I’ll be honest, I did not stay up to watch how this game ended. I had a class at 8:00 this morning so I shut my TV off after the final out of the twelfth inning. What I saw before that was not great. Eduardo Rodriguez was good, but the offense did nothing for him, against a starting pitcher with an ERA north of 5. In the six innings he pitched, the lefty scattered two runs on six hits while walking one and striking out eight. The only real costly mistake ERod made came in the sixth, when Kendrys Morales took him deep and gave the Blue Jays a 2-0 lead. The pitch count was high, so he was done after six. In the 20 games he has started this season, none of them have been for more than six innings, which is a shame because he has been good in a solid amount of those starts. In relief of ERod, the bullpen did a great job in holding the Blue Jays to nothing. In a combined 13 innings of work, we saw Joe Kelly, Addison Reed, Craig Kimbrel, Brandon Workman, Austin Maddox, Heath Hembree, Robby Scott, Blaine Boyer, Fernando Abad, CARSON SMITH, and Hector Velazquez all record at least one out and hold the Jays to zero runs. In his first appearance with Boston since July 18th, which was another marathon game against the Blue Jays, Velazquez racked up his third win of the season. Like I said, I was asleep so I din;t see this or Carson Smith make his 2017 debut. I seriously doubt there will be a game today with the rain that’s coming in so I guess I’ll have to wait and see when Smith will make his next appearance. All and all, a great performance from the pitching staff against a team that’s had a down year offensively, but still has the capability to score runs in bunches.
Offensively, the Red Sox looked lifeless for the duration of this game. Marco Estrada, who had an ERA of 5.23 going into this one, looked like the 2015 version of himself with the way he pitched last night. He held the Red Sox to nothing in the seven innings he pitched, and it wasn’t until the ninth when the Red Sox scored. With Roberto Osuna pitching, an Andrew Benintendi leadoff walk and a Mookie Betts double put runners on second and third with no outs. Hanley Ramirez drove in Benintendi on a ground out to third, and Mitch Moreland drove in Betts on a groundout to second. That run tied the game, and the score stayed that way for another ten innings. In the 19th, another double from Betts led to a Hanley Ramirez walk-off single, giving the Red Sox the W. It certainly wasn’t pretty, but I think most Red Sox fans will take it given the way the team has been playing lately.
The rain should postpone the game tonight, but if they are to play, Doug Fister would make the start against Joe Biagini. The Yankees lost late last night to the Orioles, so the Red Sox lead in the division grows to 3.5 games.
78 down, 12 to go.
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