We Are All April Fools
The fools your mother warned you about. The fools who believed in hope.
We're going to start out with some fun trivia. This is the sixth time the Sox have played a regular season game on April 1st. The previous games were 2013 (Yankees, 8-2 win); 2018 (Rays 201 win); 2019 (A's, 0-7 loss); 2023 (Orioles, 908 win); and 2024 (A's, 9-0 win). So yes we were 5-1 on April Fool's Day heading into today's game.
So..this is a must win, right? Crochet on the mound, four game losing streak, on the verge of being swept? I mean it’s hard statistically to call anything in April, much less April 1st, a must-win game, but let’s face it, starting the year five games back a week into play, it’ll be a lot harder to make up the ground. It’s a week back in the standings.
This full confession: yes, I have a day job, kinda. This is thus the first game of the year I watched on delay/repeat broadcast, and unfortunately I had the results leaked to me in advance, so I’m not going to belabor today’s game too much. Our worst fears lie in anticipation, perhaps (Balzac), but our worst memories are of being swept by the Astros to go 1-5.
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Roman is getting the day off, as I had prognosticated after the golden sombrero yesterday. Carlos Narvaez was scratched from the game, and there’s no word before the game (or after, as it turns out) as to why.
Duran starting off with a base hit is a good sign, and we get ducks on the pond in the first with Yoshida taking a walk (stop me if you've heard that before), and an RBI single by Contreras, we are all of a sudden looking a lot better than we have in...a week. This is our first lead since…Opening Day? Really? Egads. But it’s only one run. We aren’t getting the big hits yet. 1-0 Red Sox.
Yordan Alvarez continues to torture us, doubling in the first. He is in double digit doubles against us, so it seems. Rafaela couldn’t make the play on Paredes on the next play, so we are already in hot water, and I feel like he made that play last year but the Gods are against us rightnow. Then Story makes a really bush league error (continuing his defensive woes) and puts runners on the corner, and the floodgates open up on Crochet already. Mound visit already in the first inning. 25 pitches for Crochet in the first, saved only by Cedanne making a great running catch in the gap for the third out. That saves two runs and a three run deficit coming out of the first inning. 2-1 for the Houstons is bad enough. (We’ll call it 1 for 2 for defensive gems in center.) We’re always better when Cedanne is out there, and it’s unrealistic to expect him to make every play, but given where we are and Houston’s arsenal, it still stings when he doesn’t make them all.
The Sox stage a mini rally in the third on ground balls and get one run across but leave two on. Sox 2 Stros 2.
Burrows, the Houston pitcher, is looking like Crochet. Literally. He’s got the same beard. But pitching like Crochet did on Opening Day. So figuratively as well.
The boys leave two more stranded in the third, and the LOB count is already giving me PTSD.
The Sox keep getting guys on, which is good, but they’re quiet hits. Durbin strikes out, looking terrible, in a key hitting situation with two outs and two in scoring position, leaving two more stranded in the fourth and our LOB count already at six in the bottom of the fifth.
Correa then whacking a three-run homer off Crochet in the fifth feels like it’s already a nail in the coffin. This is not what we needed from our ace. 5-2 Astros. They tack on a solo shot to make it 6-3.
The Astros prevent an infield hit in the 7th that any runner on the Sox other than Yoshida would have beaten out. Yoshida isn’t slow, but he isn’t fast. Great play by the third baseman though, credit where credit is due. If I still watched Sports Center — is that still on the air? — I’d call that a Sports Center highlight.
The Astros relievers rise to the occasion in the next three innings, giving up just two runs. First, AL MVP Wilier Abreu homers again — with nobody on. Astros 6, Sox 3.
Whitlock makes a money pitch in the 8th with the bases loaded to get a called third strike on Christian Vazquez. Any other Astro hitter would have likely ripped at that. But the fact the bases were loaded isn't exactly jolly good news.
Anthony appears in the game, pinch hitting in the 9th; and hits a solo shot, so it’s 6-4 and there’s a good sign. But it's not enough as the rest of the inning goes by quietly.
And…the Sox get swept. Now 1-5 on the season. We are officially on a five game losing streak, which is a losing streak that is at least but not limited to five games.
Takeaways: well, the Sox got plenty of hits, and they got two big flies, but they did not put those two features of a productive offense together, and they flailed in two out runners-on situations. They left seven men on base — of which five were left in scoring position. I don’t need them to produce every time, but two hits in this game would have given it quite different complexion. Garrett Crochet looked flat, and the lack luster play behind him didn’t help.
Such is the stuff of which fools, and losing streaks, are made of.
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