Tag: hector velazquez

Former Red Sox Right-Hander Hector Velazquez Claimed off Waivers by Orioles

Three days after he was designated for assignment, former Red Sox right-hander Hector Velazquez was claimed off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday.

The 31-year-old was initially designated in order for Boston to make room on their 40-man roster for fellow right-hander Collin McHugh, who they signed to a one-year deal on Thursday.

Velazquez had spent the previous three seasons with the Red Sox after his contract was purchased from the Mexican League’s Pirates de Campeche in February 2017.

Over those three years, Velazquez worked as both a starter and a reliever, posting a 3.90 ERA and 4.41 FIP over 89 appearances (19 starts) and 166 total innings pitched.

The native of Mexico served as an important member of the World Series-winning team in 2018, which has by far been his best season in the majors to this point, but he also experienced a great deal of struggle in 2019, a year in which he was shuttled between Boston and Triple-A Pawtucket on several occasions.

Having brought on a plethora of pitching depth in Chaim Bloom’s first offseason as chief baseball officer, Velazquez probably became more and more expandable, and he ultimately lost his spot on the Sox’ 40-man roster spot late last week.

Of course, it is unfortunate that he was not able to sneak through waivers like Brian Johnson did last November, but it will be fascinating to see how Velazquez fares with a new organization.

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Red Sox Add Collin McHugh on One-Year Deal, Designate Hector Velazquez for Assignment

The Red Sox have agreed to a one-year major-league deal with right-hander Collin McHugh. To make room for McHugh on the 40-man roster, fellow right-hander Hector Velazquez was designated for assignment. The club made the transaction official earlier Thursday.

McHugh, 32, had spent the previous six seasons with the Astros, and most recently posted a 4.70 ERA and 4.34 xFIP over 35 appearances (eight starts) and 74 2/3 innings pitched in an injury-shortened 2019 campaign.

According to The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, McHugh will earn a base salary of $600,000 in 2020, “though performance bonuses related to innings and active days could drive that higher.”

He probably won’t be ready for the start of the season after just recently being cleared to throw following an offseason tenex procedure that alleviated an elbow concern, but once he is up to speed, McHugh is a solid piece to fill out the Sox’ starting rotation in the wake of the concerns surrounding left-hander Chris Sale.

As for Velazquez, the 31-year-old was a potential candidate to take one of those rotation spots, but will now likely begin the year with Triple-A Pawtucket if he does clear waivers.

 

Nathan Eovaldi Walks Four, Allows Three Runs in Final Start of Season as Red Sox Fall to Orioles

After falling to the Texas Rangers 7-5 in their final road contest of the season on Thursday, the Red Sox opened up the final weekend of the 2019 campaign with a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles on Friday.

Making his 12th and final start of the season for Boston was Nathan Eovaldi, who came into the weekend fresh off his first quality outing of 2019 in his last time out against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Working five full innings this time around, the right-hander surrendered another three runs, all of which were earned, on three hits and four walks to go along with three strikeouts on the night.

All three of those Orioles tallies came on one swing of the bat in the top half of the third, when with two outs and two runners on following a one-out double from Austin Hays and a one-out walk drawn by Trey Mancini in consecutive order, Eovaldi was just one pitch away from escaping a tight spot, but instead served up a hanging, 0-2, 81 MPH curveball to Renato Nunez, who crushed said pitch well over the Green Monster to get his side on the board first at 3-0.

Other than that one costly mistake though, Eovaldi settled in nicely enough, retiring six of the final eight Orioles he faced with the help of a 6-3 double play turned in the fifth, which would wind up being the Texas native’s last inning of work.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 90 (50 strikes), the 29-year-old hurler turned to his four-seam fastball more than 41% of the time he was on the mound Friday, inducing three swings and misses and topping out at 99.6 MPH with the pitch while Juan Centeno was behind the plate.

Ultimately hit with his first losing decision of the year despite lowering his ERA down to 5.99, Eovaldi’s first full season in Boston is in the books.

The flame throwing righty finishes with a 2-1 record, a 5.99 ERA, a 1.58 WHIP, and a .276 batting average against over 23 total appearances (12 starts) and 67 2/3 innings pitched.

In relief of Eovaldi, Hector Velazquez entered the sixth with a three-run deficit to maintain, and he filled the bases with two outs before getting Jonathan Villar to pop out to Brock Holt in shallow center to get out of the jam.

From there, Colten Brewer walked one and fanned two in a scoreless seventh, Andrew Cashner walked two in an otherwise clean eighth, and Marcus Walden allowed the O’s to score their fourth run of the night on a leadoff walk of Hays and two-out RBI single off the bat of Nunez in the ninth.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against a familiar foe in Orioles right-hander Adrian Wojciechowski, someone they had only gotten two total runs off of over two seperate starts and 11 2/3 innings of work leading into Friday.

Unable to get anything going against Wojciechowski once again in this one, it was not until the last half of the ninth when the Boston bats finally got going.

There, with left-handed reliever Richard Bleier on the mound for Baltimore, Rafael Devers led things off with a scorching leadoff double, his 53rd of the year.

That set up Xander Bogaerts in a prime run-scoring spot, and he delivered with an RBI single right back up the middle to plate Devers from second and finally get his team on the board.

Bogaert’s 500th career run driven in did make it seem as though a late rally was about to get off the ground.

Any momentum that was built up quickly dissipated though, as Bogaerts was picked off at first for the first out of the ninth, Mitch Moreland whiffed on four pitches for the second, and Christian Vazquez grounded out to third for the last out, ending Friday’s contest with a final score of 4-1.

Some notes from this loss:

With their 77th loss of the season and 40th at Fenway Park, the Red Sox guarantee that they will finish with a losing record at Fenway.

Rafael Devers is three hits away from 200 on the season.

From Red Sox Notes:

From The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier:

From The Eagle-Tribune’s Chris Mason:

—

Friday was certainly an eventful day for the Red Sox. They capped it off with an uneventful loss to one of the worst teams in all of baseball.

Next up for the Red Sox, it’s the final Saturday game of the season, with right-hander Jhoulys Chacin getting the ball for Boston and rookie left-hander John Means doing the same for Baltimore.

Chacin has posted a 6.00 ERA and .831 OPS against in five total outings (four starts) and 12 total innings of work since joining the Sox at the beginning of the month.

His first start against the O’s should serve as one last final 2020 audition for the 31-year-old.

Means, meanwhile, looks to wrap up a solid rookie campaign on a positive note.

In terms of Game Score, the 2019 All-Star’s best start of 2019 came against the Red Sox back on May 6th, when Means tossed seven innings of one-run ball in an eventual winning effort at Camden Yards.

First pitch Saturday is scheduled for 1:05 PM EDT on NESN. Two games left on the year. Time to cherish what is left.

Red Sox Held in Check by J.A. Happ, Fall to Yankees as Xander Bogaerts Picks up 1,000th Career Hit

After taking the opener of a four-game weekend series against the New York Yankees with a commanding 6-1 win on Friday, the Red Sox fell back to Earth on Saturday, as they managed just one run themselves in a 5-1 loss at the hands of the Bronx Bombers to fall back to 76-66 on the season.

Making the first start of his big league career for Boston and 11th appearance overall was Travis Lakins, who was named the opener for this one on Friday in what was another bullpen day for the Sox.

Tossing two no-hit innings like Jhoulys Chacin the day before, the rookie right-hander kept the Yankees off the scoreboard while fanning three of the six hitters he faced on the afternoon.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 29 (17 strikes), Lakins relied on his four-seam fastball more than 48% of the time he was on the mound Saturday, inducing four swings and misses and topping out at 96.1 MPH with the pitch while Christian Vazquez was behind the plate. Four of those heaters were the hardest pitches Lakins has thrown this year, per Red Sox Stats.

Ultimately hit with the no-decision while lowering his ERA on the season down to 4.15, it will be interesting to see if the Red Sox turn to the 25-year-old hurler as an opener again given the level of success achieved in his first go at it.

In relief of Lakins, left-hander Bobby Poyner entered the top of the third in a scoreless contest, and he got another busy day for the Boston bullpen started by sitting down the only three Yankees he faced in order.

The fourth inning is where things got sticky, as Ryan Weber yielded a leadoff double to D.J. LeMahieu before punching out Aaron Judge on four pitches for the first out of the frame.

A line drive to right off the bat of Didi Gregorius should have gone for the second out of the fourth, but with the sun directly in his face, J.D. Martinez, not Mookie Betts, had trouble picking up the ball, and it ended up glancing off his glove before rolling to the wall for a one-out double.

So, with runners at second and third with only one out instead of one runner at first with two outs, Colten Brewer came on for Weber, and he got Gary Sanchez to hit a weak fly ball to shallow right field.

The only thing was, the ball was essentially in no-man’s land, and neither of Mitch Moreland, Brock Holt, nor Martinez were able to come up with it for what would have been the second out.

Nope, instead, Sanchez was credited with a two-run ground-rule double and the Yankees had themselves a 2-0 lead just like that.

Things would not improve for the Sox following that series of mishaps though, not with Edwin Encarnacion unloading on the very first pitch he saw from Brewer, a hanging 81 MPH curveball down the heart of the plate, and depositing it 423 feet over the Green Monster for a two-run blast to double his side’s lead at 4-0.

Brewer was able to escape the fourth without surrendering anything else following that Encarnacion homer, but the damage had already been done.

From there, Trevor Kelley worked his way around two walks in a scoreless fifth, Hector Velazquez stranded the bases loaded with the help of an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play in a shutout sixth, and Josh Smith walked one and struck out another in a clean seventh to make way for Mike Shawaryn in the eighth.

Shawaryn proceeded to punch out the first two Yankees he faced before allowing the next two to reach base, but got out of it by getting LeMahieu to ground into a force out at second to retire the side.

In the ninth, Shawaryn again got the first two outs of the inning in simple fashion, but was unable to keep New York off the scoreboard this time as he plunked Sanchez and served up an RBI double to Encarnacion to increase the deficit to five runs before ending the frame.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against Yankees left-hander J.A. Happ, who entered the weekend fresh off one of his better starts of the season in his last time out against the Oakland Athletics this past Sunday.

Winless against Happ in his first three outings against them this year, that trend continued for Boston on Saturday.

Two hits and one walk. That’s all the Sox bats could manage off of Happ, and none of those three runners made it up to second base either.

It was not until the bottom half of the eighth, with Happ out and right-handed reliever Tommy Kahnle in for the Yankees, when back-to-back one-out singles from Mitch Moreland and the pinch-hitting Marco Hernandez finally put a runner in scoring position.

That led to left-hander Zack Britton taking over for Kahnle, and all Brock Holt could do was watch as strike three blew past him on a 1-2, 95 MPH slider at the knees.

Mookie Betts followed by making hard contact, but only on a ball that was hit right to Aaron Judge in right field to extinguish the threat.

And in the ninth, J.D. Martinez made things a bit interesting against Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman as he took the lefty deep to the Red Sox bullpen off an 0-1, 99 MPH heater on the inner half of the plate for his 35th home run of the season.

That 397-foot solo shot, Martinez’s 16th of the year off a left-handed pitcher, cut the deficit to four runs at 5-1, but that would ultimately go on to be Saturday’s final score.

Some notes from this loss:

The Red Sox went 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position on Saturday. They left four men on base as a team.

Xander Bogaerts collected the 1,000th hit of his major league career on Saturday with a fourth-inning single.

From Red Sox Notes:

From The Eagle-Tribune’s Chris Mason:

—

As of right now, the Red Sox are 6 1/2 games behind the Oakland A’s for the second American League Wild Card Spot. That is sure to change with the A’s, Cleveland Indians, and Tampa Bay Rays all in action on Saturday night.

Next up for the Red Sox, it’s the third installment of this four-game set on Sunday Night Baseball, with right-hander Rick Porcello getting the ball for Boston and fellow righty Masahiro Tanaka doing the same for New York.

Porcello struggled mightily in his first start of September against the Minnesota Twins, surrendering six earned runs on eight hits in an eventual 6-5 loss this past Tuesday.

In his last start against the Yankes, the 30-year-old toughed out a quality outing after allowing two runs in the second inning of a contest the Sox eventually won by a final score of 19-3.

Tanaka opposed Porcello in that game on July 25th, when he yielded 12 earned runs in just 3 1/3 innings of work and ultimately got hit with the losing decision.

The 30-year-old has recovered nicely since then though, posting an ERA of 3.38 and batting average against of .250 over his last seven starts and 42 2/3 innings pitched. The Yankees are 5-2 in those games.

First pitch Sunday is scheduled for 8:05 PM EDT on ESPN.

 

Back-To-Back Homers from Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez Power Red Sox to 4-3 Win over Angels in David Price’s Return

After snapping their mini three-game winning streak with a 10-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, the Red Sox rallied on Sunday and topped the Halos, taking the series with a tight 4-3 victory to end the last west coast swing on a positive note and improve to 74-63 on the season.

Making his 22nd second start of the season for Boston and first since August 4th was David Price, who was activated from the injured list earlier Sunday after missing nearly four weeks with a left wrist issue.

Tossing just two full innings in his first in-game action of September, the left-hander kept the Angels off the scoreboard while giving up one hit and one walk to go along with two strikeouts on the afternoon.

A two-out double off the bat of Brian Goodwin in the first and a one-out walk drawn by Kole Calhoun in the second. Those are the only two hitters Price allowed to reach base in this one.

Goodwin was stranded at second, as Price got Albert Pujols to fly out to right to end the first, and Calhoun was also stranded at second after swiping the bag in between two straight Angels flyouts induced by Price to retire the side in the bottom half of the second.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 45 (26 strikes), the 34-year-old hurler relied on his four-seam fastball more than 31% of the time he was on the mound Sunday, inducing one swing and miss and topping out at 91.7 MPH with the pitch while Christian Vazquez was behind the plate.

Ultimately hit with the no-decision due to the length of his outing, control was a bit of an issue for Price in this one. Out of the eight batters he faced, four got into three-ball counts and two got into two-ball counts. He’ll look to continue to shake off the rust in his next time out, which should come against the New York Yankees on Saturday back at Fenway Park.

In relief of Price, the Red Sox bullpen was dealt another long day of work, but they were better prepared for that this time around with rosters expanding on Sunday.

The recently called up Travis Lakins got the first call to begin the third, and he yielded one run on three straight two-out hits in the inning, and another on a leadoff walk and sacrifice fly in the fourth to cut his side’s lead down to two runs at 4-2.

From there, Ryan Weber scattered one hit and one walk over two scoreless frames of relief in the fifth and sixth, Hector Velazquez worked his way around a Mike Trout leadoff walk with the help of an unassisted double play turned by Sam Travis on a liner from Goodwin in a clean seventh, and Matt Barnes served up a leadoff solo shot to Justin Upton before sitting down the next three Angels he faced in order to preserve the 4-3 lead.

That made way for Brandon Workman in the ninth, and he plunked Trout with two outs in the inning to bring the winning run to the plate in the form of Goodwin, but held on by getting the Angels outfielder to fly out to Jackie Bradley Jr. in center to notch his 10th save and secure the one-run win.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against a familiar opponent in Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney, someone who held them to one run in less than four innings back on August 10th.

Kicking off the scoring right away in the first for the third consecutive day, Xander Bogaerts got his side on the board with a one-out, one-run single through the left side of the infield to bring in Mookie Betts, who led the inning off with a single and advanced twice on two wild pitches, from third. 1-0.

Fast forward to the third, and Bogaerts struck again, this time following up a one-out Rafael Devers single with a two-run home run hit 418 feet to dead center off a 1-1, 84 MPH changeup on the bottom half of the zone from Heaney for his 31st of the season.

On the very next pitch thrown by Heaney, a red-hot J.D. Martinez provided some power of his own, depositing a 77 MPH curveball on the inner half of the plate 411 feet into the seats in left field.

Martinez’s 34th big fly of the year and sixth of this road trip gave the Sox a commanding 4-0 lead, and after the Angels made things somewhat interesting in the end, 4-3 would go on to be Sunday’s final score.

Some notes from this win:

From The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham:

Xander Bogaerts’ last 15 games: .371/.443/.790 with six homers and 15 RBI.

J.D. Martinez’s last 30 games: .389/.482/.770 with 12 homers and 33 RBI.

—

With the Oakland Athletics and Cleveland Indians losing, and the Tampa Bay Rays winning on Sunday, the Red Sox currently sit five games behind Cleveland for the second American League Wild Card spot.

The Red Sox finished their last west coast road trip of the season by going 6-2 and now have just 25 regular season games remaining on the year.

Next up for the Red Sox, it’s an off day on Monday back in Boston before opening up a seven-game homestand against two of the three best teams in the American League in the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees.

Right-hander Rick Porcello will get the ball for Boston in the opener against Minnesota. The Twins have yet to name a starter.

Porcello is coming off a solid month of August in which he posted a 4.00 ERA and .233 batting average against over his last five starts and 27 innings pitched.

The last time he matched up against these Twins came on June 17th at Target Field, where the 30-year-old hurled seven scoreless innings in a game the Sox won by a final score of 2-0 and eventually took the series at two games to one.

First pitch Tuesday is scheduled for 7:10 PM EDT on NESN. Red Sox looking to start another winning streak.

 

Red Sox Activate David Price from Injured List, Add Six September Call-Ups in Slew of Roster Moves

Before closing out a three-game weekend series against the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday, the Red Sox announced that left-hander David Price had been activated off the 10-day injured list.

In addition to that, right-hander Jhoulys Chacin, catcher Juan Centeno, and outfielder Gorkys Hernandez were selected to the major league roster from Triple-A Pawtucket, while right-hander Travis Lakins, right-hander Hector Velazquez, and right-hander Ryan Weber were recalled from Triple-A.

To make these moves possible, left-hander Chris Sale and right-hander Steven Wright were transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list, while minor league first baseman Joey Curletta was outrighted off Boston’s 40-man roster. The club made the transactions official earlier Sunday.

Before Sunday, Sox manager Alex Cora said that the plan for September call-ups was to add a right-handed outfielder and a catcher for depth. They now have that in the form of Hernandez and Centeno.

Hernandez, 31, joined Boston on a minor-league deal back in December after spending the past three seasons with the San Francisco Giants.

In 123 games with Pawtucket this year, the Venezuela native slashed .219/.319/.377 with 16 home runs and 53 RBI.

Those numbers improved when Hernandez faced off against left-handed pitchers, as he slashed .305/.408/.533 to go along with seven homers and 16 RBI over 105 at-bats.

Hernandez will start in center field and bat out of the nine-hole for Boston on Sunday with lefty Andrew Heaney starting for Los Angeles.

Centeno, meanwhile, also joined the Red Sox on a minor-league pact this past November after spending the 2018 season within the Texas Rangers’ organization.

Over the course of 81 International League contests this year, the native of Puerto Rico posted an OPS of .671 while hitting four homers and driving in 40 runs in 301 plate appearances. He’ll likely slide in behind Christian Vazquez and Sandy Leon on the catcher depth chart.

The move to add Chacin came on Saturday, when the two sides reached agreement on a minor-league deal less than a week after the veteran right-hander had been released by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Lakins, Velazquez, and Weber have all spent time with the Sox this season, combining for 46 appearances and 11 starts in the majors in 2019.

David Price was activated off the injured list a little more than three weeks after initially being shelved with a TFCC cyst in his left wrist.

The 34-year-old hurler received treatment for the cyst via a cortisone shot and is now ready for in-game action.

Through 21 starts this season, Price owns a 4.36 ERA and 3.65 FIP over 105 1/3 total innings pitched. The Red Sox are 9-12 in those games.

Price will be making his 22nd start and first since August 4th against the Angels on Sunday afternoon. Here is how the Red Sox will be lining up behind him.

First pitch is scheduled for 4:07 PM EDT on NESN.

Rick Porcello Gives up Two Home Runs, One of Which Being Mike Trout’s First at Fenway Park, as Red Sox Get Blown out by Angels

After blowing out the Los Angeles Angels in a 16-4 victory on Friday night, the Red Sox saw their two-game winning streak come to an end on Saturday, as they fell to the Halos by a final score of 12-4 to drop back down to 62-57 on the season.

Making his 24th start of the season for Boston was Rick Porcello, who came into the weekend fresh off his best outing in weeks in his last time out against the Kansas City Royals.

Working into the sixth inning this time around, the right-hander surrendered five runs, all of which were earned, on five hits and zero walks to go along with three strikeouts on the afternoon.

The first three of of those Angels runs came right away in the top half of the first inning, when for the second game in a row, a three-run home run got Los Angeles on the board first.

This one came courtesy of Justin Upton following a leadoff single from Kole Calhoun and one-out double from Shohei Ohtani.

On the fourth pitch he saw from Porcello, Ohtani unloaded on a 1-2, 93 MPH heater and wrapped it around Pesky’s Pole for his seventh home run of the season.

All was not looking well for Porcello early on, but the New Jersey native settled in nicely after serving up that bomb by stringing together 14 consecutive outs from the top of the first until the middle of the fifth.

Unfortunately for Boston though, Calhoun broke up that string with a leadoff single in the sixth, and Mike Trout followed that up by doing something he had yet to do in his career before Saturday, that being hit a home run at Fenway Park.

Yes, it took 22 games at Fenway to do so, but Trout clearly liked the first pitch he saw from his fellow statesman, a 90 MPH fastball down the heart of the plate, in his third at-bat of the day, and he deposited it 428 feet over the Green Monster.

Trout’s 39th homer of the year put the Angels up 5-1, and Porcello’s evening quickly came to a close as the two-time American League MVP was making the jog back to his dugout after rounding the bases.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 75 (54 strikes), the 30-year-old hurler turned to his two-seam fastball nearly 35% of the time he was on the mound Saturday, inducing three swings and misses with the pitch. He also topped out at 92.8 MPH with his four-seamer, a pitch he threw 21 times while Sandy Leon was behind the plate.

Ultimately falling to 10-9 while inflating his ERA on the season up to 5.67, Porcello did not pitch poorly on Saturday. It’s just that the two biggest mistakes he made went for long home runs with men already on base. He’ll look to re-gain that Kansas City form in his next time out, which should come against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday.

In relief of Porcello, left-hander Darwinzon Hernandez entered the sixth with the bases empty and three outs to get, and he got those three outs while working his way around a walk as well.

The seventh inning is where this contest fell apart for the Red Sox. Hernandez came back out for his second frame of work with his team in a three-run hole.

Despite the decently positive results in the sixth, the 22-year-old lost control in the seventh, as he allowed the Luis Rengifo, Kevan Smith, Wilfredo Tovar, and Calhoun to all reach base without recording an out.

Tovar drove in Rengifo on third with an RBI single, and Calhoun drew a walk on five pitches to fill the bases, which ended up being the point where Hernandez could no longer continue.

Instead, Hector Velazquez was inserted into this particular jam, and he proceeded to bean the first man he faced in Trout, digging the hole even deeper at 7-2.

A two-run single from Ohtani and sacrifice fly off the bat of Upton increased the Angels’ lead to eight runs, and David Fletcher plated a pair despite not recording an RBI on a single that got past Sam Travis in left field, which in turn allowed Ohtani and Matt Thaiss to score and make it a 12-2 game.

From that point, Velazquez got the final two outs of the seventh without allowing another run to score, while Ryan Weber retired six of the eight hitters he faced over two scoreless frames of relief in the eighth and ninth to hold the Angels at 12 runs.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney, another former Miami Marlins prospect who had been out since July 16th due to inflammation in his throwing elbow.

Starting the scoring in the bottom half of the third inning, a Jackie Bradley Jr. HBP and Mookie Betts single that Upton misplayed in left field put runners in scoring position with no outs for the middle-part of Boston’s order.

Xander Bogaerts was unable to do anything, as he flew out to shallow right field, but J.D. Martinez was able to load the bases by taking a 1-2, 80 MPH curveball off his left foot.

That HBP brought Sam Travis to the plate in a prime run-scoring spot, and he managed to bring Bradley Jr. in from third on a sacrifice fly to left to cut the early deficit down to two runs at 3-1.

Still with runners at first and second, Christian Vazquez killed any shot of extending the rally by flying out to Upton in left to end the inning.

In the fourth, back-to-back two-out singles from Sandy Leon and Bradley Jr. set up Mookie Betts nicely against new Angels reliever Taylor Cole, but all the reigning American League MVP could do was fly out to right for the third and final out.

Fast forward to the sixth, with Brock Holt at second following a one-out double, Bradley Jr. at first following a two-out walk and former Red Sox prospect Ty Buttrey on the mound for Los Angeles, Betts came through this time with a line-drive RBI double to score Holt from second and trim the Halos’ lead to three runs at 5-2.

5-2 was the closest the Sox got though, as the Angels exploded for seven runs of their own in their half of the seventh.

Travis and Michael Chavis responded in the bottom half of the frame with a solo homer and run-scoring groundout off of JC Ramirez to make it a 12-4 contest, but that would go on to be Saturday’s final score.

Some notes from this loss:

The Red Sox went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position on Saturday. They left 11 men on base as a team.

From MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo:

—

So, the mini two-game winning streak for the Red Sox has come to an end. They’ll look to close out this six-game homestand with a series win over the Angels on Sunday afternoon before heading to Cleveland.

Right-hander Andrew Cashner is set to get the ball for Boston, while left-hander Patrick Sandoval will do the same for Los Angeles.

Since coming over from the Baltimore Orioles last month, Cashner has taken the loss in four of his first five starts with the Red Sox. He has posted a 7.53 ERA over 28 2/3 innings of work in that span.

In his career against the Angels, the 32-year-old owns a lifetime 3.27 ERA and .259 batting average against over six total appearances (three starts) and 22 innings pitched.

Sandoval, meanwhile, will be making his firs career big league start in his second appearance after yielding two runs over five innings of relief in his big league debut against the Cincinnati Reds this past Monday.

Ranked as the No. 11 prospect in the Angels’ farm system, Sandoval, 22, posted a 5.71 ERA and .290 batting average against over 19 starts between Double-A Mobile and Triple-A Salt Lake before getting called up on August 5th.

First pitch Sunday is scheduled for 1:05 PM EDT on NESN. Red Sox going for the series win.

J.D. Martinez Crushes Two of Red Sox’ Five Homers in 16-4 Blowout Win over Angels

After shutting out the Los Angeles Angels behind eight dominant innings from Chris Sale on Thursday, the Red Sox picked up their second straight win over the Halos on Friday, as they took the second of the four-game set by a final score of 16-4 to improve to 62-56 on the season.

Making his fourth start of the season for Boston and second since being activated off the injured list this past Saturday was Brian Johnson, now taking the spot of the recently shelved David Price in Boston’s rotation.

Working into the third inning on Friday, the left-hander surrendered three runs, all of which were earned, on two hits and two walks to go along with one strikeout on the night.

All three of those Angels runs came around to score right away in the top half of the first, when with two outs and runners on first and second following a one-out double from Mike Trout and two-out walk drawn by Justin Upton, Albert Pujols unloaded on a 1-2, 77 MPH slider from Johnson and deposited it well over the Green Monster.

That three-run blast put Los Angeles up 3-0, but Johnson should have been out of the first before all that went down. Why? Because ball four on that walk to Upton should have gone for strike three for the final out of the frame. Instead, it wasn’t called a strike by home plate umpire Mark Ripperger, Upton was granted first, and that set up Pujols.

Other than that one major blip though, Johnson recovered nicely enough to sit down six of the next seven hitters he faced after serving up that bomb before getting the hook with Shohei Ohtani on first, two outs in the third, and Upton due up next to hit for the Angels.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 50 (28 strikes), the 28-year-old hurler relied on his four-seam fastball 42% of the time he was on the mound Friday, inducing zero swings and misses and topping out at 90.8 MPH with the pitch while Christian Vazquez was behind the plate.

Ultimately hit with the no-decision while bumping his ERA on the season up to 7.32, Johnson’s next start should come against the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday.

In relief of Johnson, Marcus Walden entered the top half of the third with one out still to get and one runner on, and he got that out thanks to Vazquez, who nabbed Ohtani at second on an unsuccessful stolen base attempt.

Walden also came back out for the fourth and fifth innings, where he faced the minimum of six Angeles hitters over two scoreless to eventually earn his seventh winning decision of the year before making way for Nathan Eovaldi in the sixth.

There, the right-hander began his evening by sitting down David Fletcher, Trout, and Ohtani in order on 20 pitches. Not too shabby.

Eovaldi’s second inning of work in the seventh though? Well, it could have gone better, as a leadoff double off the bat of Upton, a one-out HBP of Kole Calhoun, and two straight walks of Luis Rengifo and Brian Johnson brought Los Angeles’ fourth run of the night.

The Texas native did manage to escape any further damage in the seventh by getting Matt Thaiss to ground into an inning-ending, 4-6-3 double play, but it certainly wasn’t pretty.

Regardless of that, Hector Velazquez and Josh Taylor wrapped things up in a contest the Sox ended up running away with by combining for two perfect innings of relief in the top halves of the eighth and ninth to secure the 16-4 win.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against Angels right-hander Jaime Barria, who came into the weekend having yielded 17 runs in his last four starts since the All-Star break.

Kicking off the scoring started right away in the bottom half of the first, J.D. Martinez responded to an early three-run deficit by driving in Mookie Betts from second on a two-out, line-drive RBI double. 3-1.

Fast forward all the way to the fourth, and Martinez struck again, this time plating Xander Bogaerts, as well as himself, on a 402-foot, two-run shot off a 3-1, 93 MPH heater down the heart of the plate from Barria to knot things up at three runs apiece.

An inning later, a one-out single off the bat of Jackie Bradley Jr. would turn out to be the catalyst for another two-run rally in the fifth, as Betts followed suit with his 20th big fly of the year off a 3-2, 87 MPH slider on the inner half of the plate to give the Sox their first lead of the night at 5-3.

In the sixth, Martinez, Andrew Benintendi, and Vazquez all reached to fill the bases with one out for the pinch-hitting Sam Travis, who greeted new Angels reliever Adalberto Mejia by drawing a five-pitch walk, which brought Martinez in from third and made it a 6-3 contest.

Bradley Jr. collected an RBI despite driving in a pair with a grounder that got under the glove of Rengifo. 8-3.

A six-pitch walk of Betts re-loaded the bases for Rafael Devers, and the 23-year-old took full advantage by lacing another two-run single through the right side of the infield, putting his side up 10-3 in the process of going so.

A red-hot Martinez stayed hot in the seventh, mashing his second homer of the night and 27th of the season to lead the inning off against Angels right-hander Trevor Cahill. 11-4.

Benintendi and Vazquez followed that up by both reaching base on a HBP and walk, and Mitch Moreland came through with an RBI double of his own to drive in Benintendi and make it an eight-run game at 12-4.

In the eighth, after taking over for Bogaerts defensively in the top of the inning, Devers took the first pitch he saw from Cahill and led off with not only his 24th dinger of 2019, but also his first career homer as a shortstop.

Four batters later, a wild pitch allowed Martinez to go from second to third after he reached on a throwing error, and Vazquez proved once more that mistakes can be costly, as he plated Martinez with an RBI single to left. 14-4.

And finally, Moreland put the exclamation point on this blowout with his first home run in nearly three months. This particular one, his 14th of the year, was good for two runs as it soared over the Green Monster.

That opposite field blast gave the Red Sox a 16-4 edge, which would go on to be Friday’s final score.

Some notes from this win:

J.D. Martinez’s August thus far: .469/.553/.938 with four homers and eight RBI.

The Red Sox are 14-1 this season when scoring 10-plus runs in a game.

The Red Sox are 3-1 in their last four completed games.

—

With the win on Friday, the Red Sox now sit five games back of the Tampa Bay Rays for the second American League Wild Card spot.

Next up for the Sox, it’s the third of this four-game weekend series on Saturday afternoon.

Right-hander Rick Porcello will get the ball for Boston, while left-hander Andrew Heaney will do the same for Los Angeles.

Porcello is coming off his best outing in weeks in his last time out against the Kansas City Royals, as he held the opposition to just one run on four hits over six strong innings of work.

In his career against the Angels, the 30-year-old owns a lifetime 5.56 ERA and .291 batting average against over 18 starts and 103 2/3 total innings pitched.

Heaney, meanwhile, will be making his first start in over three weeks after being sidelined due to inflammation in his left elbow.

In one prior start at Fenway Park back on June 27th of last season, the 28-year-old allowed six runs in less than four innings in an eventual losing effort.

First pitch Saturday is scheduled for 4:05 PM EDT on NESN. Red Sox going for their third straight win.

 

Red Sox Place David Price on Injured List with TFCC Cyst on Left Wrist, Recall Hector Velazquez from Triple-A Pawtucket in Corresponding Move

Before opening up a four-game series with the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday, the Red Sox announced that left-hander David Price had been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a left wrist injury. In a corresponding move, right-hander Hector Velazquez was recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket. The club made the transaction official earlier Thursday.

Per the Sox’ official press release, Price, “underwent an MRI on his left wrist that revealed a TFCC cyst that was treated with a cortisone shot.”

According to Midwest Orthopedics at Rush, a top orthopedic clinic in Chicago, the TFCC, or triangular fibrocartilage complex, is, “a cartilage structure located on the small finger side of the wrist that, cushions and supports the small carpal bones in the wrist.”

Price dealt with a mild case of carpal tunnel syndrome last season, where he was scratched from a May 9th start against the New York Yankees but did not miss any time on the IL.

Speaking of the Yankees, this move comes less than four full days after the 33-year-old surrendered a season-worst seven earned runs over 2 2/3 innings this past Sunday in the Bronx.

On the 2019 campaign as a whole, Price owns an ERA of 4.36 and batting average against of .260 over 21 starts and 105 1/3 innings of work. That includes an ERA of 8.59 in five outings since the All-Star break.

As of this moment, there is no timetable for when Price may be able to return.

In Price’s place, right-hander Hector Velazquez was recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket a little more than three weeks after being optioned there.

While with the PawSox, the 30-year-old allowed three earned runs on five hits and three walks over six relief appearances and 6 2/3 innings pitched.

With Price’s spot in Boston’s rotation vacated for the time being, expect Velazquez or fellow righty Ryan Weber to fill in beginning on Friday.

Red Sox Designate Eduardo Nunez for Assignment, Option Hector Velazquez to Triple-A Pawtucket in Slew of Roster Moves

Before kicking off a four-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday, the Red Sox announced that infielder Eduardo Nunez had been designated for assignment and right-hander Hector Velazquez had been optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket.

In a pair of corresponding moves, right-hander Ryan Weber and first baseman/outfielder Sam Travis were both recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket. The club made the transactions official earlier Monday.

Nunez, 32, slashed .228/.243/.305 with two home runs and 20 RBI over 60 games with Boston this season after picking up his 2019 player option last November.

Originally acquired from the San Francisco Giants back in July of 2017, the Dominican Republic native came through with two of the biggest plays for the Red Sox during last year’s postseason run in Game 4 of the ALDS against the New York Yankees…

…and Game 1 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, where Nunez came off the bench and mashed a pinch-hit, three-run home run in the seventh inning off left-hander Alex Wood to give his team an 8-4 lead.

This decision made by the Red Sox is certainly a surprisnig one, as Nunez was well regarded in Boston’s clubhouse by players and coaches alike.

But, with infielder Marco Hernandez emerging and outperforming Nunez since he was recalled from Triple-A on June 8th, it appears that the Sox decided to go younger with a right-handed bat that can play all along the infield and come off the bench when necessary.

Nunez was due to earn $5 million in the final year of a two-year pact signed with Boston two Februarys ago, so it will be interesting to see if another club claims him before he would become a free agent.

On the other side of this news, Hector Velazquez was optioned to the PawSox one night after he surrendered three runs in the 12th inning of a 7-4 loss to the Dodgers.

Through 24 appearances (eight starts) so far in 2019, the 30-year-old hurler has posted a dismal 5.67 ERA and .262 batting average against over 46 total innings of work.

Velazquez has twice spent time on the injured list this season with a lower back strain, but the Red Sox decided to use one of the right-hander’s last two minor league options this time around.

In place of Nunez and Velazquez, Sam Travis and Ryan Weber were both recalled from the PawSox.

Last we saw Weber at the big league level, the 28-year-old was struggling to fill the fifth spot in the Sox’ starting rotation, but with the addition of Andrew Cashner, Weber more or less fills the spot left by Steven Wright, who was placed on the 10-day injured list Sunday.

In a span of six outings (three starts) with Boston from May 6th to June 6th, Weber posted an ERA of 5.12 and batting average against of .296 over 19 1/3 frames pitched.

Sam Travis, meanwhile, is up with the Red Sox for the fourth time this season. The 25-year-old has not done much (6-for-31) in the limited opportunities he has seen so far in 2019, but he has picked things up at Triple-A lately by slashing .329/.363/.553 over the last month, per Red Sox Stats.

First pitch against the Blue Jays Monday is scheduled for 7:10 PM EDT on NESN. Here’s how the Red Sox will be lining up behind Rick Porcello.