For the first time in their history, the Red Sox are American League East Champs following a 11-6 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday night.
It certainly was not easy, and they were trailing up until the seventh inning, but thanks to the combined efforts of Steven Wright, Jackie Bradley Jr., Xander Bogaerts, and Mookie Betts among others, the Red Sox get the job done for their 104th win of the year.
Wright earned his third winning decision with three scoreless frames of relief from the fifth up until the seventh, Jackie Bradley Jr.’s 13th home run of the season tied this contest up at six runs a piece in the seventh inning,…
For Betts, that was his 30th big fly of the season, which is one shy of his career-high of 31.
Other offensive contributions from Boston in this one include RBI singles from JD Martinez and Betts in the first and second, a solo shot off the bat of Brock Holt in the third,…
Eduardo Rodriguez struggled in his 23rd start of the season with a career-high seven walks in less than four innings pitched, but Masahiro Tanaka had his fair share of difficulties on the other side as well.
To wrap this division-clinching win up, Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel came on in a nonsave opportunity, and he officially closed the door on the Yankees’ division hopes with a scoreless ninth.
Now it’s on to Cleveland for a three-game set against a first place Indians team set to begin Friday night, but before that, in the words of the great Dennis Eckersley, “It’s time to party.”
Entering Wednesday as one of the hottest pitchers in the American League since the All-Star break, all eyes turned to David Price to see how he would fare in a place he has seemingly struggled in since he joined the Red Sox two seasons ago.
Making his second start in the Bronx this season, the left-hander, albeit it was not all on him, had his fair share of difficulties once again to continue this frustrating pattern.
Pitching into the sixth inning of yesterday’s contest, Price surrendered six runs, four of which were earned, on five hits, three of which were home runs, while tying a season-high in walks with four of them on the night. He also struck out just two batters.
To make matters worse, some of this damage could have been avoided if it were not for Eduardo Nunez’s defensive blunder at third base in the second inning.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Yankees slugger Aaron Judge appeared to have recorded the final out of the frame on a routine ground ball to third base. Instead of fielding it though, Eduardo Nunez, who was making his first start at third since exiting last Thursday’s game against the Blue Jays with right knee soreness, misplayed the hop and let the ball roll to left field.
Shades of Bill Buckner?
Aaron Judge grounds one under the legs of Eduardo Nunez and TWO runs score!
That allowed both Gary Sanchez and Luke Voit to come around and score, and instead of escaping the bottom of the third trailing by a lone run, Price and the Red Sox found themselves down by three.
Things would not get easier for the Tennessee native after that mishap though, and that was mostly due to the efforts of Yankees first baseman Luke Voit.
Voit, who had only faced Price three times before Wednesday, ripped dinky home runs in two of the three at bats he had against him.
Miguel Andujar homered off of Price in the first inning as well, meaning that in two starts at Yankee Stadium this season, the 33-year-old has served up EIGHT home runs to Yankees hitters over just 8.2 total innings pitched.
For what its worth, the three home runs last night traveled 340′, 341′ and 343′ respectively. Not exactly moonshots.
And I know we like to complain about the ridiculous dimensions that ballpark has, but it’s still concerning to see one of the better pitchers in the American League struggle so much in one specific place.
Dating back to when he signed with Boston prior tot he 2016 season, Price has made six starts in a Red Sox uniform at Yankee Stadium over a three-season span. In those starts, he has given up 35 runs (33 earned) on 52 hits (13 home runs) and 13 walks to go along with 16 strikeouts over 30.1 innings of work. That’s good for a 9.87 ERA.
Just this season alone, opponents are slashing .342/.400/.976 off the former first round pick when he pitches at Yankee Stadium.
The good thing is Price won’t have to pitch a Yankee Stadium again, at least for the remainder of the regular season.
Falling to 15-7 with his ERA jumping up to 3.53 ERA on the year following a blowout 10-1 loss, Price will look to get back on track in his second to last start of the regular season, which will come against the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox will look to clinch the American League East once again later tonight, as they send Eduardo Rodriguez out to take on Masahiro Tanaka and a 93-58 Yankees team.
First pitch of the series finale in the Bronx is scheduled for 7:05 PM ET Thursday.
After splitting the first two games of this three-game series against the New York Mets over the last two days, the Red Sox looked to head into an off day with their second consecutive series victory and 103rd win of the season on Sunday.
Making his 25th start of the season and second since returning from the disabled list on Tuesday, Chris Sale took the mound at Fenway Park for his second ever appearance against the Mets.
Pitching three full innings in this one as planned, the left-hander held New York scoreless while allowing just one hit and zero walks to go along with a single strikeout on the afternoon.
Facing the minimum nine batters thanks to a caught stealing in the top of the second, Sale needed 42 pitches (27 strikes) to complete the three frames of work.
Out of those 42 pitches, the Florida native threw 20 four-seam fastballs, 11 sliders, seven changeups, and four two-seam fastballs, which resulted in a total of six swinging and eight called strikes.
He also topped out at 96.8 MPH with that four-seamer in the first inning.
Lowering his ERA on the season down to an American League best 1.92 with this solid performance to wrap up the weekend, Sale will look to ramp it up to four innings in his next time out, which will come against the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland this upcoming Friday.
In relief of Sale, the Red Sox bullpen was responsible for the final six innings of Sunday’s win, but nothing certainly came easy for them.
Entering this contest first with a fresh three-run lead to protect, Hector Velazquez, who was scratched from his previous start with illness on Friday, tossed a scoreless fourth inning.
Drew Pomeranz was next up, and after retiring all three batters he faced in the fifth, surrendered the first two Mets runs of the day in the sixth while recording the first two outs of the inning.
Heath Hembree cleaned up Pomeranz’s mess in that top half of the sixth, but failed to record an out in the seventh by walking one and hitting another.
Joe Kelly, like Hembree, did manage to clean up a bit of a sticky situation in his 69th relief appearance of the year, but not before allowing one of the inherited runners to score on a two out Amed Rosario RBI single.
From that point on, Brandon Workman worked a scoreless eighth inning to keep this thing tied at three runs a piece, and after his team jumped out to a 4-3 advantage in their half of the eighth, Steven Wright came in and picked up his first career save with a clean ninth.
On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against arguably the best pitcher in the National League in the Mets’ Jacob deGrom, who entered Sunday with a miniscule 1.71 ERA over 29 starts this season.
After failing to reach base once through the first two-plus innings of this one, it was Rafael Devers who got a huge bottom of the third started by ripping a one out single back up the middle to center field.
One Christian Vazquez single later that allowed Devers to advance all the way to third thanks to a little hit-and-run action, Mookie Betts drove in the first run of the afternoon with a 380 foot sacrifice fly to center field that plated Devers and made it a 1-0 game.
With one out and one runner on, the red-hot Brock Holt came to the plate, batting in the two-hole for a change, and came through with yet another game-changing hit, a two-run home run sent 402 feet to the Red Sox bullpen.
For Holt, just his fifth big fly of the season, and for deGrom, just the 10th homer he has given up all season.
A las, that was all the Red Sox could get off of New York’s ace, and it was not until the eighth when they would get on the scoreboard again.
Tied at 3-3 now, Andrew Benintendi came to the plate with one out, Tzu-Wei Lin at third following a leadoff double, and Seth Lugo on the hill for the Mets.
On the second pitch he saw from Lugo, Benintendi al but sealed the deal in this one with an RBI sac fly to center that was more than good enough to plate Lin from third for what would end up being the game-winning run.
Some notes from this 4-3 win:
Injury-related: Mookie Betts had to leave this game in the sixth inning with left side soreness after making an awkward throw home in right field, but he should be good to DH in New York on Tuesday, per Alex Cora.
Through 150 games, the Red Sox have a winning percentage of .687.
Brock Holt is hitting .400 with two home runs and seven RBI in his last five games.
Chris Sale has not surrendered an earned run in his last 25 innings pitched, which dates back to July 11th.
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The magic number for the Red Sox to clinch their third consecutive American League East title now stands at two games, meaning they could be crowned division champs at Yankee Stadium for the second time in the last three seasons.
All that is needed for that to happen is one win in the team’s next three games against the Yankees, which will take place after an off day on Monday.
Starting pitching matchups for that upcoming series go as follows:
9/18: RHP Nathan Eovaldi (5-7 4.22 ERA) vs. LHP JA Happ (16-6 3.75 ERA)
9/19: LHP David Price (15-6 3.42 ERA) vs. RHP Luis Severino (17-8 3.46 ERA)
After looking lifeless in a series opening 8-0 loss to Noah Syndergaard and the New York Mets on Friday night, the Red Sox looked to get back on track with Rick Porcello on the mound this afternoon.
Making his 31st start of the season on Saturday and coming off an outing in which he gave up four earned runs in less than six innings against the Houston Astros this past Sunday, Porcello had himself a solid day against the team he grew up a fan of.
Pitching five full innings in this one, the right-hander surrendered three earned runs on just two hits, one walk, and one HBP to go along with five strikeouts on the evening.
As it so happens, those three runs given up by Porcello came on one swing of the bat from New York, when with one out and runners on first and second, Brandon Nimmo ripped a three-run homer to the Red Sox bullpen that put the Mets up 3-1 in the fourth.
Fortunately, the New Jersey native remained composed, buckled down, and sat down the final four hitters he faced to end his outing on a more positive note.
Finishing with a final pitch count of 88, Porcello may not have gone the six innings Red Sox manager Alex Cora had planned for, but he did throw strikes 70% of the time on Saturday.
Out of those 88 pitches, the 29-year-old turned to his slider a total of 36 times, which resulted in six swinging strikes and four called strikes. He also topped out at 93.4 MPH with his four-seam fastball in the second inning.
Improving to 17-7 thanks in part to the four-run rally his team put together in their half of the fifth inning, Porcello will take his 4.30 ERA and impressive record into his next time out, which should come against the Cleveland Indians sometime next weekend.
In relief of Porcello, the Red Sox bullpen bounced back from an all-around awful performance last night by combining for four shutout frames today.
Bobby Poyner, Steven Wright, and Ryan Brasier all picked up holds from the top of the sixth to the middle of the eighth while Craig Kimbrel recorded his 41st save of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against Mets rookie right-hander Corey Oswalt, who entered Saturday with a 6.62 ERA in 15 appearances (10 starts) with New York this season.
Starting the scoring right away in the first inning for Boston was Xander Bogaerts, whose one out RBI single plated Mookie Betts from third and put his team up early.
Fast forward to the fifth though, after the Mets had jumped out to a two run advantage of their own, and it was Steve Pearce who got a huge inning for the Red Sox started by grounding a two out single back up the middle.
One Ian Kinsler single and Mets mound visit later, it appeared as though Jackie Bradley Jr. had come through with the biggest hit of the game up to that point, a three-run home run off of Paul Sewald that would have put his team up 4-3.
Crew Chief reviews call that Jackie Bradley Jr. hits a home run in the 5th; call overturned, no home run.
Instead, after a rather lengthy umpire review, the home run was instead ruled a two RBI double, which did not and still does not make too much sense.
Nonetheless, with this game now tied, an intentional walk of Rafael Devers and a pitching change that saw RHP Drew Smith take over for Sewald set up Brock Holt in another pinch-hitting spot, as he came to the plate in the place of the struggling Sandy Leon.
On the first pitch he saw from Smith, Holt drilled a two-run double 406 feet to left center field like the pinch-hitting specialist he is.
That was good enough to drive in both Bradley Jr. and Devers, and just like that, the Red Sox had a brand new 5-3 lead. A lead they would not have to look back from en route to their 102nd win of the season.
From @RedSox: As a PH this season, Brock Holt is 5/13 (.385) with two doubles, one triple, two home runs, and seven RBI.
In his last 30 games, Xander Bogaerts is slashing .324/.377/.532 with four home runs and 22 RBI. His 94 RBI on the season are a career high.
In six relief appearances this month, Craig Kimbrel is 4/4 in save opportunities. He has not given up a run nor a hit in those six appearances.
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Going for the series win and win number 103 tomorrow afternoon, it will be a starting pitching matchup that features two frontrunners for the Cy Young in their respective leagues.
For New York, RHP Jacob deGrom will bring a National League leading 1.71 ERA into his first ever start at Fenway Park.
In one previous start against the Red Sox, which took place in 2015, deGrom held Boston to two runs on four hits and two walks over six innings at Citi Field.
Opposite deGrom will be Chris Sale for the Red Sox, who also leads his league in ERA at 1.96.
Per Alex Cora, Sale is expected to ramp it up to three innings of work tomorrow, then the bullpen will take it from there.
And in case you haven’t seen it yet, deGrom took Sale deep while the two were in college back in 2010. Not like it matters much in an American League ballpark though.
First pitch of the series finale is scheduled for 1:05 PM ET Sunday.
Following a historic Wednesday night in which they saw their win total reach 100 for the first time since 1946, the Red Sox went into Thursday looking to complete the series sweep in their last game against the Toronto Blue Jays this season.
Making his 22nd start of the year on Thursday, Eduardo Rodriguez looked much better than he did in his last time out against the Houston Astros, an outing in which he surrendered five earned runs in less than four innings.
Pitching six full frames in this one, the left-hander allowed just one Toronto run to cross the plate while scattering five hits and zero walks to go along with seven strikeouts on the night.
That lone run came in the top half of the third inning, when with two outs and a runner at second, Blue Jays first baseman Justin Smoak grounded an RBI single up the middle to drive in Lourdes Gurriel.
Fortunately for the Red Sox, Rodriguez bounced back after that by retiring 10 of the final 11 hitters he faced, including a four pitch strikeout of Randal Grichuk with two outs in the sixth, to wrap up his evening on a more positive note.
Finishing with a final efficient pitch count of 78 (52 strikes), the Venezuela native, who was caught by Christian Vazquez once again, had a more solid pitch mix than he did this past Saturday.
Out of those 78 pitches, Rodriguez threw 17 changeups, 16 two-seam fastballs, 16 sliders, 16 four-seam fastballs, and 13 cutters, which resulted in a total of nine swinging strikes and 17 called strikes.
He also topped out at 93.9 MPH with both the two and four-seamer in the third and fifth innings.
Unable to pick up a well-deserved winning decision despite leaving with his team ahead, Rodriguez did manage to lower his ERA on the season down to 3.53 in his third start since returning from the disabled list.
He’ll look to build on this solid outing in his next time out, which should come against the New York Yankees sometime next week.
In relief of Rodriguez, the Red Sox bullpen was responsible for the final three innings of Thursday night’s contest with a two run lead to protect.
Ryan Brasier was first up for the seventh inning, and he retired the only three hitters he faced in order. That was fine, but what happened in the eighth was not.
Bobby Poyner, who has seemingly been paving his way for a spot on any postseason roster with his performance as of late, made one mistake pitch to Lourdes Gurriel, who hit his eighth home run of the season to make it just a one-run game.
The left-hander did manage to record the first two outs of the frame along with that homer, and Joe Kelly was next up after him.
Kelly, who had already surrendered runs in two appearances this month alone, could not record the inning-ending out.
Instead, he loaded the bases on one walk, one single, and one HBP before allowing the tying run to cross the plate on another HBP.
Out of the 15 pitches Kelly threw on Thursday, only FIVE of them went for strikes.
Brandon Workman would have to enter this one with two outs and a Blue Jay on every base, but he was able to escape the jam by fanning Billy McKinney on three straight strikes.
After the Red Sox retook the lead at 4-3 in their half of the eighth inning, it was Craig Kimbrel’s time to shut the door on Toronto for the final time in 2018.
Making his second appearance in as many days, the flame throwing closer needed just eight pitches to retire the side in order, earning his 40th save of the season.
On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against Blue Jays right-hander Sam Gaviglio, who only allowed one run in 3.1 innings pitched in his last start against Boston on July 14th.
For the second consecutive night, the bats were not all there, but they really didn’t need to be thanks to a pair of home runs.
That first homer came in the bottom of the second, when JD Martinez took a swing at a 2-2 83 MPH slider on the outer half of the plate and sent it 397 feet into the Red Sox bullpen.
Home run number 41 for Martinez had an exit velocity of 105.5 MPH.
An inning later, a Jackie Bradley Jr. leadoff double would later result in the team’s second run of the night after Ian Kinsler drove him in on a one out sacrifice fly to left field.
Fast forward all the way to the sixth now, and Rafael Devers, who entered the game as a pinch runner for Eduardo Nunez in the fourth, absolutely crushed his 17th big fly of the season off of Mark Leiter.
According to Statcast, that ball was hit 394 feet and had an exit velocity of over 109 MPH.
In all honesty, that probably should have been the final nail in the coffin for the Blue Jays, but they pulled their way back into this thing, for a few minutes anyway.
Moments after Toronto evened this contest up at three runs a piece in the top half of the eighth inning, Xander Bogaerts responded right away by ripping a one out double off of Danny Barnes to put the go-ahead run in scoring position.
After a successful attempt of stealing third base, Bogaerts would come into score on what appeared to be a routine pop fly off the bat of Blake Swihart.
Instead, Jays second baseman Yangervis Solarte had trouble locating the ball during its descent, and it ended up clanking off his glove and dropping to the ground.
No RBI credited to Swihart there, but it was still good enough to get the job done.
For the second straight night, the game-wining run for Boston has been scored without recoding an RBI.
Some notes from this 4-3 win:
From @SoxNotes: The Red Sox (101-46) have won each of their last 4 games. They have a 10.5-game lead over the Yankees, tied for their largest of the season. This is only the 2nd season in which they have been as many as 55 games above .500 (also 1912).
In 10 games this month, Jackie Bradley Jr. owns a .915 OPS.
JD Martinez and Khris Davis of the Oakland Athletics are currently tied in the league lead for home runs with 41 a piece.
The Red Sox finish their season series against the Toronto Blue Jays with a 15-4 record. Their magic number to clinch the American League East is down to six games.
Eduardo Nunez is day-to-day with soreness in his right knee.
—
Winners of four straight, the Red Sox welcome the New York Mets into town for the first time since 2009 for a three-game weekend series.
Getting the start in the series opener for each side will be RHP Hector Velazquez for Boston and RHP Noah Syndergaard for New York.
In one career start against the Red Sox, which came back in 2015, Syndergaard surrendered four earned runs on six hits and one walk in 6.2 innings pitched. He did not factor into the decision.
Velazquez, on the other hand, has never faced the Mets in his career, but he does own a 4.26 ERA over seven appearances (one start) in interleague play this season.
UPDATE: Velazquez is out, RHP William Cuevas is in.
RHP Hector Velazquez will not start tonight’s game (9/14) against NYM due to illness. RHP William Cuevas will start in his place.
The last time the Red Sox won 100 games in a single season, there were 16 teams team in Major League Baseball, the Braves played in Boston, the Giants played in New York, and the Dodgers played in Brooklyn.
Obviously, a lot has happened since then, but seeing the baseball team you grew up watching and still watch on a daily basis do something they have not done in over 70 years, that is something else.
How did the Red Sox reach this historic milestone? Well, David Price can take most of the responsibility for that.
Making his 28th start of the season on Wednesday, the left-hander picked up on where he left off in what has been a great second half of the 2018 season with another dominant performance.
Pitching seven scoreless innings in this one, Price scattered just three hits and no walks to go along with seven punch outs on the night.
After sitting down the first 13 batters he faced, the Tennessee native did give up those three hits, all of which were singles, over those final three frames of work, but the furthest base a Blue Jays hitter reached was second following a passed ball.
With his pitch count inching closer and closer to 100 in that seventh inning, Price dramatically ended his night on a positive note by fanning Teoscar Hernandez for the third and final out.
Finishing with a final pitch count of 92 (63 strikes), the 33-year-old hurler turned to his two-seam fastball a total of 33 times on Wednesday. He topped out at 94.5 MPH with that same pitch in the seventh inning.
More notable, out of the 31 changeups he threw, Price induced a swing and a miss 32% of the time.
Improving to 15-6 with a 3.42 ERA on the season now, the 2012 Cy Young Award winner will look to build on what’s been a superb start to September in his next time out, which should come against the New York Yankees at dreaded Yankee Stadium sometime next week.
In relief of Price, Steven Wright got the call for the top half of the eighth inning with a slim one-run lead to protect.
Despite allowing the first two hitters he faced to reach base, the knuckleballer danced his way around the jam on his way to a scoreless frame.
Craig Kimbrel was next up for the ninth looking to lock down the save, and did just that, although he did walk one and only throw 10 strikes out of 20 total pitches.
Regardless, 39th save of the season for Kimbrel secured, but more importantly, win number 100 of the season for the Red Sox secured as well.
On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against Blue Jays right-hander Aaron Sanchez, who entered Wednesday with a lifetime 4.35 ERA in eight appearances (five starts) at Fenway Park.
Similar to Price, a former teammate of his, Sanchez also had himself a quality night on the mound.
In fact, the only run that crossed the plate for the Red Sox came in the bottom of the fifth inning, when with two outs, runners at the corners, and Jackie Bradley Jr. at the plate, a 2-2 wild pitch from Sanchez rolled to the backstop.
That allowed Rafael Devers to easily come in from third to score what would end up being the lone run of the entire contest for either side.
The Red Sox were held to just four hits, but they did draw five walks.
Some notes from this 1-0 win:
In his last nine starts since the All-Star break, David Price is 5-0 with a 1.56 ERA, which is tops among qualified American League starting pitchers. His .188 batting average against over that span is also second best in the AL.
The Red Sox are 8-1 in Price’s last nine starts.
From @SoxNotes: The Red Sox have won 100 games for the 1st time in 72 years, and for the 4th time in franchise history (105 in 1912, 104 in 1946, 101 in 1915).
Alex Cora is the 1st person to lead a team to 100+ wins in his 1st season as an MLB manager since Dusty Baker in 1993 (Giants, 103-59).
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Going for win number 101 and the sweep later tonight, it will be Eduardo Rodriguez getting the start for Boston.
Since returning from the 10-day disabled list on September 1st, the young left-hander has surrendered six earned runs over nine total innings pitched, with five of those runs coming in his last time out against the Houston Astros.
In three outings against the Blue Jays this season, Rodriguez has posted a 2.41 ERA over 18.2 innings pitched.
Opposite Rodriguez will be RHP Sam Gaviglio for Toronto, who was only charged with one earned run over 3.1 innings in his last start at Fenway Park on July 14th, a game that Rodriguez also started in and the Red Sox won by a final score of 6-2.
First pitch of the final game against the Blue Jays this season is scheduled for 7:10 PM ET Thursday.
Entering their half of the seventh inning trailing by two runs, the Red Sox lineup looked as if they were having a tough go at it against Blue Jays starter Ryan Borucki.
Borucki, a left-hander, had only given up a pair of hits up until that point in Tuesday night’s contest at Fenway Park, but the momentum started to shift after Xander Bogaerts drew a one out walk.
Trailing by two runs at the time, Steve Pearce cut that deficit in half right away by ripping a 102 MPH triple to center field to plate Bogaerts all the way from first.
Following a pitching change that saw RHP Ryan Tepera take over for Borucki and a substitution that saw Tzu-Wei Lin entering as a pinch-runner at third, Ian Kinsler could not drive in the tying-run, as he struck out on six pitches.
Eduardo Nunez drew a walk on four straight balls a few moments later, and that set up Brock Holt in a perfect scoring spot.
Pinch-hitting for Sandy Leon, Holt, not Mitch Moreland, took the first four pitches he saw, which evened the count at 2-2, then leaned into a 93 MPH sinker on the inner half of the plate and launched it 388 feet into the right field seats.
That three-run big fly, Holt’s fourth of the season, put his team up 4-2, which, along with RBI from Andrew Benintendi and Ian Kinsler, along with a run-scoring wild pitch in the eighth, is all they would need to pick up their 99th victory.
Some notes from this 7-2 win:
From @SoxNotes: Brock Holt is the first player in Red Sox history to hit multiple go-ahead pinch-hit home runs in a single season (August 14 at Philadelphia and tonight vs. Toronto) (source: @EliasSports).
The Red Sox (99-46) have clinched a postseason berth. This will be the club’s 3rd consecutive postseason appearance, matching the longest streak in franchise history (also 2003-05 and 2007-09).
In 13 plate appearances as a pinch-hitter this season, Brock Holt is slashing .364/.462/1.192 with two home runs and five RBI.
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Like the title reads, the Red Sox became the first team of the 2018 season to clinch a playoff berth on Tuesday night, and their magic number to clinch the American League East now stands at just nine games.
Going for win number 100 later tonight, it will be David Price getting the ball for Boston.
Since the All-Star break, the left-hander has posted a superb 1.78 ERA and .196 BAA over eight starts and 50.2 innings pitched. The Red Sox are 7-1 in those games.
Opposite Price will be Toronto right-hander Aaron Sanchez, who surrendered seven earned runs on nine hits in five innings pitched in his last outing at Fenway Park on May 28th, a game the Red Sox won by a final score of 8-3.
First pitch of the middle game of the series is scheduled for 7:10 PM ET Wednesday.
For the first time in nearly a month, Red Sox ace Chris Sale was back on the mound on Tuesday after being activated from the 10-day disabled list earlier in the afternoon.
Facing off against the Toronto Blue Jays in the first of a three-game series at Fenway Park, the left-hander found himself under duress right away following a leadoff double off the bat of Lourdes Gurriel.
That was followed by two consecutive strikeouts of Devon Travis and Justin Smoak.
Sale did deal with some trouble again though when he hit Kendrys Morales to put runners on first and second with two outs.
Fortunately, the 29-year-old settled down, got Randal Grichuk to pop out to second, and retired the side without surrendering a run.
Now, the plan was for Sale to throw 40 pitches or go two innings deep into this start, whichever came first, per Alex Cora.
But, because of the fact he was put in a tough spot right from the get go, it’s understandable why the Florida native was limited to the one frame of work.
Instead of going back out for the second, Sale headed out to the Red Sox bullpen, threw about 22 pitches in a controlled environment, and called it a night.
Finishing with a final pitch count of 26, 14 of which went for strikes, Sale threw his four-seam fastball 15 times, his slider 10 times, and his changeup just once, which resulted in seven total swings and misses.
He also topped out at 97 MPH with his four-seamer on the very first pitch of the contest.
Although there were some control issues, it was encouraging to see Sale back out there for the first time this month. The rust shouldn’t last too long.
With his ERA dropping down to 1.96 on the season, the southpaw will look to ramp it up in his next time out, which should come against the New York Mets back at Fenway this Sunday.
Don’t have the time to write a full recap, but how about Mitch Moreland?
Down to their final out in a tied game in the ninth, he comes through with the game-winning RBI single to score Tzu-Wei Lin from second and deliver the Red Sox their 98th win of the season.
Sweep avoided, off day on Monday, magic number to clinch a postseason berth is reduced to one.
Not the best of weekends for Boston, but this is certainly a confidence booster heading into the final three weeks of the season.
Oh yeah, JD Martinez hit his 40th home run of the season, too.
After dropping the series opener to the Houston Astros by a final score of 6-3 on Friday night, the Red Sox were back at it looking for some redemption on a Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park.
Making his 21st start of the season today was Eduardo Rodriguez, who dominated against the Chicago White Sox in his first start since returning from the 10-day disabled list in his last time out on September 1st.
Pitching into just the fourth inning of this one, the left-hander found himself not having the same amount of success he had in Chicago. Instead, the Astros got to him early and often, which as you could guess, led to some problems.
In the 3.1 frames of work on Saturday, Rodriguez surrendered five earned runs on six hits, two of which were home runs, and three walks to go along with four strikeouts on the afternoon.
It was somewhat a tale of two starts for the 25-year-old in this one, because he began his day by retiring the first four hitters he faced in order.
It was not until Carlos Correa ripped a one out double off of Rodriguez where things really started to go down hill, because that was followed by a Tyler White triple that could have been caught by Jackie Bradley Jr. and a Jake Marisnick sacrifice fly that saw the Astros jump out to a 2-1 lead.
Over the next two innings, solo home runs from Alex Bregman, his 30th, and Martin Maldanado increased that Houston lead to three runs, and after walking George Springer with one out in the fourth, Rodriguez’s evening would come to a disappointing end.
Finishing with a final pitch count of 78 (49 strikes), the Venezuela native did not receive much help from his catcher, Christian Vazquez, in terms of calling a quality game, and that resulted in some hard hit balls from the Astros.
Out of those 78 pitches, Rodriguez turned to his four-seam fastball the most on Saturday, as he threw it 36% of the time he was on the mound. He also topped out at 96 MPH with that same pitch in the first inning.
Falling to 12-4 on the season with his ERA inflating up to 3.64, the fourth-year hurler will look to reclaim that form he had on display against the White Sox in his next time out, which should come against the New York Mets next weekend.
In relief of Rodriguez, the Red Sox bullpen was surprisingly not to blame for this particular loss.
Brandon Workman was first up, and he closed the book on Rodriguez’s outing by allowing the second Astros run of the fourth to cross the plate on a sac fly, but bounced back with a scoreless fifth inning of work.
Bobby Poyner allowed the first two hitters he faced in the sixth to reach base, then sat down the next six Astros he faced consecutively going into the middle of the seventh.
Finally, Tyler Thornburg, who was pitching on no days rest for the first time since August 20-21st, dealt with his fair share of traffic on base paths, but ultimately held Houston scoreless in the two frames of relief he worked to hold his team’s deficit to three runs.
All and all, the Red Sox bullpen’s final line from Saturday looks like this:
5.2 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 4 K.
On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against Astros right-hander Charlie Morton, who was making his first start since August 28th after being placed on the 10-day disabled list with right shoulder discomfort.
Starting the scoring right away in this one was Xander Bogaerts, whose one out RBI single in the bottom of the first drove in Mookie Betts from second and gave Boston an early advantage.
Fast forward all the way to the fifth now, and Bogaerts struck again by mashing his second home run of the series and his 21st of the season that pulled the Red Sox to within three runs of Houston.
That would end up being Morton’s final inning, and despite reaching base a total of nine times off the Astros hurler, those two runs were all the Red Sox could manage through the first five frames on Saturday.
After rookie reliever Josh James and Ryan Pressly shut things down through the end of the eighth, it all came down to the ninth inning with Astros closer Roberto Osuna on the mound for the second straight night.
A Blake Swihart leadoff pinch-hit single, followed by a one out walk from Mookie Betts, brought the tying run to the plate in the form of Andrew Benintendi.
A wild pitch from Osuna allowed both runners to advance 90 feet, and Benintendi capitalized on that mistake by driving in Swihart from third on an RBI single to left field. 5-3 game.
With JD Martinez coming up representing the game-winning run, the Red Sox could not have asked for a better scoring spot to be in with the league leader in RBI at the plate.
Unfortunately, Martinez could not come through with a clutch hit and instead grounded into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.
Some notes from this 5-3 loss:
With runners in scoring position on Saturday, the Red Sox were only 3/13 (.231)
Xander Bogaerts tied his career-high in home runs today (21) and also set a new career-high in RBI (92).
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Going for their 98th win of the season once again tomorrow night, it will be Rick Porcello getting the start for Boston.
In his last time out against the Astros on June 3rd at Minute Maid Park, Porcello allowed just three runs (two earned) to score on five hits over 6.1 innings in what would turn out to be a 9-3 Red Sox win.
Opposite Porcello will be another former Cy Young Award Winner in Houston’s right-hander Dallas Keuchel.
Over the course of his seven-year career, Keuchel has made two career starts at Fenway Park.
In those pair of starts, the former seventh round draft pick has given up 11 earned runs in 16 innings pitched. That’s good for a 7.62 ERA to go along with a not so nice 1.69 WHIP.
First pitch of the series finale is scheduled for 8:05 PM ET Sunday. Time to salvage something.
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