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.