Yesterday evening, the Red Sox had a chance to get to 51 wins. Instead of capitalizing on that chance, they are left scratching their heads after another game that was easy to win. In somewhat of a surprise, Rick Porcello looked like the guy who won the Cy Young Award last season. His first complete game of 2017, and what does he get for it? His eleventh loss of the season and we’re not even at the All-Star Break yet. Porcello was outstanding, scattering six hits and 2 HBP’s while striking out seven over eight innings pitched. Unfortunately for Porcello, the Rays starter, Alex Cobb, also had one of his best starts this season. Cobb only allowed two hits and one walk while striking out three in his 7.2 innings of work. In relief of Cobb, Alex Colome was shaky, but the Red Sox failed to get anything off of him.
After ending the eighth, Colome loaded the bases while getting the first two outs, including an awful at-bat from Hanley Ramirez to get the second out. In a situation where it looked like Jackie Bradley Jr. would come on to pinch hit for Chris Young, who was 0-3 up to that point and does not fare well against right-handed pitchers. Instead, John Farrell went with Young, and he popped out to short to end the game.
Obviously Manager John does not deserve all the blame for this loss, the Red Sox bats could not do anything against Cobb. Led by David Price, they’ll look to even this series and go into the break with a win while also holding a sizeable lead in the division race.
50 down, ? to go.
Blogging the Red Sox 