With today both being an off day for the Red Sox and the last day to vote for All-Star Game starters, I figured I should share something like this.
So, without further ado, here is what this year’s American League All-Star Roster would look like if it were up to me. I will be using last year’s position breakdown as a template.
Starters:
C: Wilson Ramos, TBR
1B: Jose Abreu, CWS
2B: Jose Altuve, HOU
3B: Jose Ramirez, CLE
SS: Francisco Lindor, CLE
OF: Mike Trout, LAA
OF: Mookie Betts, BOS
OF: Aaron Judge, NYY
DH: JD Martinez, BOS
SP: Luis Severino, NYY
Reserves:
C: Gary Sanchez, NYY
1B: Matt Olson, OAK
2B: Jed Lowrie, OAK
2B: Whit Merrifield, KCR
2B: Dee Gordon, SEA
3B: Alex Bregman, HOU
3B: Eduardo Escobar, MIN
SS: Manny Machado, BAL
OF: Mitch Haniger, SEA
OF: Shin-Soo Choo, TEX
OF: Nick Castellanos, DET
OF: Eddie Rosario, MIN
DH: Nelson Cruz, SEA
SP: Chris Sale, BOS
SP: Justin Verlander, HOU
SP: Gerrit Cole, HOU
SP: James Paxton, SEA
SP: Corey Kluber, CLE
SP: Blake Snell, TBR
SP: Charlie Morton, HOU
SP: Trevor Bauer, CLE
SP: Mike Clevinger, CLE
RP: Edwin Diaz, SEA
RP: Blake Treinen, OAK
RP: Aroldis Chapman, NYY
RP: Chad Green, NYY
RP: Craig Kimbrel, BOS
RP: Ryan Tepera, TOR
With 38 or so players listed above, I believe this counts injury replacements and alternatives as well. I’m pretty sure I accounted for all 15 teams, but let me know if I left someone off you think deserves to go to DC in a few weeks. Looking at you, AJ Hinch.
National League roster should be posted sometime tomorrow.
After dropping two out of three to the Yankees in New York to start a nine-game road trip, the Red Sox had the opportunity to improve to 4-2 on the trip yesterday thanks to two straight wins over the Washington Nationals in DC.
Making his 17th start of the season and coming off back-to-back poor outings against the Mariners and Yankees, Eduardo Rodriguez toed the rubber for his first time ever at Nationals Park.
In six quality innings pitched, the lefty failed to surrender a single run as he held the Nationals to just three hits and one walk while fanning six on the day. If it weren’t for his spot in the order due up in the top half of the seventh, I’d like to think Rodriguez could have gone even deeper, but considering that the Red Sox were threatening with runners in scoring position, I understand the decision to pinch-hit Andrew Benintendi in that spot.
Regardless, the Venezuela native only needed 84 pitches (54 strikes) to get through those six scoreless innings, and he really dazzled to pick up his 10th winning decision of the season.
Out of those 84 pitches Rodriguez went to his deadly changeup a total of 26 times, which resulted in five swinging strikes, one called strike, and seven balls in play. He also topped out at 95.7 MPH with his four-seam fastball in the fourth inning.
Building off a successful start to the new month, the 25-year-old hurler will look to carry over this new-found momentum in his next start, which should come back at Fenway Park against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday.
In relief of Rodriguez, the Red Sox bullpen carried on and completed the shutout with three scoreless frames of their own. Matt Barnes, Joe Kelly, and Craig Kimbrel locked down their teams 59th win of the season, and in doing so, Kimbrel, despite allowing the tying run to come to the plate, notched his 26th save of 2018.
On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was limited in what they could do yesterday and that was mostly because of a solid performance out of the Nationals bullpen.
In fact, Washington’s starter for this series finale, Erick Fedde, had to leave in the second inning with what was later diagnosed as right shoulder inflammation. That really did not matter though, because the Red Sox failed to plate a run until the top half of the seventh.
Going into the frame with this thing still tied, Rafael Devers got the rally started with a leadoff double off of Nats reliever Ryan Madson. Two batters later, after Devers had moved up to third on a Eduardo Nunez single, Jackie Bradley Jr. came through with the clutch sacrifice fly to finally put the Red Sox on the board.
Two batters later, with Andrew Benintendi pinch-hitting for Eduardo Rodriguez, a wild pitch on ball four from Madson allowed Eduardo Nunez, who had advanced to third on that Bradley sac fly, to easily score and put his team up by two runs.
Fast forward to the ninth, and another Jackie Bradley Jr. RBI, this one coming on a double to score Eduardo Nunez all the way from first, pretty much put this game away from the Red Sox by putting them up 3-0.
One note from this W:
It is July 5th and the Red Sox are 30 games over .500. That is all.
—
With a trip to Kansas City up next on the schedule, the Red Sox will find themselves enjoying a day off on Thursday before kicking off a three-game weekend series against the lowly Royals on Friday. Chris Sale, who owns a career 3.16 ERA in 16 games at Kauffman Stadium, gets the ball for the opener. He’ll be matched up against veteran righty Jason Hammel for the Royals. First pitch of the first game on Friday is scheduled for 8:15 PM ET.
On the night following a tight 4-3 win over the Washington Nationals on Monday, the Red Sox were back out there on Tuesday looking to clinch an interleague series on another hot night in the nation’s capital.
Making his second start since Steven Wright was placed on the disables list on June 26th, Brian Johnson, although effective, found himself making another short start last night. In his last time out against the Angels on Thursday, the lefty managed to toss four innings of one run ball in a game his team won. And on Tuesday, Johnson went two outs deeper than he did in his previous start.
Pitching into the fifth inning of this one, Johnson surrendered two runs, both earned, on eight hits and two walks while fanning two as well. Those two runs came in the Florida native’s last full frame in the fourth, an inning in which the Nationals reached base four times.
In a bottom half of the fifth that saw Washington reach base two times in three attempts to lead things off, Johnson’s night came to an end after he got Daniel Murphy to line out to JD Martinez for the second out of the inning.
Unable to pick up the winning decision, the 27-year-old finished with 77 pitches (52 strikes) on the night, 16 more than he threw in his last start. Out of those 77, Johnson went to his four-seam fastball 54% of the time and topped out at 91 MPH with it.
As for his next start, all signs are pointing towards Steven Wright making a return to the Red Sox rotation before the All-Star Break. Now, I don’t know if that means Wright will be ready to start a game within the next five days, but it’s something to watch for. And regardless of who’s pitching, Johnson or Wright would more than likely start against the Texas Rangers next Monday.
Anyway, in relief of Johnson, Heath Hembree was inserted into this one with one more out to get in the fifth. With runners already at first and second, Hembree proceeded to make things more difficult for himself by giving up a single to Mark Reynolds to load the bases.
Remember, at this point in the game, the Red Sox had just gone up by seven runs thanks to a six run effort in the top half of the fifth. If Hembree, were to have given up anywhere from to two to four runs here, the momentum of the game could have shifted just like that. Instead, he got Michael A. Taylor to strike out on six pitches to get out of the jam.
After striking out in his first career at bat in the top half of the sixth, the righty reliever would come back out for a second inning of work in the bottom half. With that, Nationals catcher Pedro Severino greeted Hembree by blasting a 425 foot home run to lead off the inning. Luckily, Hembree rebounded by striking out the side and ending his night on a more positive note.
From that point on, Brandon Workman picked up his first win of the season by tossing a 1-2-3 seventh. William Cuevas made his first appearance for the Red Sox since 2016 as well last night, and despite giving up a run on two hits, wrapped this win up by going the last two innings.
On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was powered by two three-run homers and one two-run homer, so that’s eight of the 11 runs scored right there.
Facing off against a starter who had only made one career appearance against Boston in Nationals righty Tanner Roark, Eduardo Nunez got the scoring started with his 6th home run of the season, a three-run jack in the second inning.
Three innings later, it was Brian Johnson, yes Brian Johnson, who got a six run rally started with a one out single.
Capped off by a JD Martinez 2 RBI single, a Steve Pearce RBI single, and a Xander Bogaerts three run home run, the Red Sox went into the halfway point of this one with a 9-2 lead.
Fast forward all the way to the top of the ninth, with this game already out of reach, JD Martinez decided he was not satisfied with his 2 RBI night, so he added on another two with his league-leading 26th big fly of the season.
That put the Red Sox up 11-4 and all but ensured the team their 58th win of the season heading into the final game of this interleague series.
Some notes from this W:
Not related to the Red Sox, but the Nationals managed to let Tanner Roark pitch seven innings in this game. He gave up NINE runs, so credit to him for eating some innings in a game that was lost in the fifth inning.
Back to Red Sox related stuff, Mitch Moreland had to depart from this game in the third inning due to back spasms. He should be ready to go in time for the series opener in Kansas City on Friday.
Since joining the Red Sox five days ago, Steve Pearce is 4/9 in three games with at least one at bat. He’ll be starting at first base tomorrow morning.
Going into Wednesday, JD Martinez leads all of baseball in home runs (26) and RBI (71).
Before tomorrow morning’s series finale, the Red Sox will activate Tyler Thornburg from the 10-day disabled list, meaning he will make his first appearance for Boston since he was traded from the Brewers two offseasons ago.
—
Looking for the series sweep, the Red Sox will be going with lefty Eduardo Rodriguez for the finale. Winless in his last two starts, Rodriguez will be matched up against Nationals rookie Erick Fedde, who owns a 6.00 ERA in five games started this season. With it being the Fourth of July and all, first pitch is scheduled for a rare morning start at 11:05 AM ET. Happy Independence Day, time to break out the brooms.
Coming off a disappointing weekend in New York in which they could only pick up one win in three tries against the Yankees, the Red Sox headed south to the nation’s capital to take on the NL East’s Washington Nationals. Entering Monday with a record of 42-40, the Nationals have been far from the team they were expected to be going into the season. But with Max Scherzer on the mound for the opener, runs were more than likely going to be hard to come across for Boston.
Speaking of Scherzer, one of his better friends made his 18th start of the season for the Red Sox last night in Rick Porcello. We’ll get into Porcello’s day at the plate later, but for now, let’s just stick to pitching.
Since he was going up against one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, I was interested to see how Porcello would deal if he did not have much of a lead to work with. But thanks to his own efforts with a bat in his hands, the righty got some run support in the second and would not have to look back.
In six full innings pitched, Porcello surrendered two runs, both on solo shots, while scattering seven hits, walking two, and racking up five strikeouts on the night.
Throughout those six frames of work, the only real mistakes the New Jersey native came in the bottom halves of the third and sixth innings. Before that, Porcello escaped a potential jam in the second with some help from Mookie Betts’ cannon of an arm.
The first mistake came on a leadoff homer off the bat of Nats third baseman Anthony Rendon in the fourth, and the second came on a one out solo homer from second baseman Daniel Murphy in Porcello’s final inning.
Other than that, Porcello had himself a solid night on the mound. Can’t get too upset about giving up two solo home runs at a ballpark he had never pitched in before Monday.
Finishing with 92 pitches (66 strikes), the 29 year-old hurler went to his two-seam fastball 29% of the time last night and topped out at 92 MPH with his four-seamer. He’ll look to build on a successful start to July in his next start against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
In relief of Porcello, the Red Sox bullpen had a bit of a rough go at it over the last three innings of Monday night’s contest.
Matt Barnes was first up in the seventh, and he held Washington scoreless while leaving two baserunners at first and second to pick up his 16th hold of the season.
For the eighth inning, Joe Kelly got his July off to a rough start by serving up a 439 foot mammoth shot to Bryce Harper on the third pitch of the at bat to make it a one run game.
After striking out the next two batters he faced, Kelly walked Mark Reynolds on six pitches to put a runner on first, which consequently ended his night.
Needing four more outs to pick up the win, Alex Cora turned to his closer for the longer than usual save opportunity. Craig Kimbrel, who did not see the mound once over the weekend in New York, got the Red Sox out of the eighth by getting Michael A. Taylor to fly out to right field.
While recording the first two outs of the ninth in fairly simple fashion, the last out to pick up the save was somewhat of a challenge for the Red Sox closer. He walked Juan Soto on eight pitches to put the tying run on base, although it wasn’t entirely his fault.
With Anthony Rendon, who had already homered in this game, at the plate now, Kimbrel fell behind 3-0 on the first three pitches of the at bat. Luckily though, Rendon must have gotten the green light from the Nationals bench, because he swung on the next pitch, and although he made hard contact (105 MPH off the bat), lined out to Andrew Benintendi to left to wrap this thing up. Save #25 in the books for Kimbrel.
On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup followed the instructions on how to score runs off elite pitchers by getting to Max Scherzer early.
In fact, Rick Porcello helped his own cause by coming up clutch after Scherzer loaded the bases by intentionally walking Jackie Bradley Jr., the number eight man in the Red Sox lineup.
To make the Nationals pay for that, Porcello ripped a scorching double over everyone’s head in left field off his old friend and former rotation mate. Unloading the bases toput his team up by three runs early, Porcello came away with his first RBI (3) since 2009.
Those were the only runs the Red Sox could manage off of the Nationals ace, who went on to pick up a quality start despite the bumpy second inning.
Fast forward to the seventh, with Scherzer out of the game and Nationals reliever Brandon Kintzler in. With a one run lead to protect, Mookie Betts added on some insurance by mashing his 21st big fly of the season to lead off the inning.
That 430 foot bomb gave the Red Sox their fourth and final run of the night, and despite some shaky moments in the eighth and ninth innings, that would be all they would need to pick up their 57th win of the year.
Some notes from this W:
Over his last 12 appearances, Joe Kelly has tossed 9.1 innings. In those 9.1 innings, he owns a 8.68 ERA and a .300 BAA. Not great.
From @SoxNotes: Last night marked the 7th time Mookie Betts homered and recorded an outfield assist in the same game. According to @EliasSports, that is tied for the most such games in the majors since the start of 2015.
Since joining the Red Sox prior to the 2015 season, Rick Porcello is slashing .143/.143/.214 with two hits and three RBI.
—
In the middle game of this series, it will be Brian Johnson making his second start in Steven Wright’s spot in the rotation for the Red Sox. In his previous start, Johnson allowed just one run in four innings pitched against the Los Angeles Angels this past Thursday. He’ll be matched up against Nationals righty Tanner Roark, who has never started against Boston in his career, but does have one relief appearance against them under his belt. One in which he surrendered one earned run in 3.2 innings of work back in 2015. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 PM ET later tonight.
David Price and the New York Yankees. Name a more disastrous duo.
Yes, on a night where the Red Sox could have left the Bronx with a two game lead in the American League East pennant race, David Price came up extremely short.
Known for his struggles at Yankee Stadium since signing with Boston prior to the 2016 season, Price certainly did not do himself any favors yesterday.
Lasting just 3.1 innings, the lefty was walloped for EIGHT earned runs on nine hits, with five of those being home runs, while only recording three strikeouts.
In a 25-pitch first inning, the Yankees reached base four times off of Price, and got four runs out of it. The first of those four came on an Aaron Judge 409 foot blast to center field for the first run of the game. The other three runs came three batters later on one swing of the bat from rookie second baseman Gleyber Torres, who, on a 93 MPH two-seam fastball from Price, belted his 15th long ball of the season 380 feet to right field to put his team up by a bunch early.
An inning later, the Yankees struck again with another homer, this one coming from center fielder Aaron Hicks on a two-run shot, his first of three on the night.
After a surprising scoreless frame in the third, things got ugly for Price in an inning he would not be able to finish.
To truly show how miserable of a night the Vanderbilt alum had, just look at the events that transpired in the bottom half of the fourth.
First batter of the inning, Kyle Higashioka, 0/22 to start his career, takes Price deep to left for his first big league hit and home run on a 1-2 89 MPH cutter. 7-0 Yankees.
Two batters later, Aaron Hicks, career .208 hitter against Price prior to yesterday’s contest, blasts his second homer 373 feet to dead center. 8-0 Yankees and that is what put an end to David Price’s awful outing.
Finishing with a pitch count of only 71 (51 strikes), the 32 year-old hurler topped out at 94.5 MPH with his four-seam fastball in the second inning.
Let’s take a closer look at those struggles Price has had at Yankee Stadium since joining the Red Sox.
5 GS
25 IP
47 H
29 ER
10 HR
10.44 ERA
Nope, it really isn’t! And in all honesty, I have no confidence at all in giving the ball to David Price in a potential ALDS or ALCS game at Yankee Stadium. If that were to be the case later on in October, I’d be interested to see how Alex Cora and the Red Sox would go about not utilizing their $30 million man in a situation he should be able to handle. but clearly can’t.
You also cannot make stuff like this up.
David Price allowed 5 home runs to the Yankees tonight.
Only one other pitcher in Red Sox history has allowed 5 home runs on the road against the Yankees: Dennis Eckersley – exactly 39 years ago today (July 1, 1979).
Anyway, last night’s debacle ended a solid run for Price in which he allowed three or fewer runs in nine straight starts. He’ll look to hopefully rebound from this in his next outing against the Kansas City Royals on Saturday. For now, let’s just hope one bad start does not derail the quality season Price has had to this point.
In relief of Price, Justin Haley was first out of the Red Sox bullpen and gave up one run in 2.2 innings of work.
Brandon Workman came through with the best performance of any Red Sox pitcher on Sunday, as he threw a 1-2-3 seventh.
And in the eighth, Hector Velazquez gave up an additional two runs on three hits, including Aaron Hicks’ third homer of the evening, to wrap up what was a dismal evening for Red Sox pitching.
On the other side of things, the Yankees pitching staff had themselves a GREAT night against a team that just scored 11 runs off of them on Saturday.
Let me tell you though, Luis Severino is in a whole other category of pitchers when compared to Sonny Gray. The Yankees ace shut down the Red Sox lineup while pitching into the seventh inning of this one. Over that stretch, Severino surrendered just two hits and three walks while fanning six to improve to 13-2 on his season.
The only run of the night for the Red Sox came in the ninth, when after Sandy Leon reached second on a double and Blake Swihart advanced him to third on a single, Rafael Devers collected his 47th RBI of the year by scoring Leon on a 5-4 force out at second base. All this coming with Aroldis Chapman, who hadn’t appeared in a game in nearly a week, on the mound for New York.
Some notes from this loss:
In a highly anticipated series between two of the best teams in all of baseball, here are the results from all three games.
Not much consistency between these two clubs over the weekend, and neither game was close because of it.
Nine games into the season series, the Red Sox own a 4-5 record against New York in 2018. The good news is, seven of the next ten games against the Yankees will be played at Fenway Park, including the last three of the season on the last weekend of September.
—
Having dropped two of their first three games on a decently long road trip, things will not get easier for the Red Sox when they land in the nation’s capital sometime this morning. In a three-game series against the Washington Nationals kicking off on Monday, the Red Sox will be greeted by one of the best pitchers in the National League in Mad Max, Max Scherzer. He’ll be matched up against an old teammate in Rick Porcello for Boston, and first pitch of the series opener is scheduled for 7:05 PM ET tonight.
Coming off a game in which they were held to just one run by CC Sabathia and the Yankees pitching staff, the Red Sox made sure that was not the case on Saturday night. With Chris Sale on the mound though, they didn’t need much to pick up a series-evening win.
Making his 18th start of the season last night, Chris Sale wrapped up his stellar month of June with yet another superb performance against a team he has a solid track record against.
Going into what was his 14th career start against the Yankees, Sale owned a 1.73 ERA in 93.2 innings against New York over nine seasons, including one outing this season in which he allowed one run in just six innings pitched back on April 10th.
Right from the get go, it was clear that Sale meant business in a decently important game. And given the fact he had a four run lead to work with before he even took the mound, the lefty was not put in all that many stressful spots on Saturday.
In a full seven innings pitched, Sale held the Yankees to just three total baserunners on one hit, one walk, and one HBP while recording a healthy 11 strikeouts on the evening.
What was most impressive about the Florida native’s night would have to be his sixth frame of work, in which he struck out the side on 20 pitches, the most he threw in an inning. Can’t forget to mention the help he got from Jackie Bradley Jr. in the bottom half of the third as well.
Retiring the last 16 batters he faced, Sale finished with a final pitch count of 101 (72 strikes) after ending the seventh. Topping out at 100 MPH in that seventh inning, the 29-year-old hurler went to his four-seam fastball 36% of the time on Saturday.
A performance certainly worthy of a win, Sale improved to 8-4 on the season last night. He’ll look to build on a successful June in his next time out, which should come against the lowly Kansas City Royals on Friday.
In relief of Sale, Alex Cora turned to two relievers out of the Red Sox bullpen for what was essentially mop-up duty in a blowout game. First, Heath Hembree tossed a scoreless eighth inning, then Hector Velazquez tossed a scoreless ninth to wrap this thing up.
On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup made people forget about their one run clunker on Friday night very quickly.
Facing off against a pitcher who has struggled against Boston in the past in Sonny Gray, Rafael Devers got the scoring started right away in the first.
After recording the first two outs of the inning, Gray allowed the next three batters he faced to reach base on two singles and a walk. That set up an ideal scoring situation for Devers, and he capitalized on it.
That grand slam was the first from the Red Sox since April 30th. With that slam, Devers became the youngest player in the history of Red Sox vs. Yankees matchups to go yard in that fashion.
An inning later, a leadoff double from Sandy Leon followed by a Mookie Betts walk set up another great scoring spot, this time for Andrew Benintendi. On the third pitch of his at bat, Benintendi ripped a single to right field to score Leon from Second and collect his 53rd RBI of the year.
Speaking of RBI, JD Martinez had three of them on Saturday, and he picked up his first in the second when a 322 foot sacrifice fly to right field scored Betts from third and put the Red Sox up by six runs early.
Fast forward all the way to the sixth now, with Gray well out of this game, and Martinez struck again. This time on an RBI single to score Jackie Bradley Jr. from second.
In the seventh, after Rafael Devers lined a one out double off of Yankees reliever Giovanny Gallegos, Sandy Leon blasted is his second home run is as many starts 388 feet into the right field seats.
From that point on, JD Martinez notched his 3rd RBI of the night in the eighth, and Brock Holt picked up one in the ninth on a pinch-hit RBI single to score his teams 11th and final run of the game. Not like it was needed, but it was still nice to see that production come from the bottom of the lineup after a quiet night on Friday.
Some notes from this win:
Alex Cora on the big win, “”The guys came out with an attitude today. It was fun to watch. There was something different with this group today.”
From @SoxNotes: Chris Sale has a 1.03 ERA in his last 5 starts. Among the 500+ pitchers who have made at least 10 starts vs. NYY in the Live Ball Era (1920-pres.), Sale owns the lowest career ERA (1.61) against the Yankees, as well as the highest SO/9.0 IP ratio (11.62).
With his five-hit performance at the plate on Saturday, Rafael Devers raised his batting average by 12 points, his OBP by 10 points, and his SLG by 22 points.
Entering July, JD Martinez leads all of baseball in HR (25) and RBI (67).
—
In this first day of July, the finale of this Red Sox-Yankees series will receive plenty of attention via Sunday Night Baseball. For David Price, this particular start looms large. A career 4.27 ERA in 19 starts at Yankee Stadium, the lefty will have plenty to prove in what should be a playoff atmosphere in the Bronx tonight.
He’ll be matched up against the best pitcher on this Yankees staff in Luis Severino. New York specifically moved their rotation so Severino would start tonight’s contest, so you know it means a lot for them as well.
First pitch of the final game is scheduled for 8:05 PM ET on ESPN.
Entering Friday with sole possession of first place in the American League East, the Red Sox had a big task at hand in the form of a three game weekend series against the New York Yankees. While splitting the season series thus far at 3-3, this particular series, although relatively early in the year, could prove to be quite meaningful for the division race later in September.
Making his 16th start of the season on Friday night, Eduardo Rodriguez was not as effective as he was in his only other appearance against the Yankees this season. In that start, back on May 10th, New York was held scoreless in the five innings the lefty pitched in.
Last night though, although he did pitch deeper into the game, Rodriguez got rocked for five runs on seven hits and two walks while only recording two strikeouts.
Things began to go awry for the Venezuela native starting in the bottom half of the second inning, when Yankees rookie second baseman Gleyber Torres ripped a hard-hit triple to lead off the frame.
That was followed by an RBI single off the bat of another Yankees rookie in Miguel Andujar, and just like that, the Yankees had a one run lead which they would not have to look back from.
After tossing a scoreless third, the fourth inning is where Rodriguez struggled the most. In fact, the southpaw needed 30 pitches to get through the frame in which he surrendered four runs, highlighted by back-to-back homers from Andujar and then Greg Bird.
From that point on, Rodriguez did hold the Yankees scoreless while retiring six of the seven batters he faced to end an otherwise disappointing night.
Over his last two outings, the 25-year-old hurler’s ERA has inflated from 3.59 after his start in Seattle, all the way up to 4.11 after his performance on Friday. He’ll look to get back on the winning side in his next time out, which is more than likely to come against the Washington Nationals on Independence Day.
In relief of Rodriguez, the Red Sox only turned to one relief pitcher in this one, and that was Justin Haley. Given the fact they were already trailing by four runs by the time Haley entered in the seventh inning, it makes sense that Alex Cora would want to save the rest of his bullpen for the remaining two games of this series.
In the two innings he pitched in, Haley got hit decently hard. First, Aaron Judge, a college teammate of Haley’s, blasted a two-run home run for his 21st of the season in the seventh. And in the eighth, Greg Bird struck once again for his second homer of the night to essentially put this game out of reach if it was not already at 8-1.
On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was limited to just one run thanks to Yankees starter CC Sabathia.
In his only other start against Boston this season on May 10th, Sabathia surrendered four runs on nine hits in a rain-shortened four innings of work. That was not the case last night.
Nope, the 18 year veteran lefty gave up one run in the fifth inning, which is all the damage the Red Sox could do in this one.
That run came on an Andrew Benintendi RBI double to score Mookie Betts from second, in case you were interested. Other than that, guys like JD Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, and Rafael Devers were all held without a single hit.
On the bright side things, newly acquired Steve Pearce made his Red Sox debut at first base last night, and in his very first at bat with his new team, ripped a leadoff double on the first pitch he saw from Sabathia in the second inning.
The former Blue Jay also collected his second hit of the night later on in the fourth, so recording a multi-hit game in your first game with a new team is not too shabby, I guess.
Heading into tonight’s contest now in a deadlock atop the AL East, Chris Sale will be given the responsibility of trying to lead the Red Sox to just their second win at Yankee Stadium this year. He’ll be matched up against Yankees righty Sonny Gray, who in his only other start against the Red Sox this season, gave up six earned runs in just three innings pitched back on April 12th.
First pitch of the middle game is scheduled for 7:15 PM ET on FOX. Time to even this series up.
Before heading to the Bronx for a pivotal three-game weekend series against the Yankees, the Red Sox had some business to take care of against a Los Angeles Angels team they had yet to lose to this season.
With Steven Wright being placed on the disabled list on Tuesday, Alex Cora went with Brian Johnson for the spot start in the knuckleballer’s place last night.
Having already appeared in 22 games for the Red Sox this season, this was just Johnson’s second start. The first came back on April 2nd against the Miami Marlins, where he tossed six innings and only gave up one run on six hits and two walks.
This time around, the lefty hybrid was efficient yet again. In four innings pitched, Johnson held the Halos to just one run while scattering three hits, one walk, and two punchouts. He received some help from his outfield as well with this phenomenal catch from Jackie Bradley Jr. in the first.
The only real mistake the former Florida Gator made came in his final frame of work, when with one out in the fourth, Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons leaned into a 1-0 75 MPH curveball and sent it 375 feet into the Monster seats in left field.
Other than that, it was a solid outing from Johnson. And given the fact he has transitioned into more of a reliever now, it’s understandable why he only pitched into the fourth inning of this one. But with Hector Velazquez, the Red Sox essentially have two guys in their bullpen who are capable of both starting and working in relief.
Speaking of Velazquez, he got the first call out of the Red Sox bullpen starting in the top half of the fifth. In the two innings he appeared in, the Mexico native held the Angels to just two baserunners to go along with three K’s. Since his team scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth, Velazquez was able to pick up his sixth winning decision of the season thanks to his efforts.
From that point on, Brandon Workman tossed a scoreless seventh inning for his third straight scoreless appearance. That made way for Joe Kelly in the eighth, and for the second time in as many nights, the Angels made things a little interesting.
After walking Mike Trout to lead off the inning, Kelly gave up back-to-back singles to Justin Upton and Albert Pujols to score Trout from third to make it a 4-2 game and put runners on first and second with still no outs.
With Angels rookie David Fletcher at the plate now, Kelly gave up what looked like what could have been a double to left field. Instead, the Red Sox outfield came through yet again, as Andrew Benintendi made the leaping catch against the wall for the second out of the inning.
Kelly escaped any further damage by getting Luis Valbuena to fly out to center field and end a hellish eighth inning for the Red Sox set up man. Over his last seven appearances, Kelly owns a 7.20 ERA and 2.20 WHIP in five innings pitched.
Entering the ninth with a two run lead to work with, Craig Kimbrel made his second appearance of this series, and he managed to strike out the side on the way to his 24th save of the season.
On the flip side of things, the Red Sox lineup was held scoreless over the first four innings of this one against Angels righty Jaime Barria.
It wasn’t until fifth when, already trailing by one run, Rafael Devers tied things up at one run a piece by mashing his 13th home run of the season. A 414 foot shot sent to dead center.
An inning later, with Halos reliever Jose Alvarez on the mound and JD Martinez at first after taking the walk, a double off the bat of Mitch Moreland put the Red Sox in an ideal scoring spot.
Oddly enough, Mike Sciosca decided to pitch around Xander Bogaerts and pitch to Brock Holt with the bases loaded. That decision clearly did not pan out the way he wanted it to, because Alvarez walked Holt on seven pitches to drive in the go-ahead run.
In the seventh, Jackie Bradley Jr. decided to top his stellar catch earlier in the first inning by coming through with arguably the clutchest hit of the night.
Facing off against old friend Noe Ramirez with Christian Vazquez at first, Bradley Jr. went down 0-2 on the first two pitches of the at bat. On the very next pitch though, he must have seen something he liked, because he took a 91 MPH two-seam fastball from Ramirez and sent it into the first row of the bleachers in right field on the hardest hit ball of the night, 110.1 MPH.
That two-run blast put the Red Sox up by three runs, and they would not have to look back on their way to win number 55.
Some notes from this W:
From @SoxNotes: The Sox went 6-0 against the Angels this season, marking the first time Boston has ever swept an opponent in a season series of at least 6 games.
From @RedSoxStats: (In this series)
Trout: 2-10 3 BB
JBJ: 5-11 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI
The bottom third of the Red Sox lineup (Devers, Vazquez, Bradley) went 4/9 with two home runs and three RBI last night.
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Heading into New York winners of their last four and sole owners of first place in the American League East, the Red Sox will send Eduardo Rodriguez to the mound for the series opener later tonight. He’ll be matched up against another lefty in CC Sabathia for the Yankees. I don’t need to tell you this series is important, because it 100% is.
Do the Red Sox really belong amongst the elite teams in all of baseball? Well this series is a sure-fire way to find out about that. First pitch of the first game is scheduled for 7:05 PM ET.
Also, shout out to Steve Pearce. You can read about him here.
Following their 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night, the Red Sox announced that the team had acquired 12-year veteran Steve Pearce from the Toronto Blue Jays.
In exchange for the long time outfielder and first baseman, Boston will be sending 23 year-old prospect Santiago Espinal back to Toronto. Espinal, a shortstop who had been with the organization since he was drafted in the 10th round of the 2016 amateur draft, owned a .313/.363/.477 slash line in 65 games with High A Salem this season.
Pearce is a player well familiarized with the American League East, as he has appeared in 481 total games with the Orioles, Rays, Yankees, and most recently, the Blue Jays.
With a career .840 OPS against left-handed pitching, expect Pearce to slide into a utility role with the Red Sox. Capable of playing both first base and corner outfield, I would not be surprised if Blake Swihart’s role with the big league club becomes even more suppressed. A corresponding roster move will have to be made prior to tomorrow’s night game in New York, so could Swihart be the one to go?
Regardless of that, this is the first trade the Red Sox and Blue Jays have made with one another since Boston acquired John Farrell from Toronto in exchange for Mike Aviles following the 2012 season.
During his impromptu presser tonight, Dave Dombrowski said he expects Pearce to join the team tomorrow in New York.
One things for sure, when it comes to Pearce’s uniform number with the Red Sox, I can confidently report that he will not be assigned #28. Recap of tonight’s win coming tomorrow morning/early afternoon.
In a game that took exactly four hours complete, the Red Sox found themselves alone in first place in the American League East by the end of Wednesday night. It took a while to get there, but at the halfway point of the season in terms of games played, no team in Major League Baseball has more wins than the Red Sox.
Making his 17th start of the season last night, Rick Porcello was certainly not at his best in this one. The righty pitched into the sixth inning for the sixth time in a row, but yielded four runs, all earned, on eight hits and two free passes while striking out five.
Things were going decently smooth for the Red Sox hurler up until his fifth frame of work. With a six run lead to work with, you would figure that Porcello, who is arguably at his best when pitching with a lead, would cruise to his 10th winning decision of the year. Instead, he gave up a solo shot to the first batter he saw in the inning in ex-teammate Ian Kinsler.
That homer gave the Angels just their second run of the series up until that point and cut the Red Sox lead to five runs. An inning later, that lead shrunk some more when, after recording the first out of the inning on three pitches, three straight Angels reached base off of Porcello, with the last one being a three-run jack off the bat of catcher Martin Maldonado. 6-4 game now.
In my mind, this was the turning point of the game. Easy to say I know, but up until that point, it appeared as if the Red Sox had this thing in the bag. They have stomped on the Angels in all of their meetings this season, and it looked like we were headed in that direction once again last night up until that home run.
Porcello’s night would come to an end after he followed up that homer by getting outfielder Michael Hermosillo to ground out to short for the second out of the sixth.
Finishing with 104 pitches (66 strikes), the New Jersey native topped out at 93.4 MPH on his four-seam fastball in the first inning. He’ll miss this upcoming series against the Yankees in New York, but expect Porcello to bounce back in his next time out against the Washington Nationals on Monday.
In relief of Porcello, Heath Hembree got the first call of the Red Sox bullpen. Entering the game with two outs and the bases empty, Hembree retired the only batter he faced on three pitches to end the top half of the sixth.
Joe Kelly was next up for the beginning of the seventh, and he greeted the Angels by allowing four straight batters to reach base after recording the first out of the inning. Two singles from Justin Upton and Albert Pujols put runners on first and third with one out.
Kelly had the opportunity to turn a double play after Luis Valbuena grounded a comebacker right to him, but the Red Sox flamethrower made an awful throw to Xander Bogaerts covering second base, which allowed the ball to roll into the outfield and Justin Upton easily scored from third.
Now with Andrelton Simmons at the plate, who had already collected two hits on the night, Kelly could not sneak a 88 MPH slider by the Angels shortstop, as he drove in Pujols from second on an RBI double to knot this thing up at six runs a piece.
The Red Sox would escape any further damage thanks to two clutch strikeouts to retire the side in the top half of the seventh. The first coming from Kelly against Kole Calhoun for the second out of the inning and the second coming from Matt Barnes against Martin Maldonado for the final out.
Speaking of Barnes, the UCONN product came back out for the eighth inning as well, this time with a two run lead to work with. Unfortunately for him, sandwiched in between the first two outs of the frame were an E5 committed by Rafael Devers and a six pitch walk to Mike Trout.
That put the Angels in an ideal scoring spot, so Alex Cora made the bold decision and turned to his closer in the eighth inning.
In a rare situation, Craig Kimbrel got his night started by loading the bases after throwing a wild pitch and walking Albert Pujols.
The drama ensued into the next at bat with Luis Valbuena at the plate. After getting ahead in the count with a first pitch strike, Kimbrel missed three straight times to move the count to 3-1. Thankfully, the other Red Sox flamethrower rebounded by getting the next call in his favor on what could have been ball four, then got Valbuena swinging on a 98 MPH heater to retire the side.
Coming back out for the ninth, Kimbrel had a much easier go at it, as he retired the side in order to pick up his 23rd save of the season, the first for him since June 14th.
On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup had their way against another Angels starting pitcher in lefty Andrew Heaney.
Going off for three home runs in the second inning, Eduardo Nunez got the scoring started by blasting his fifth of the season to lead things off.
After Rafael Devers reached first on a single, Sandy Leon drove him in along with himself on his third homer of the year.
Four batters later, with runners on first and third, JD Martinez capped off the home run frenzy by mashing his 25th big fly of the season, making him the first player in Red Sox history to hit as many as 25 home runs before the first of July.
Heading into the third inning with an early six run lead, the bats went quiet for a bit. There was a time in the bottom of the fifth where it looked like another rally was about to take shape when Eduardo Nunez led the inning off on what should have been an infield single.
The original ruling was an out, but after the replay from NESN, it was pretty clear that Albert Pujols missed the tag and the Red Sox challenged it. I don’t know what they saw in Hoboken, but after the review, Nunez was ruled out. So, what’s the point of replay review if the call ends up being wrong AFTER the review? Very confusing.
Anyway, once the Angels stormed back to tie things up in the top of the seventh, the Red Sox lineup responded by tacking on two of their own in the bottom half of the inning.
With two outs, a walk drawn by Eduardo Nunez and back-to back RBI knocks for Rafael Devers and Sandy Leon put some distance between the Red Sox and Angels, and they would not have to look back.
In the ninth, a wild pitch with Mitch Moreland at the plate allowed JD Martinez to score from third after he reached base on a force out. Unfortunately, the Angels pitcher who slid into home trying to get the out, Jake Jewell, took a nasty tumble and landed awkwardly on the right handle. I won’t share the video, but I wish him the best.
On a less somber note, here are some notes from this win:
JD Martinez has already hit more home runs this season (25) than anyone on the Red Sox had in 2017 (Mookie Betts led the team with 24).
The 6-9 hitters in the Red Sox lineup (Nunez, Devers, Leon, and Bradley Jr.) went 7/15 with two home runs and five RBI last night.
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With the series already in hand, the Red Sox will look for the sweep later tonight before a huge series against the Yankees this weekend. Brian Johnson gets the start in Boston in place of the injured Steven Wright. It will be his first start since April 2nd when he gave up one run in six innings pitched against the Marlins in Miami. He’ll be matched up against Angels rookie Jaime Barria, who owns a 3.40 ERA in 10 starts this season. First pitch of the finale is scheduled for 7:10 PM ET.
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