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.