After his worst start since 2015, Rick Porcello was looking for a bounce back performance on Wednesday. Once again, the Red Sox were down early, as the Blue Jays scored three times in the second. Porcello can’t be blamed for those runs, all three runs he gave up were unearned. Errors from Pablo Sandoval and Mitch Moreland along with RBI hits from Darwin Barney and Ezequiel Carrera led to the Jays scoring those runs. Porcello would settle down after the second, finishing his outing with five shutout innings. Porcello gave up six hits, one walk, and five strikeouts while surrendering three unearned runs in seven innings pitched. It certainly wasn’t an outstanding start, but getting a quality start after giving up eight earned runs to the Tampa Bay Rays is pretty good. The only other pitcher to appear for the Red Sox in this game was actually Eduardo Rodriguez, who just came off the paternity list. A 1-2-3 inning is good to see as Rodriguez prepares for his next start on Sunday in Baltimore.
The Red Sox offense could not get anything going on Wednesday. Pablo frickin Sandoval was the only player in the lineup that got more than one hit. Sadly, Mookie Betts struck out for the first time in the regular season since last September, going 129 Plate Appearances in between strikeouts. The Red Sox also failed to record an extra base hit tonight, which would not be surprising to me if that was the first time this happened all season. Catcher Sandy Leon has cooled off, going 0 for 3 tonight watching his batting average dip to .243 on the season. It will be interesting to see how the catching situation continues if Leon continues to struggle at the plate. With Christian Vazquez still hitting .563, John Farrell may look to give him more opportunities at the plate.
9 down, 85 to go.
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