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.