego was still in the game when it was Moran. Then he said Burleson was pinch hitting, when he has been in the lineup all night. IBB to get to him, lefty on lefty matchup, avoiding Herrera, who has swung angry tonight…
Narvaez occasionally reminds me behind the plate of the great Tony Peña. Not the way he sets up (necessarily) although Tony was a pioneer of the non-squat splay-leg stance. But the way he gestures at the pitcher and gives him subtle corrections with body language. Or maybe it’s just because Moran gets the batter swinging and we move to the top of the 9th.
I have always been sad Tony didn’t get more of a chance to manage in the major leagues. He got four years with a bad Royals team from 2002-2005 (h was fired 33 games into the 2005 season) and went only 198-285. He did manage an 83-79 record in 2003, good enough for 3rd place and maybe in the current era a playoff team. (Maybe). He’s 68 now, I don’t know what he’s up to now, but it seems unlikely he’ll get another shot at it.
Wilyer grounds out to start the 9th. Gerf. Trevor grounds out. It’s up to Marcelo. Roman has moved into the on deck circle, but to pinch hit, Marcelo has to get on base. He strikes out swinging, leaving Roman with not even enough time to get the donut on the bat.
All losses are disappointing, I suppose, but yet again we blew a lead; we had a perfect situation to get some runs and the hitting wasn’t smart at all; we left five runners on base. Zack Kelly blows the lead for the loss, and we are lucky it wasn’t a bigger blowout because Connelly Early was in trouble a lot and we had another runners on first and second and nobody out situation in the 7th we wriggled out of.
Takeaways: the offense is playing flat. Nobody’s getting the gapper hits, much less the big flies, and when Abreu and Yoshida are off that means nobody’s hitting well. Durbin’s batting average is down to .103. Early did OK, considering, but couldn’t go late in the game or even into the middle of the game, and that meant going to the well of the bullpen once again, and we just can’t win games when we have to do that and the bullpen fails. We had a brilliant play on the steal of home and completely wasted it. Ugly loss.
Game 12: Red Sox 5, Milwaukee 0
Age Before Beauty
Our Veteran Outlasts Their Rookie, and the Breaks go the Sox Way for a Change
Disclosure: this is the second game I had to watch on delay this season, because it’s a weekday afternoon. At least this time I was able to keep the result a secret from myself, through…magic. (OK, I inadvertently saw the final again, but that was only halfway through the replay when I wanted to check the lineup.)
Sonny Gray toeing the slab today. I kind of wonder if the woes of the pitching staff — of varying levels of seriousness and grotesquery — are in part the fault of this accelerated start to the season we now have. Yes, yes, they moved up spring training, but it has to have affected the natural flow of the season, particularly with colder weather for the start overall. I know cold air generally favors pitchers, but it also favors muscle pools and stiffening up between innings, and at this point in the season when nobody really went past six innings, that can mean trouble.
I say all that not to excuse Sonny Gray’s first start, but he’s an old man of 36, so it might…explain it.
The Brewers have a rookie starting today, Shane Drohan, and the contrast couldn’t be more stark. Of course the Brewers’ dude is a former Red Sox draft pick. You know that will hurt us. OK I am spreading panic here. On paper this heavily favors us.
A new lineup today: Roman leading off in left, but Andrew Monasterio with his second start, and his first at short, batting second. Then Contreras, Abreu, and Story DHing; Durbin back at third base, Narvaez, Rafaela in center, and IKF at second. This is what you might call a getaway day lineup, not necessarily one optimized by analytics, but what do I know.
Gray gives up a leadoff double to start the game, and the sense of dread is palpable. But he comes back 1-2-3 and looks pretty comfortable. Frelick did kind of poke that ball down the right field line for the double, Still, it’s nice to not even create more trouble this early.
Durbin not looking too good out there again in the second and he provides the kid Drohan with his first major league whiff. Getaway day baseball, indeed.
Uh oh the third has some bumps. Yelich gets a hit with two outs, first and third, then steals second for two guys in scoring position. But Gray looks good: he bears down and gets the strikeout. That was pretty high quality pitching and the side to side on the sweeper really fooled the batter in the afternoon sun.
IKF sac bunt for a HIT! Small ball scientific baseball. And then a GTJD from the leadoff man, Anthony, to get the runners over, hitting to the right side. Walk walk and the kid has his first ML earned run. Keep it coming!!
And it’s our turn today to benefit from weird infield hops! Wilyer is given an RBI single on a bizarre bouncer to second that I call an error all the way, but it was an olé, and the hometown scorer does his part to help Wilyer when arbitration comes up. Remember that speech in Bull Durham? “One hit a week is the difference between a punch and judy hitter and a batting champion.” Sox up 2-0, though, so I’ll take it, and we are still stuffing the base paths. Next batter is Trevor Story, who seems like he comes up with runners in scoring position every other at-bat, and while not doubling in two like he did yesterday, he sac flies, and it’s 3-0 with two out. The 8th man batting in the inning draws a walk and that’s it for the major league debut for Shane Drohan. I’ll take it.
David Hamilton hits a no-man’s land shot to center and Cedanne makes a A GREAT CATCH over his shoulder fighting the sun and wind. Serious Defensive Gem award. And a run saving one at that. We’ll give him a TWOFER with a Run Saving Defensive Play.
Gray continues to work the lineup, retiring 1-2-3 for three innings in a row before giving up a leadoff hitter in the 7th. That’s enough for Alex and he pulls in… WEISSERT. SCARY. WTAF. I guess you gotta go with your guys. He's blown I think forty-two leads this year already. Plus or minus. Weissert bears down and gets the next guy, but then walks the next guy on a 3-2 count.
Did I say walked him? It’s an ABS challenge on ball four by Carlos, who has the second-worst challenge rate in the majors coming into the game, and…it’s a STRIKE! FOR A WHIFF! Our first really good ABS challenge of the year. Ends the inning! I can’t tell you how much joy this weirdo play brings me.
Trevor Story gets an RBI hit stretched into a second base in the bottom of the inning, and then again there’s a weird play in the infield that’s called an inning-ending double play. Sox challenge, and win! And that results in another run, Sox up 5-0! Wow, the breaks are all going our way today!!!
Coming in to pitch is….Tyler Samaniego? who somehow got onto the roster without my noticing, comes in to make his major league debut in the 8th…and gets them in order! Nice debut! Weird how the Sox are running rookies out there in game situations though. Alex brings on Rule 5 guy Ryan Watson in the 9th and he also gets the Brewers in order.
WE WIN! It's a winning streak! Two whole games!! Woot! And we take a series, 2-1, after starting out the series as horribly as one can, blowing two leads.
I looked it up: something wrong with Justin Slaten, who was put on the IL. That is bad news. It’s listed as a minor right oblique strain, which can be major bad news, but the Sox characterize it as minor and expect him to return in the minimum amount of time. He had tightness after his last outing and then started cramping during a workout, so let’s hope this is just an abundance of caution. We had a really good 6th-9th inning lineup in the pen on paper going into the season, but Weissert, Whitlock, and Chapman have all given up blown saves and losses. Only Slaten has been perfecto thus far.
Takeways: Nice win, nice start, nice relief pitching, nice defense, and luck on our side for a change. Sonny Gray looking like the guy we hired, although the afternoon sun and cold weather likely helped the cause. It’s always better to face a rookie pitcher, so we got a favorable matchup. That’s what we needed. I’m sorry we didn’t get any offensive blasts or ten run innings, but the Sox pushed across some station to station runs and then kept on it, and the nice relief pitching from rookies -- and two very timely challenges -- kept us in the lead, and the bottom line is a two-game winning streak is very nice.
Game 11: Red Sox 3 Milwaukee 2
The Sox manage to not blow it despite giving it a strong effort.
Well, the Worst Team in Baseball has one of the best pitchers in baseball going out today, Garrett Crochet, our stopper. Unfortunately we’re up against another of the best pitchers in baseball, Jacob Misiorowski.
Crochet couldn’t get out of trouble against Houston on the road, but it’s cold tonight and he’s playing Fenway. I hate to say it but it’s likely to come down to the Sox defense, and that is a miserable thing to be reliant on thus far. Crochet has to go deep after the Sox bullpen has been taken to the limit the last…well, week, really. It’s been bad. Only the Rays have more errors thus far (14 to the Sox’ 11.)
Lineups: Roman leading off and DHing; Duran in the two hole; Contreras sliding to 3rd and Abreu in the cleanup spot, which I really like; Story in 5th again, after show some signs of life there yesterday; Then Marcelo, Rafaela in center, Connor Wong (who seems to be becoming Crochet’s personal catcher) and finally IKF batting 9th and playing third while Durbin catches some breath.
First pitch 6:45…and it’s 42 degrees. EGADS. Wind chill…33!
Crochet strikes out the leadoff guy and gets number two to fly to right, and then immediately IKF in the lineup pays a dividend, as he has a Defensive Gem to stab a line drive, diving to his right and grabbing it before it could skitter down the line. Saved two bases for sure with a plus play. I’m not going to jinx by saying this is already going better than last night.
The Sox haven’t had more than six runs score in a game, and that in a loss, and haven’t scored more than four in any single inning. Despite the inclement weather and extremely difficult pitching opposition, I’m still hoping for like a ten run inning early. The club needs something.
Sweet jeezus Misiorowski is throwing 100 MPH already. I have no idea how he’s going to be able to sustain this over the course of a season. He had only 125 IP combined between AAA and the majors last year. I guess his getting tired in August does us no good right now.
He whiffs Roman, who at least hung in there, but Duran comes out swinging at high balls, likely because he can’t see them, they’re so fast. And strikes out on a 101 MPH fastball. He’s thrown eight fastballs and ALL of them have been over 100. The difference between a 95 MPH fastball and a 100 MPH fastball is 7.4 feet per second; for even an average height pitcher, you have 375 milliseconds to read and respond to that pitch. My AI friend tells me this is an 8% reduction in effective decision time (245 milliseconds vs. 225 milliseconds.) A really fast major league swing takes 150 milliseconds. That’s how narrow the margin is — a tenth of a second from recognition to commitment. Misiorowski finishes off Contreras on five pitches and, surprise, has struck out the side.
Turang and Yelich are not in the lineup tonight — night off against the tough lefty — so Gary Sanchez is leading off this inning in the clean-up spot, and immediately raps out a hit. Not that long ago Sanchez was the infant terrible of the Yankees, hitting over 30 homers for them while catching. Now he’s a journeyman and playing first tonight as a part-timer and right handed pinch hitter. Crochet gets two ground outs and a whiff and is looking quite effective, and we’re moving fast right now.
Misiorowski has a bit of a Nuke LaLouche feel to him, like he’s going to start losing control anytime soon. I have a long story about a game in high school where we faced a kid who could throw over 90 — which was a LOT back then, especially in high school, but the bottom line is we had only the lack of control and guess swings at our disposal.
The Brewers playing small ball already with Hamilton sacrificing over Blake Perkins, who reached on an excuse-me single just over Marcelo’s glove (nearly dead straight away — great positioning by the Sox, just not good enough on that one.) Garrett comes back with a merely 96 MPH fastball (what a duffer) for strike three on the leadoff guy, Lockdridge, and we are an out away of getting out of a scoring opportunity for Milwaukee.
Wild pitch moves the runner to third, as Connor Wong stumbles going after it, and we’re lucky the runner didn’t come around. Not sure what that pitch was but it was in the dirt on the outside. Crochet comes back and gets Conteras swinging and is out of a little trouble once again.
The Sox get a walk, finally, but immediately ground into a double play. Still a no-hitter and Misiorowski has still faced the minimum.
TERRIBLE play by Trevor Story on a dish to second, forcing Marcelo to make a terrible throw to first. Both runners are safe after the review. This is the sign of two middle infielders who need more drilling. Error called on Mayer, two on and one out, but I think Trevor made a mental error by not just throwing to first or taking the play himself. Fortunately the Sox execute a textbook 6-4-3 double play on a bang-bang defensive play, really nice, as a make-good and Crochet is out of the inning. At least the error by Marcelo didn’t prolong the inning.
Misiorowski continues mowing ‘em down, although we get another contact out, he whiffs the next guy to bring his total to 7. His career high, Dave tells me, is 12, but of course he’s had only 70 or so major league innings.
Nice piece of hitting on a 2-2, two out situation by Willson Contreras, on a low curve outside the zone, to punch it to right field for the first Sox hit of the night. Just a little more oomph and it would have been a double to wall. The Sox are at least getting the kid’s pitch count up, as he’s about to close in on 60. And they’ve got him out of the stretch, which seems to take 2 MPH off the fastball.
Wilyer has worked a full count with two outs, so there’s a nice situation. OH DAMN CALLED OUT ON A STRIKE but Wilyer calls an ABS challenge. And loses. But it was a decent ABS challenge. I think Wilyer’s head is just off the ball there. The hitter is always at a disadvantage on ABS calls because he has the worst angle on the ball of the four parties involved (pitcher, catcher, umpire). Inning over, another K.
Eight Ks through for for Miz, but his PC is now 63.
Crochet has a nifty 1-2-3 inning, PC 74, and we’re at the halfway point.
Misiorowski’s fastball is flagging at 97. I’m kidding, of course. 97 is FAST. Just not as fast as 101.
Trevor grounds out; Marcelo really hangs in there fouling off some pitches, but… is called out on strikes. Number 9. Cedanne works a 3-1 count and then turns on a fastball and gets a sharp single to second for the second Sox hit, and brings Connor Wong up. Connor is 5 for 10 on the season coming into this game. Ooh, the Sox catch a break and a muffed curve hits Connor! First and second, two outs, PC up to 82. IKF up at crunch time: but a weak ground out ends it. At least we’ve gotten a runner to scoring position! Also, we can only strike out 18 times in 9 IP now, so no K records are falling tonight.
Crochet gives up a one out hit, but gets the next guy to fly out to Abreu. Odd mound visit from Connor with a 1-1 count; maybe discussing strategy. Works a great count against Sanchez to 3-2 and gets him called. Sanchez challenges…and loses! A bonus, the Brewers are down to one challenge, just like the Sox.
Mix gets strike three called on Anthony and that’s his 10th K of the game. Roman looking awkward up there.
Duran works to 3-0 on a 91 PC on Miz. Ball 4! Now we are cooking a little, with some wheels out there, and one out, and our big bats coming up…! And…a four pitch walk to Contreras, which brings out the pitching coach to the mound, and Abreu up. They were a little late to get a guy up in the pen. 96 pitches for Misiorowski. Ball one almost hits the bull mascot! The LaLouche comparison is apt, he has just lost it, ten straight balls. Eleven! Not that I would put the take sign on Wilyer…but he has to get the take sign here. Oh, finally, Misiorowski gets a strike. But it’s still three balls. BALL FOUR THE BASES HAVE BEEN WALKED FULL! With that he gets the hook on 101 pitches and three runners on with one out.
Well, of course it’s Trevor Story, with two more guys in scoring position. OH TREVOR COMES THROUGH! On an 0-2 count he rips a double down the line, scoring two! Sox up 2-0. Ball was up in the zone and Trevor swung through it beautifully. Now we need to put up some crooked(er) numbers….
Durbin pinch hitting for Marcelo, going with the matchups against the lefty. AC on tap for a Genius Point. Durbin hits a tapper at the drawn in infield, but the Sox are moving on contact, and the run comes in, two out and three across. 3-0. RBI for Durbin despite hitting the ball about fifty feet. No genius point for AC but we’ll take it.
Cedanne is up and I will use “due” for him, not quite “overdue”. A knock is another run with Story at third. But he grounds out to short.
Well, we’ll take it. All three of those runs are hung on Misiorowski, who took an outstanding outing and turned it into a mediocre one on 13 pitches. I blame the Milwaukee management here: they should have pulled the plug on a low PC outing at this point in the season and taken their chances with the pen. But, as a Sox fan, I will simply cackle with glee and try to forestall my sense of dread going into the seventh.
IKF moves to second, Durbin stays in the game at third.
Abreu makes nice plays even when the balls fall in: the ball could easily have skipped by him into the Brunansky corner, but he one-hops it. Subtle is the art of excellent defense. 90% of the game is half mental.
Bottom of the order, Blake Perkins, who is a fifth outfielder hitting .174 up next followed by our old friend David Hamilton. I doubt Crochet will get more than that. He runs the count to 3-2 on Perkins. AND WALKS HIM DAMMIT. Now we’ve got the bases loaded and one out. They have to go to a leveraged reliever. Hamilton is hard to double off. But…Andrew Bailey goes out there for the mound visit, so Crochet will get at least one more batter.
Hamilton has been working on his bunts, as yesterday proved, so…would he do a safety squeeze?
Well never find out because Crochet hits him and it’s just as bad as walking a guy in. Bases loaded, one out, 3-1. Now Zack Kelly comes on and it’s the top of the order, and Turang and Yelich both on the bench. Crochet can actually still lose this game.
Both starters got pushed a little too far this game, and now we’ll find out if the relievers with inherited runners match up as poorly.
Yelich indeed pinch hitting. He’s hitting .395 with 9 RBI in the second week of the season…
Double play ground ball to Durbin, but he bobbles and stumbles, and can only get the runner at second. Run scores, two outs, 3-2 Red Sox. Durbin really has not looked good out there this year. Our whole left side of the infield, outside of IKF’s stints, has been shaky.
OK, huge huge AB here. Tying run on third, go ahead run on first.
Yelich steals without a play, now two runners in scoring position. 2-1 cont on the younger Contreras. Kelly comes outside with a breaking ball and we’re at 2-2. Huge pitch call here…Contreras takes time, nice tactical choice.
And…it’s a ground to second, very nice play by Trevor! We gave up two…but 3-2 feels like a huge victory given the game situation. We go to the bottom of the 7th with a lead, and Slaten and Chapman on tap. Nice two batter outing by Kelly. Another failure to make a shutdown inning though.
Bottom of the 7th, bottom of the order, 8-9-1. Wong and IKF go quietly and Roman strikes out. Dammit I would have to have at least one lead where we didn’t have to agonized about the bullpen.
Bit of a surprise: Whitlock on again after getting the loss yesterday. But presumably he’s rested after the paternity leave and he is technically our best reliever (sorry Chappy).
TV cuts to Zack Kelly and Garrett Crochet sharing some yuks on the bench. The Brotherhood of Pitchers is strong.
Whitlock induces a leadoff groundout to Rengifo and Gary Sanchez is up in the cleanup spot, whom he whiffs. MUST NOT JINX US MUST NOT JINX US. Joey Ortiz up. Groundout to short! Deftly done by Trevor! 1-2-3 in the 8th! Oh boy. Oh god. Please send us some insurance runs.
Duran, Contreras, and Abreu to open the inning, and that’s as good as we can get unless Yoshida pinch hits. Yes, I said it. Yoshida has an .875 OPS and 3 RBI on the year, which is like a quarter of our RBI. I exaggerate. Maybe not.
Second challenge by the Brewers, and they miss on a ball well high. They are out of challenges! Dumb time to use it up, given they need a run and could use it in the top of the 9th. Count runs to 3-2 with one out and a runner on first…
Gerf, slow grounder, the Brewers get the lead runner, leaving Abreu at first base and two out, and a pitching change for the visitors. Flyout after the reliever comes in and that’s it.
On to the 9th!
Chapman gets the first out on an easy fly ball, and we’re down to the bottom of the order now, with Frelick the number 7 hitter up. But he walks him on four pitches and the tying run is on base. Chapman is terrible at holding runners on so we might as well move Frelick to second.
EXCEPT IT’S A FIRST PITCH SWING AND A DOUBLE PLAY BALL TO TREVOR! WE WIN! WE WIN! WE WIN! 3-2. I am not sure I have ever felt so relieved by a Sox win as I am right now.
TAKEAWAYS: Crochet was back to his game 1 ace form, but he was left out an inning too long. The Sox outlasted an ace in the making who whiffed them ten times, who was left out too long as well. Then they couldn’t get the shutdown inning, but limited the damage and for once at least kept the lead. The defense on the left side has looked shaky but it came up with plays when we needed them. Chapman did what he’s paid for and came up with the save.
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