Game 8: Red Sox 2, San Diego 3

Your Ace Reliever is Better than Our Ace Reliever
(Weather You Believe It Or Not)

OK we are on a one game winning streak. Let’s make it a two game winning streak. 40 degrees at gametime….I’m curious when the first game in Sox history was played this early in the year. It can’t be more than 20 years ago.

Same lineup and order as yesterday: I think this is the first time we’ve had the same lineup back to back games, although I could be misunderremembering the first series.

First pitch 4:12.

Connelly Early out on the mound, who was the loser in a great start in the extra innings game in Cincinnati. I am always prepared to be disappointed by rookie pitchers yet always incredibly hopeful they’ll be instant contributors and will last the year. He’s got only 230 professional innings coming into this game so managing him in a full season is going to be a delicate art. He had 209 college innings for a combined total now of 440 innings since high school, and that is not a lot of innings for a 24 year old. 

You don’t like seeing Andrew Bailey on the mound in the first, but we had strikeout-walk-strikeout-walk to start the inning. Early is up to 22 pitches already. The closest we’ve come to contact is a foul in the dirt.

Xander gets another nice hand from the crowd, although not a standing O this time, and agreeably pops up to Abreu who makes a bit of a circus catch coming in on the ball. Not clear if the wind is swirling the ball a bit at this point, it was momentarily awkward.

Randy Vasquez is on the mound for the Pad, one of those fastball pitchers who seem like they ought to dominate and end up drifting mid-game into walk trouble and then rallies. The key will be to get that pitch count going early.

And we have our first blown call of the game on a first pitch swing by Roman, who most assuredly did not beat the toss to first that was called safe by the first base umpire. And Roman swinging first pitch. Gerf.

Stat from the MLB feed: Roman is 3 for 22 with 11 strikeouts since his 3 for 3 Opening Day.

The Sox go meekly, on only nine pitches, 6 of them to Jarren Duran.

Felix Fermin is catching today for the Pads (and walks). The Pads had a can’t-miss catching prospect seven years or so ago, Luis Campusano, who is technically the regular catcher this year but hasn’t lived up to the hype and has settled in as a regular but not a great contributor. He’s now got a major league sample of 553 ABs and a .663 OPS to show for it. At 27 it’s time to call him a possible late bloomer but likely a career role player. In the meantime, the monster monster prospect Ethan Salas, who was tearing up the ball in high A at the age of 17 after being an international signee and by some accounts is a mature majors-ready defender, scuffled a bit at the plate the last few years climbing the minor league ladder. Salas was a top 10 prospect a couple of years ago, and this year fell to number 90 on Baseball America’s list and completely off MLB Pipeline’s top 100. He isn’t even listed among the top ten catching prospects in baseball on the Pipeline lists. That is quite a drop…but the kid is only 19. Fickle are the winds of the prospect lists.

ABS challenge by Narvaez and he’s .2” off, it’s really too early to challenge and miss. Sox down to 1 challenge left with eight innings to go.

Early gives up a run on a walk, a Fenway wall single, and two groundouts and it’s 1-0 Padres. Early is throwing a lot of pitches and the wall ball was one of those might-have-been-a-homer-in-another-park balls (I will have to check myself on that later). The worst part of this mini-rally after the first inning is the top of the order comes up again, so he’s going to be seen by the lineup twice pretty early. He does finally whiff Tatis (leading off) a second time to end the inning stranding a guy at third. We got lucky there. I think we may see Zack Kelly today…

Oooh a little rally in the 2nd with a dribbler through the infield by Contreras followed by a walk to AL-MVP-Wilyer-Abreu, which precipitates a mound visit from the catcher. Chad Durbin grounds to third, and it could have been an RBI double, a triple play, or a double play — Manny Machado is a very good third baseman and tries to go around the horn, but Durbin beats it out on the back end. so we are left first and third with one out and Marcelo up. Could have been worse. Durbin hit the ball pretty well. 

Vazquez has thrown twice to first so let’s see if Durbin is going: he isn’t. Durbin runs now and Marcelo really rips the ball, hitting a sac fly deep to center, and we’re tied 1-1 as Contreras scores. I’ll give Mayer the first official GTJD (Got the Job Done) of the year, even though he gets the RBI, it was a really critical game situation with two strikes.

Vazquez has a wicked quick pitch and is timing it well, and gets Narvaez to fly out to end the inning. On to the third. The game is dragging a bit and the ball getting knocked down.

The top of our lineup has remained very quiet this year and as I’m looking at this juncture, Anthony’s OPS is .633, Story’s .353, and Duran’s .538.  Only Mayer and AL-MVP-Wilyer-Abreu have been producers by that measure, and I wonder if Alex will adjust the lineup if the offense doesn’t erupt sometime soon. 

Miguel Andujar, who’s DHing this year is putting up a helluva at bat against Early, fouling off five pitches. I’m surprised Andujar is still in the majors at 31, given how he’s never really had a great season or even a full season after hitting 27 homers for the Yankees as a 23 year old rookie. He did get up to 94 games last year between the A’s and Reds but only homered ten times in 321 AB. But he really rides Early here and is rewarded with a sharp double. Early’s lucky he didn’t get a little under that or it isn’t warmer because that was a home run swing.

And now Connelly’s in trouble again with another walk to Machado, with runners at first and second with one out and the pitch count up to 64, drawing a second mount visit from Andrew Bailey. I haven’t heard or seen of bullpen action yet but it will start if the next runner gets on. 

Man, I do love that Early not only has a nice change-up, he’s not afraid to use it with a three ball count. He didn’t win the battle against Machado but I like the nerve.

Xander really battles against Early but thank goodness he lines out to left field for the second out. This has to be the last batter for him one way or the other. Up to 72 pitches.

Fermin raps the fastball down the line for another double, plating a run but it’s fast enough Duran can get it in to hold the runner at third. 2-1 San Diego. 

I guess the reliever isn’t ready yet because Connelly faces the righty — Ty France, who creamed the ball off the wall. (Radio tells me  now it was a homer in 11 of 30 ballparks, so I wasn’t hallucinating that.) And…there’s nobody up in the pen! I was wrong about that…

The Padres are being dogged and patient with Early — France now on a 7 pitch AB, but fortunately grounds out to let Connelly off the hook. That is 7 hitters reaching out of 17 and 80 pitches. Ryan Watson finally up in the pen, though, as the inning ends with the Sox down a run again.

The wind is gusting in pretty lustily from right field, something evident on a pop out to the second base side, which saw the second baseman sort of circling toward the ball. I think that must be what happened on that play Wilyer made earlier. Roman has seen three pitches….

Oh rats, Rafaela out stealing: good throw and I think he might have gotten in there with the “swim” move but he slid through the bag and they tagged him. Two outs nobody on. Story grounds out and the quietude at the top of the lineup continues.

Will Early be out there? 80 pitches, rookie pitcher with that few professional innings, I hope they make the early move to the pen. I guess this will be a good indicator of the kind of experience they want him to get. Early sure wasn’t as sharp as he was in the first start but — you know, has hung in there despite running up the pitch count.

And he’s out there! The Pads cooperate by swinging early and a ground out a fly out bring us all the way back to the top of the order…and Tatis strikes out for the third time! Wow! That’s an inning we needed, 88 pitches, and that has to be it for the game, but talk about finishing on a high note. I’m sure Tatis will be glad he’s not going to face him again today. All three strikeouts swinging, and I think all three of them on the changeup. 

I know Tatis, Machado, and Bogaerts all have fat contracts but the rest of the Padres lineup isn’t as impressive, Tatis is 27 but Machado and Bogaerts are both 33, so I’m not sure the team can wait for any help from the minors and they likely don’t have enough salary after paying those three guys for any other hitting help. The rest of this lineup today is pretty veteran: Laureano (31), France (31), Cronenworth (32), journeyman fifth outfielder Bryce Johnson (30). And their murderer’s row is spread out 1st, 4th, and 5th. 

Leadoff first pitch hit from Duran to start the inning, let’s see if we can’t even it up. 

Contreras nearly gets one around the Pesky Pole! One of those wrapping Fenway fouls. But then raps into the double play and our good start is eliminated just like that. 

AL-MVP-Wilyer-Abreu (OPS: 1.261) muscles through a hit despite getting absolutely nothing to swing at the at-bat. We have to get him out from in front of Caleb Durbin; how about moving Marcelo up to 6th? Durbin does manage an infield hit to the hole at shortstop, and we have two runners on and two outs with Marcelo up. Marcelo a bit too eager and strikes out on four pitches, weakly check swinging and being rung up. Gerf.

I am reminded that on this same date (uses internet) last year Kristian Campbell was hitting .423 with an OPS of 1.323 and an OBP of .515.  He finished April at .301/407/495/902, signed a fat extension, and was in the minors by June 19th. I hope he makes it back, but Marcelo is occupying his position right now. (We’ll see what happens with Trevor Story down the pike, since Marcelo came up as a shortstop.) 

THE CODEWORD TODAY IS: NINETEENEIGHTEEN.

Watson in to pitch, our Rule 5 baby, to face the 2-3-4 batters.  Come here, Watson, we need you! He retires the first batter but gives up a single to Andujar and walks Machado on four pitches, bringing up Xander Bogaerts. A bit of a tough AB but he managed to get Xander to swing at a curve ball in the dirt for a strikeout. A fly ball to right ends it. 

I’m listening to radio today, but watching on TV, and they seem to be pushing the 50/50 raffle a lot. I wonder how the 50/50 raffle has become such a thing at all levels 

ABS challenge by SD on a ball call, and it wasn’t even close. San Diego now down to one challenge. And on the next pitch, Roman rifles is down into the Brunansky corner, and Tatis dogs it and Anthony turns it into a triple. If the ball had skittered a bit, that might have been the rare corner infield the parker. Good things happen, Roman, when you take pitches. He saw twice as many pitches that AB as he did the first two plate appearances combined.

Runner on third with two outs: we could really use a pickup from Trevor Story at this point. Not today: groundout to third, after he let a really fat pitch go by earlier in the AB. Still down 2-1 after five and we’ve now rounded the mark into the last half of the game.

Watson starting out the top of the sixth with 22 PC. He gives up a loud out to right: And Coloumbe comes in to relieve. Coloumbe is a 12 year veteran, 36, and Boston is his 7th stop, but he looks like a Craig Breslow special. He’s been an up and down role lefty but has a good K/9 ratio of just below 9 (8.85; he’s a five strikeout inning from making it an even 9.0). I honestly can’t remember ever seeing him pitch before his first appearance this year, which was a four batter mop up in Cincy with two baserunners given up and only two outs, but…he exudes veteran wile. He gets the last two batters and we move on to the bottom of the 6th.

Memo to Dave Fleming and Will Middlebrooks and the radio producer: you are walking a fine line in imitating characters from “Coming to America” in dialectic accents, and I am pretty sure you are over it. If I have to explain it you should stop immediately and never do it again. 

Oh, Contreras nearly gets it into the bullpen but Tatis gets the ball on the fly — great, great catch. I didn’t think he had a chance but he closed directly to the ball. Maybe without the wind coming in that gets out. But Wilyer grounds out now and we are out of the sixth 1-2-3 just like that.

Justin Slaten coming on to relieve in the 7th, and Alex is playing this now like the one run game it is. I expect we’ll see Chapman in a tie game, if we get that far, but without Whitlock I wonder if they’ll go to Weissert in the 8th. 

One thing I hate about TV vs. being in person at Fenway is the fly balls. In the park you can judge the high can of corn pop up to Duran in left for the second out: on TV it looked like it was going out. 

Andujar doubles with two outs to bring Machado to the plate. I’d be perfectly comfortable with giving him his fourth walk of the day in this situation. 

Machado hits a long loud foul ball that gets to the very last row of the upper deck just inside the line. WHEW. 

Oooo! New fan behavior! Fans tapping their heads asking for the appeal on a close pitch! Gotta love it. It was inevitable. We move to a full count with two outs. Slaten better not give him anything to hit here.

Oh, Slaten induces a groundout to third! Inning over. Time to stretch my seventh inning….!

Reliever on for the Padres. Vazquez really had  good game and stands in line for the win at this point (SPITS AND CROSSES FINGERS). We need to strike in the next two innings before Mason Miller gets in the game. More on THAT dude if and when we get there. 

Marcelo with one out really jacks the ball but it’s just getting beaten down by the wind, and what looked like a wall homer ends up as an easy fly ball. The sox are going to have to play small ball to pull this out, methinks.

Narvaez then launches one to center and straightaway the ball just settles into the CFer’s glove and it’s an easy third out.

As I had prognosticated earlier, Zack Kelly makes his season debut i the 8th while Chapman warms up. I expected Kelly in earlier but I guess they just slid Kelly into Whitlock’s role as well as his roster spot. 

Kelly has just amazing stuff and it remains odd that he hasn’t been able to stick in the bigs. He’s a minor league veteran, but a one-club veteran (well, two, but he came over from the A’s after just his initial year in the minors).  He has fantastic minor league numbers. I’d kind of like to see him stick and be a fixture in the pen. He makes very short work and we go to the bottom of the 8th. One more inning until we get into Mason Miller territory. Already we have to face Morejon. Cedanne and then the top of the order.

Oh, and what a lovely start to the inning! Cedanne beats out an infield hit, and Roman has a fantastic at bat and rips another one into right, Cedanne hustling to third, and it’s first and third and nobody out. The Padres play back on Story, and he really has to get the ball in play. Time for a GTJD. This is one of those rare opportunities to get a GTJD on a double-play ball. Trevor has grounded out three times, so — you know — more of the same would be fine. 

Oh dear sweet sassy molassie. Story whiffs on a 2-2 count and…

Alex pinch hits for Duran! Andrew Monasterio for the righty matchup on Morejon. No counter move by San Diego with Miller — too early in the year for a five out save. Alex Cora on deck for a Genius Point.  Lots of strategic options here — suicide squeeze? 

Nope, Monasterio goes to 1-2 on a foul, and we’re looking at a tense situation now, if it wasn’t tense before. We still have this batter to get a ball into the outfield for a sac fly. I do like Monasterio’s approach at the plate. He keeps fouling them off, working to 9 pitches. 

Oh, put the ball in play, good things happen! What looks like a double play ball back to Morejon, and he turns on the ball and the transfer at second is dropped and Monasterio beats it out and we’re tied. The radio guys point out Anthony would’ve been safe if he had stayed on the base, but he abandoned the base path and thus the Sox couldn’t appeal. I hope Roman gets a talking-to about this. 

That said, this was definitely a team run! I’ll take it. But a lead and a wide open rally would have been nice. A GTJD for Monasterio, but no AC Genius Point, since it didn't work entirely as was optimal.

Contreras now up in a 2-2 game with two outs and some speed on first. Chapman up in the pen in earnest. I love that guy’s preparation, but he takes as long warming up as Lee Smith did walking in from the bullpen. (Lee walked in veerrrrryyyyy sloooooooowlllyyy.) Contreras works the count 3-2 but strikes out on.. you got it, the changeup. A good changeup in the era of 100 MPH pitches is probably the number 2 pitch in an arsenal.

Monasterio, by the by, wears athletic glasses, which you don’t see much these days. 

On to the 9th! Chapman appearing in back to back games for the first time this season.

Chapman gets the first two batters quickly and Fernando Tatis comes up already wearing the golden sombrero. I wonder how often players strike out five times in a nine inning game?

DAMMIT I JINXED US. Tatis doubles to center. 113 off the bat. Yikes. Up and away on the pitch, too. 

DAMMIT Chapman gives up a single, ball gets by catcher, the runner gets to third, we’re down by 3-2. That’ll be a hit, RBI, and error. That ball really should have been cut off, they had no chance with Tatis and could have been out of the inning by getting the runner at second. The next batter pops out to short to make it moot, but this was a disappointing turn of events, as the Sox now indeed have to face Mason Miller.

So Miller was traded over from the A’s last year, and is maybe the best reliever in baseball right now, with four years of club control remaining. The Padres did have to give up Leo de Vries, considered by some to be the best prospect in the game or at least one of them, and some other non-throw-in prospects, but I think it was a brilliant trade on their part and weak tea from Oakland. Oakland could have an elite closer for years to come and still been able to trade him away in 2029 if it came down to that. De Vries is an amazing prospect, but no prospect is can’t miss. 

Abreu leading off the bottom of the inning. He whiffs, because a 101 MPH fastball followed by a changeup just isn’t a fair matchup. Yoshida pinch hits for Durbin. He also whiffs. We’re now down to Marcelo and our final ups. I hope Marcelo takes a couple and then guesses on the fastball….but he loses the battle as Miller strikes him out on a slider. That is now 8 strikeouts in ten outs on the year for Miller, and the Sox lose 2-3

TAKEAWAYS: The Sox were cold today — literally and figuratively with 40 degree temperatures and a brisk wind coming in towards home plate. Early leaves early, but really gets away with a lot of baserunners by giving up only two runs. The relief pitching was quite good until it wasn't. The Sox battled back in the bottom of the eight but Chapman couldn’t provide a shutdown inning. This was a good game to watch but painful to lose, and if we weren't off to a horrible start I'd've taken things in stride and just brushed off this game, but we aren't, and I can't.