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Powered by Home Runs From Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, and Rafael Devers, Red Sox Extend Winning Streak To Three Following 8-5 Victory Over Orioles

On a night they made their first move before the trade deadline, the Red Sox extended their winning streak to a season-best three consecutive games on Friday following an 8-5 victory over the Orioles.

Colten Brewer made his second start and ninth overall appearance of the season for Boston, and he looked much better than he did in his first career start against the Yankees last week.

That being the case because over four strong innings of work, the right-hander held the O’s scoreless while scattering three hits and two walks to go along with two strikeouts on the night.

The only real trouble Brewer ran into came in the bottom of the first, when he yielded two straight two-out singles to Renato Nunez and Pedro Severino before getting out of the inning unscathed.

Other than that, Brewer proceeded to retire eight of the final 11 hitters he faced going into the end of the fourth, which is the point where his outing came to a close.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 71 (50 strikes), the 27-year-old turned to his four-seam fastball 49% of the time he was on the mound Friday, inducing two swings-and-misses and topping out at 95.2 mph with the pitch.

Unable to pick up the winning decision due to the length of his outing, Brewer did manage to lower his ERA on the season to 3.50. If he gets another start, it will likely come against the Blue Jays in Buffalo sometime next week.

In relief of Brewer, Darwinzon Hernandez got the first call out of the Red Sox bullpen in what was his 2020 debut.

The 23-year-old southpaw faced eight batters over two scoreless frames of work, allowing one hit, walking another, and fanning three on his way to picking up his first career major-league victory.

From there, fellow lefty Josh Osich got lit up for five runs on three separate homers over 1 2/3 innings before Austin Brice had to come on and record the final out of the eighth.

And in the ninth, with Brandon Workman on his way to Philadelphia, Matt Barnes got the call to close this one out, and the right-hander did just that by maneuvering his way around a leadoff single in an otherwise clean inning to secure his first save and his team’s ninth win of the season in 8-5 fashion.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against Orioles ace left-hander John Means, who entered Friday with a 10.57 ERA through his first three starts of 2020.

After going down 1-2-3 in their half of the first, the Boston bats got it going in the second inning for a second straight night when a red-hot Xander Bogaerts led the frame off with a 412-foot solo shot to give his side an early one-run lead.

An inning later, the middle part of the Sox lineup struck once again, when after Kevin Pillar reached base on a one-out single, J.D. Martinez drove the outfielder and himself in on a 431-foot two-run blast to center field for his third homer of the year. 3-0 Boston.

Fast forward to the fifth, with reliever Jorge Lopez pitching for Baltimore, Rafael Devers put his power on display and had by far the best swing of the night.

With one out and runners at first and second, the 23-year-old took a 1-0, 85 mph changeup down the chute from the O’s right-hander and proceeded to deposit it 447 feet to dead center.

Per Statcast, Devers’ fourth big fly of the year had an exit velocity of 108.1 mph, which was the hardest hit ball of the evening for either side. It also put the Red Sox up 6-0.

In the sixth, Michael Chavis provided what would turn out to be some much-needed insurance with a two-run single off Lopez following back-to-back leadoff base knocks off the bats of Christian Vazquez and Alex Verdugo.

Chavis’ sixth and seventh RBI of the season put the Red Sox up 8-0, and 8-5 would go on to be Friday’s final score.

Some notes and observations from this victory:

With two hits on Friday, Alex Verdugo has extended his hitting streak to 12 straight games.

Rafael Devers has six hits in his last three games.

From Red Sox Notes:

From The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier:

—

Next up for the Red Sox, it’s the third game of this four-game weekend set on Saturday night.

Left-hander Martin Perez will get the ball for Boston, while veteran right-hander Alex Cobb will do the same for Baltimore.

Perez surrendered five runs (four runs) to the O’s in his Red Sox debut back on July 25. The 29-year-old has made four career starts at Camden Yards and owns a 4.32 ERA and .698 OPS against in those outings.

Cobb, meanwhile, held the Sox to just one run in that same game Perez started in July. The 32-year-old, who was born in Boston, comes into the weekend with a 3.76 ERA and .634 OPS against through his first five starts and 26 1/3 innings pitched this season.

First pitch Saturday is scheduled for 7:35 p.m. eastern time on NESN and WEEI. Red Sox looking for their fourth straight victory.

Red Sox Lineup: Colten Brewer Making Second Start of Season in Second of Four Against Orioles

After picking up their second straight victory on Thursday, the Red Sox will look to kick off the weekend with another win over the Orioles in Baltimore on Friday night.

Right-hander Colten Brewer will make his second start and ninth overall appearance of the season for Boston, and he will be opposed by Orioles left-hander John Means.

In his first start of the year, Brewer surrendered two runs on four hits and three walks over 2 2/3 innings of work against the Yankees last Friday. Outside of that, the 27-year-old owns a 3.97 ERA and .756 OPS against as a reliever this season.

Upon completing anywhere from two to four innings against the O’s on Friday, Brewer will be followed by the recently-activated Darwinzon Hernandez out of the Boston bullpen.

Per Sox manager Ron Roenicke, the plan for the 23-year-old southpaw, who was activated from the COVID-19 related injured list on Thursday, is to pitch one or two innings in his season debut.

As for Boston’s opposition, fellow southpaw John Means owns a lifetime 4.02 ERA and .704 OPS against in six career outings (five starts) and 31 1/3 total innings pitched against the Red Sox.

The 27-year-old, who was Baltimore’s lone All-Star last season, has posted a 10.57 ERA and 6.56 FIP through his first three starts of 2020.

Here is how the Red Sox will be lining up behind Brewer and against Means to begin things on Friday:

With a left-hander on the mound for Baltimore, Kevin Pillar moves up to the leadoff spot while Alex Verdugo slips to the six-hole and Mitch Moreland takes a seat in favor of Michael Chavis at first base.

Among these nine hitters, Xander Bogaerts has by far seen Means the best, as the 27-year-old shortstop owns a lifetime .417/.429/.750 slash line with one home run in 12 career at-bats against the Orioles starter.

J.D. Martinez has also taken Means deep twice before.

First pitch Friday is scheduled for 7:35 p.m. eastern time on NESN and WEEI. Red Sox going for their third consecutive victory.

Nathan Eovaldi Tosses Seven Strong Innings, Xander Bogaerts and Mitch Moreland Both Homer as Red Sox Open Series Against Orioles With 7-1 Victory

For the first time in nearly two weeks, the Red Sox have won two consecutive games following a 3-1 victory over the Orioles on Thursday night.

Nathan Eovaldi made his sixth start of the season for Boston, and he put together a strong outing after getting rocked for eight runs in his last time out against the Yankees.

Working a season-best seven innings against Baltimore on Thursday, the right-hander yielded just one run while scattering five hits and one walk to go along with six strikeouts on the night.

That lone O’s tally came in Eovaldi’s final inning of work when the hurler served up a leadoff homer to Pat Valaika to make it a 3-1 contest at the time.

Other than that one blip though, Eovaldi settled down after a rather rocky top half of the first in which he escaped a bases loaded jam by retiring 18 of the last 21 hitters he faced from the middle of the second up until the end of the seventh, which is the point where his outing came to a close.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 97 (64 strikes), the 30-year-old fireballer turned to his four-seam and cut fastball 68% of the time he was on the mound Thursday, inducing six swings-and-misses with the combination of pitches while topping out at 99.2 mph with his heater.

Able to pick up his second winning decision and lower his ERA on the season down to 4.98, Eovaldi will look to build off this impressive performance in his next time out, which should come against the Blue Jays in Buffalo on Wednesday.

In relief of Eovaldi, Ryan Brasier got the first call out of the Red Sox bullpen for the bottom of the eighth, and he fanned a pair in a quick, painless, and scoreless frame of work.

From there, Phillips Valdez was dispatched in the ninth in what had turned out to be a runaway for Boston, and the right-hander tossed a 1-2-3 inning to lock down the 7-1 win for his side.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against a fairly familiar foe in Orioles right-hander Asher Wojciechowski, someone who had given the Sox trouble in the past.

This time around, Wojciechowski was not quite as effective, and the Boston bats put that to the test right away in their half of the second.

There, a Christian Vazquez leadoff single that likely could have been caught was followed by Kevin Pillar drawing a six-pitch walk.

That sequence brought Jose Peraza to the plate with one out and a runner in scoring position, and the second baseman capitalized fully on the scoring chance by driving in Vazquez on a blooper of an RBI single to shallow center field.

Alex Verdugo doubled his side’s early lead with a groundout to second that brought in Pillar from third, and just like that, the Red Sox were up 2-0.

An inning later, Xander Bogaerts added on to that lead by taking Wojciechowski 366 feet deep to left field off a 1-2, 84 mph changeup near his hands for his fifth long ball of the season.

Fast forward all the way to the ninth, and Bogaerts struck again, this time ripping an RBI single off Miguel Castro to drive in Verdugo from third and make it a 3-1 contest.

With runners at first and second now, Mitch Moreland followed suit by putting this one to bed with a 402-foot three-run homer to deep center field off Castro.

Moreland’s team-leading seventh big fly of the year, as well as the Red Sox’ first three-run home run, put Boston up 7-1, which would go on to be Thursday’s final score.

Some notes and observations from this victory:

From MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith:

From The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham:

Alex Verdugo’s streak of recording an extra-base hit may have ended at seven consecutive games, but he still has an 11-game hitting streak going.

Xander Bogaerts is 5-for-his-last-11 at the plate over his last three games.

The Red Sox’ 4-5-6 hitters (Bogaerts, Moreland, Vazquez) went a combined 7-for-14 with two homers and five RBI.

—

Next up for the Red Sox, it’s the second game of this four-game weekend set against the Orioles on Friday night.

Right-hander Colten Brewer will serve as the opener for Boston, while left-hander John Means will get the traditional start for Baltimore.

Brewer opened for the Sox against the Yankees back on August 14 and he allowed two runs over 2 2/3 innings in that outing.

Means, meanwhile, owns a 10.57 ERA and 6.54 FIP through his first three starts and 7 2/3 innings pitched this season.

First pitch Friday is scheduled for 7:35 p.m. eastern time on NESN and WEEI. Red Sox looking for their third straight win.

Alex Verdugo Extends Hitting Streak To 10 Games; Red Sox Manager Ron Roenicke Likes Energy Outfielder Brings To Team

Alex Verdugo extended his season-best hitting streak to 10 games in the fifth inning of Wednesday’s 6-3 win over the Phillies with a one-out double off Jake Arrieta.

After striking out in his first two at-bats against the Phillies starter, reaching base there must have come as a relief for the Red Sox outfielder, but he did not spend too much time hanging around at second.

That being the case because just a few moments later, Kevin Pillar poked a soft grounder to the right side of the infield that Philly first baseman Rhys Hoskins had a difficult time corralling and wound up floating over Arrieta’s head as the hurler was rushing to cover the bag.

As a result of that mishap, Verdugo came around to score all the way from second with an emphatic slide across the plate to push across his side’s fourth run of the afternoon.

Fast forward to the seventh, and Verdugo was again active on the base paths, when after reaching first on a one-out walk, the 24-year-old almost immediately swiped second base off Phillies reliever Ramon Rosso. He likely would have tried to take third base as well since J.T. Realmuto’s throw landed in shallow center field, but wound up stuck at second after Neil Walker seemingly blocked his path.

In a friendly kind of way, Verdugo did not seem all too pleased with Walker’s actions, but again, he would not be sticking around there long enough for a legitimate, lengthy conversation, for Rafael Devers drove him in on a wall-ball RBI double moments later.

That put the Sox up 5-3 at the time it was hit, and 6-3 would go on to be Wednesday’s final score.

After Boston’s first win in well over a week, Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke seemed quite pleased with Verdugo’s performance, and even cited what he did earlier Wednesday as a potential reason for that.

“The energy that he brings everyday,” Roenicke said of the young outfielder. “Before the game, he’s running around with energy and I think you need guys like that on your team.”

Verdugo isn’t usually that hyper before games, per Roenicke, but on a day the Red Sox were trying to snap a nine-game losing streak, it certainly was not met with disapproval.

“It’s good to see,” the Sox skipper added. “Where we [were] before that game I think it was needed. I think he decided that was what he was going to do to try to get us going and I like it. Like I said, I like when guys are vocal. Because if not, it seems like it’s always the manager and the coaches that are saying things and it’s a great thing when you have players jumping in.”

Through his first 23 games with the Red Sox, Verdugo is now slashing .284/.356/.531 with five home runs, five doubles, nine RBI, 13 runs scored, and two stolen bases.

On top of that offensive production, the former second-round pick has clearly emerged as one of the loudest, more energetic players on the team. A prime example of that emerged back on August 7, when Verdugo clubbed two homers against the Blue Jays and in the ninth inning, robbed Travis Shaw of a home run by reaching over the bullpen wall in right field.

Upon making that sensational catch, Verdugo belted out a loud, celebratory yell which could be heard throughout Fenway Park and likely on the streets surrounding the ballpark, too.

It all goes to show that this is the type of player Verdugo is. One who brings a wicked amount of energy and gives it his all nearly 100% of the time, whether that be at the plate, on the base paths, or in the outfield.

Also, Verdugo became the first Red Sox outfielder to hit at least one extra-base hit in seven consecutive games since Dwight Evans did so in 1982. A little bit of history for you there.

Rafael Devers Homers, Puts Together Second Straight Three-Hit Day as Red Sox Halt Losing Streak With 6-3 Win Over Phillies

At long last, the Red Sox have put an end to their nine-game losing streak with a 6-3 victory over the Phillies at Fenway Park on Wednesday.

Kyle Hart made his second start of the season for Boston, and although he did not pitch particularly deep into this game, he did look better than he did in his major-league debut last Thursday.

Working 3 2/3 innings in this one, the rookie left-hander yielded two runs, both of which were earned, on two hits and four walks to go along with five strikeouts on the afternoon.

Both of those Philadelphia tallies came right away in the top half of the first, when after putting the first three hitters he faced on, Hart gave up an RBI single to Phil Gosselin and a run-scoring sacrifice fly to Didi Gregorius.

Other than that, though, Hart did manage to sit down nine of the next 12 Phillies who came up to the plate against him before Philly’s lineup flipped back over a second time with two outs in the fourth. At that point, Hart’s day was over.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 73 (39 strikes), the 27-year-old hurler turned to his slider and four-seam fastball 66% of the time he was on the mound Wednesday, inducing five whiffs with the combination of pitches while topping out at 90.2 mph with the heater.

Hit with the no-decision due to the length of his outing while lowering his ERA to 11.12, Hart’s next start, if he does get one that is, would likely come against the Blue Jays in Buffalo sometime next week.

In relief of Hart, right-hander Austin Brice got the first call out of the Red Sox bullpen with one out to get in the top of the fourth, and he got that out by getting Andrew McCutchen to pop out before working a scoreless fifth inning as well.

From there, Ryan Weber tossed a shutout sixth and allowed one run on one hit while only recording the first out of the seventh before making way for Matt Barnes, who fanned two in that frame and danced his way around a one-out walk in a laborious, yet clean eighth inning.

With a three-run lead to protect at that point, Brandon Workman was dispatched for the top of the ninth, and the Sox closer got the job done by retiring the only three Phillies he faced in order to secure the save and the 6-3 win for his side.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against veteran right-hander Jake Arrieta for the Phillies, who was making his sixth career start at Fenway Park on Wednesday.

Down by a pair of runs before even taking their first at-bats, the Boston offense got things going in their half of the third.

There, a two-out double off the bat of Kevin Pillar brought Rafael Devers to the plate for a second time, and the resurgent third baseman took full advantage of that opportunity by clubbing a two-run, 419-foot homer to dead center to even things up at two runs apiece.

In the fourth, a leadoff walk of Mitch Moreland would later come back to haunt Arrieta, as the Phillies starter allowed the first baseman to score on a sacrifice fly from Jackie Bradley Jr. 3-2 Boston.

In the fifth, the Sox took advantage of some poor fielding from Philadelphia when after Alex Verdugo extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a one-out double, Kevin Pillar plated his fellow outfielder by reaching first base thanks to a fielding error committed by Rhys Hoskins. 4-2 Boston.

Fast forward to the seventh, and Devers struck once more, this time collecting another RBI on a hard-hit double to left off reliever Ramon Rossothat brought in Verdugo from second and made it a 5-3 contest.

And in the eighth, Bradley Jr. provided some insurance by driving in Moreland from third on another run-scoring double off Rosso. Bradley Jr.’s second RBI of the day put the Red Sox up 6-3, which would go on to be Wednesday’s final score. Losing streak over.

Some notes and observations from this win:

From Red Sox Notes:

Rafael Devers’ last two games: 6-for-9 (nice) with one homer, four RBI, and three runs scored.

—

Next up for the Red Sox, they’ll head off on another road trip and kick off a four-game set against the Orioles in Baltimore starting on Thursday night. The 12-2 O’s took two out of three from the Sox to begin the 2020 season.

Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi will get the start for Boston in the series opener, while fellow righty Asher Wojciechowski will do the same for Baltimore.

Eovaldi is coming off his worst outing of the year in which he surrendered eight runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings against the Yankees, but he did hold the O’s to just one run over six innings in a winning effort back on Opening Day.

Wojciechowski, meanwhile, has yet to face the Red Sox this season. The 31-year-old has made three starts at Camden Yards so far this year and owns a 5.40 ERA in those outings.

First pitch Thursday is scheduled for 7:35 p.m. eastern time on NESN and WEEI. Red Sox looking for their second straight victory.

Red Sox Falter in Sixth Inning, Fall To Phillies 13-6 as Losing Streak Grows To Nine Consecutive Games

Another night, another venue, another opponent, and another loss for the Red Sox on Tuesday. This one came in 13-6 fashion at the hands of the Phillies at Fenway Park, marking the Sox’ ninth consecutive defeat to drop them to 6-18 on the year.

Zack Godley made his fourth start and fifth overall appearance of the season for Boston in this one, and he looked significantly better than he did in his last time out against the Rays on Wednesday.

That being the case because over four innings of work, the right-hander held the Phillies to just one run on four hits, one walk, and one hit batsman to go along with four strikeouts on the night.

Philadelphia’s lone run off Godley came in a laborious top half of the fourth, when with one out in the frame the Sox starter allowed three straight base runners to reach, with the last of those three, Jay Bruce, plating Didi Gregorius on an RBI single to right field.

Fortunately, Godley was able to dance his way around any more trouble, as he retired the final two hitters he faced to end his outing on a somewhat more positive note.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 84, 49 of which were strikes, the 30-year-old hurler turned to his cutter and curveball 83% of the time he was on the mound Tuesday, inducing six swings-and-misses with the combination of pitches. He also topped out at 91.1 mph with his four-seam fastball, a pitch he went to just three times.

Hit with the no-decision on account while lowering his ERA on the season to 6.87, Godley likely did enough here to earn himself another start, which would presumably come against the Orioles on Sunday.

In relief of Godley, Phillips Valdez got the first call out of the Red Sox bullpen to begin things in the fifth, and he served up a solo homer to Phillies slugger Rhys Hoskins in an otherwise clean frame of work.

From there, left-hander Josh Taylor made his second appearance in as many days after getting activated from the COVID-19 related injured list on Monday, and he was only able to record the first two outs of the inning while allowing the Phillies to come back and knot this contest up at four runs apiece.

With that, Heath Hembree was dispatched to get out of the mess Taylor had created, but the right-hander was only able to dig a bigger hole for his side by serving up a 409-foot three-run blast to Bryce Harper and a run-scoring base hit to Gregorius before getting the hook in favor of Colten Brewer.

Brewer did manage to end things in the sixth without yielding anything else, but he did give up a leadoff home run to Phil Gosselin in the seventh, which put the Phillies up 10-4 an inning after they had been trailing 4-2.

Marcus Walden did not fare much better in the eighth, as he could not sneak a two-out, 1-1, 91 mph cutter past Jay Bruce, who deposited that pitch just over the wall in center field for another three-run home run. 13-5.

Ryan Brasier, meanwhile, faced five hitters in the ninth but did not give anything up to keep the deficit for his side at eight runs. It did not make all that much of a difference in the end, but still.

All in all, the Boston bullpen combined to allow 12 earned runs on 12 hits (four home runs), and two walks over five innings pitched on Tuesday. Not exactly what you want.

On the other side of things, a Red Sox lineup absent of Christian Vazquez and Jackie Bradley Jr. was matched up against someone making his first ever start at Fenway Park in the form of Phillies right-hander Zach Eflin.

Getting the scoring right away on Tuesday, Rafael Devers got a nice day at the plate started with a one-out single off Eflin in the first and was almost immediately driven in by Xander Bogaerts moments later. 1-0 Boston.

Fast forward to the third, and the top portion of the Sox lineup struck once more, as Alex Verdugo led things off with a wall-ball double to left, and Devers plated him on an RBI double of his own.

J.D. Martinez proceeded with yet another run-scoring two-base hit, and just like that, the Red Sox had themselves a 3-0 lead.

In the fifth, after the Phillies had tacked on two runs of their own, Bogaerts provided what looked to be important insurance at the time with a sacrifice fly off new reliever Blake Barker that brought in Verdugo from third.

Bogaerts’ second RBI of the night put the Sox up 4-2, but as it would later turn out, that would be the last lead they held on Tuesday as the Philadelphia offense went off the rest of the way.

Mitch Moreland got a run back on a run-scoring single in the seventh, and another on a run-scoring double in the ninth, but it would not be enough as 13-6 would go on to be Tuesday’s final score.

Some notes and observations from this loss:

J.D. Martinez was removed from this game in the fifth inning due to dehydration.

From The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier:

Michael Chavis struck out five times in his five plate appearances on Tuesday.

—

Next up for the Red Sox, they will close out this brief two-game interleague series and homestand against the Phillies on Wednesday afternoon.

Left-hander Kyle Hart will make his second start of the season for Boston, while veteran right-hander Jake Arrieta will get the ball for Philadelphia.

Hart, 27, is coming off a rough major-league debut against the Rays at Fenway last Thursday in which he surrendered five earned runs on seven hits and four walks in just two-plus innings pitched in an eventual loss.

The Red Sox are sticking with the rookie southpaw for at least one more start despite that shaky debut though, so perhaps that will give him a boost ahead of his first career interleague outing.

Arrieta, meanwhile, has posted a 4.02 ERA and 3.37 FIP through his first three starts and 15 2/3 innings of the 2020 season.

In six career appearances (five starts) at Fenway Park, the 34-year-old owns a lifetime 4.45 ERA and .755 OPS against over 30 1/3 total innings pitched.

First pitch Wednesday is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. eastern time on NESN, MLB Network, and WEEI. Red Sox looking to avoid extending their losing streak to double digits.

Red Sox Lineup: Alex Verdugo Leading off in First of Two Against Phillies as Boston Looks To Put End To Eight-Game Losing Streak

After getting swept in two consecutive four-game series for the first time since 1932, the Red Sox open up a quick two-game interleague set against the Phillies at Fenway Park on Tuesday night.

Right-hander Zack Godley will be making his fourth start and fifth overall appearance of the season for Boston, and he will be opposed by Philadelphia right-hander Zach Eflin.

Godley has been somewhat inconsistent in his time with the Sox, as he has allowed zero, five, zero, and eight runs through his first five outings of the year. The 30-year-old hurler does have a solid track record against the Philles though, coming into the week with a lifetime 1.53 ERA and .528 OPS against in four career appearances (two starts) and 17 2/3 innings pitched against his opponent in this one.

Eflin, meanwhile, has made just two starts this season for Philadelphia in which he has given up a total of six runs (four earned) over 10 innings of work. The 26-year-old out of Orlando will be making his first ever start against the Red Sox and first ever start at Fenway Park on Tuesday.

Here is how the Red Sox will be lining up to begin things in the first of two against the Phillies:

Among the notable things to point out here, Christian Vazquez is not in the lineup after departing early from Monday’s game against the Yankees due to a sore right heel, while Jackie Bradley Jr. is on the bench for a third straight night with Tzu-Wei Lin starting in center in place of him.

Also worth noting, Alex Verdugo is leading off against a right-handed pitcher while Kevin Pillar slides down to the six-hole. The two outfielders are the only hitters in this Red Sox lineup who have faced off against Eflin before. They are a combined 4-for-9 with one home run and two RBI, which all belong to Pillar, off the Phillies starter.

First pitch Tuesday is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. eastern time on NESN and WEEI. Red Sox going for their first victory in nine days.

Red Sox Serve up Four Home Runs in Yet Another Defeat To Yankees To Extend Losing Streak To Eight Consecutive Games

In their final game at Yankee Stadium in 2020, the Red Sox fell to the first-place Yankees by a final score of 6-3 on Monday, which extended their losing streak to a season-worst eight consecutive games.

Martin Perez made his fifth start of the season for Boston in this one, and he came into the week having made just one career start in the Bronx prior to Monday.

Only able to work the first three innings due to a 1 hour and 22 minute rain delay, the left-hander yielded three runs, all of which were earned, on two hits, three walks, and one hit batsman to go along with one lone strikeout on the night.

All three of those New York tallies came in the bottom half of the second, when after plunking Tyler Wade, the Yanks’ No. 9 hitter, with two outs, Perez served up an RBI double to Aaron Hicks and followed that by serving up a 428-foot two-run to Luke Voit on a 2-2, 83 mph changeup right down the chute moments later.

Those three consecutive mistakes put Perez’s side in an early three-run hole, and his evening would unknowingly come to a close after a scoreless third inning due to that aforementioned inclement weather.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 58 (30 strikes), the 29-year-old hurler turned to his cutter and changeup a combined 58% of the time he was on the mound Monday, inducing three swings-and-misses with the combination of pitches while also topping out at 93 mph with his four-seam fastball, a pitch he threw 10 times.

Hit with his third losing decision of the year while also raising his ERA to 4.07, Perez will look to rebound in his next time out, which should come against the Orioles in Baltimore on Saturday.

In relief of Perez, left-hander Josh Osich got the first call out of the Red Sox bullpen following that 83-minute rain delay, and he surrendered a pair of leadoff homers to Thairo Estrada and Voit in the bottom halves of the fourth and fifth innings.

From there, fellow southpaw Josh Taylor made his 2020 debut after getting activated from the injured list and needed just nine pitches to toss a scoreless bottom of the sixth, while Austin Brice gave up another solo shot to Aaron Hicks in the seventh and Heath Hembree fanned a pair in a perfect eighth inning.

Hembree’s impressive work kept Boston’s deficit at three runs, but it would prove to not be enough in the end.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against a fairly familiar foe in Yankees left-hander Jordan Montgomery, whose 2020 debut came against Boston back on July 31.

The 27-year-old had a no-hitter going through his first 3 2/3 innings on Monday, but a string of three straight two-out hits in the fourth from J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, and Christian Vazquez broke that up, with Vazquez plating Martinez on an RBI single that was just out of the reach of Gleyber Torres.

As it would almost immediately turn out, Vazquez’s 12th RBI of the season came at just the right time as the Yankees ground crew began to roll the tarp onto the field almost as soon as Vazquez had reached first base safely.

The Red Sox headed into a lengthy weather delay with two outs and runners on the corners in the fourth, but they could not do anything with that opportunity once the rain lifted.

That being the case because after Michael Chavis drew a five-pitch walk to load the bases, Alex Verdugo was the victim of a swinging strikeout at the hands of Luis Avilan to extinguish the threat and end the inning.

Verdugo did redeem himself in the top of the sixth, though, when with two outs and Vazquez at second, the outfielder drove the catcher in on a run-scoring double off reliever Michael King. 5-2 New York.

Fast forward all the way to the ninth, with the Yankees up 6-2, vaunted fireballer Aroldis Chapman made his first appearance of the season out of the New York bullpen. Perhaps taking advantage of some of Chapman’s expected rustiness, the Sox made somewhat of a comeback attempt with Jose Peraza ripping a one-out triple and Jonathan Arauz scoring him on an RBI double down the left field line.

That pushed the Red Sox’ deficit to three runs at 6-3, but alas, that would go on to be Monday’s final score after Kevin Pillar and Rafael Devers struck out back-to-back to end the game.

Some notes and observations from this loss:

The Red Sox have lost their last 11 games at Yankee Stadium.

From The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier:

From The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham:

From MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo:

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Next up for the Red Sox, they will return to Fenway Park and open up a two-game interleague series against the Phillies beginning on Monday night.

Right-hander Zack Godley will get the start for Boston, while fellow righty Zach Eflin will do the same for Philadelphia.

In four career appearances (two starts) against the Phillies, the 30-year-old Godley owns a lifetime 1.53 ERA and .528 OPS against over 17 2/3 total innings pitched.

Eflin, meanwhile, will be making his first career start against the Red Sox and his first career start at Fenway Park.

First pitch Monday is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. eastern time on NESN and WEEI. Red Sox looking to finally to put an end to this dreadful skid, maybe?

Red Sox Held Team Meeting Prior to Sunday’s Loss to Yankees

The Red Sox dropped their seventh consecutive game in a 4-2 loss to the Yankees on Sunday night, but before the game even started, a team meeting was held earlier this weekend.

In the meeting, which was called for by Red Sox leadership and held at an outdoor area at the team hotel, Kevin Pillar said the goal was to try to come together as one cohesive unit in the midst of a disastrous 6-16 start to the 2020 season.

“We got together. We talked about some things,” Pillar said during his postgame media availability via Zoom Sunday night. “We’ve got to to stop feeling sorry for ourselves. We’ve got good leadership on this team. They called for [a meeting]. This season is going to happen whether we want it to happen or not. We’ve got 30-some-odd games. A lot can change.”

One of the struggles in organizing this meeting was finding the right venue to have it in. With proper social distancing protocols needing to be followed while the United States is dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, that was not the simplest thing to do. And that lack of intimacy has also had an effect on players’ abilities to jell so far this year.

“Especially for us, with the configurations we have at Fenway — not having the locker room dynamic — it’s been extremely difficult to get on the same page with a lot of people,” Pillar added. “We’ve got to find ways to stay together and find ways to make this fun.”

Currently on pace to win fewer than 17 games by the end of the season, the Red Sox certainly do not look like a team that has had a ton of fun on the field to this point. The procedures in place because of the aforementioned pandemic likely do not help that cause, which is kind of what Pillar alluded to on Sunday.

“Baseball is so difficult to begin with,” said the veteran outfielder. “When you have any sort of external or outside factor that takes away from the task at hand it makes it even more difficult.”

Pillar is a veteran of eight major-league seasons. From Toronto, to San Francisco, and now Boston, the 31-year-old has presumably been part of many team or player-only meetings in his day.

In this particular meeting held by Boston at the Lotte New York Palace in Manhattan, though, Pillar said “quite a few players talk” and the team “just wanted to open the floor up to everyone.”

What was specifically said in the Sox’ team meeting will probably never be fully disclosed to the general public, but Pillar’s closing statement to reporters on Sunday was quite intuitive.

“We’re our best teachers,” he said. “When things go wrong we lean on each other.”

 

Red Sox Manage to Hold Yankees to Just Four Runs but Can’t Get Offense Going in Seventh Consecutive Loss

For the first time since last Sunday, the Red Sox did not give up eight or more runs in a game, yet saw their season-worst skid grow to seven games following a 4-2 defeat at the hands of the Yankees once again on Sunday.

Chris Mazza made his first career majoor-league start and second overall appearance for Boston in this one after gettting recalled from the club’s alternate training site in Pawtucket hours before the game.

Working the first three innings of Sunday’s contest, the right-hander surrendered four runs, all of which were earned, on eight hits and one walk to go along with four strikeouts on the night.

The first two of those New York tallies came on a pair of RBI hits from Mike Ford and Aaron Hicks in the bottom halves of the first and second. The other two came in the bottom half of the third, when Ford struck again by following up a Gleyber Torres one-out single by crushing a 2-0, 92 mph sinker from Mazza 429 feet to right-center field fot a two-run home run.

That gave the Yankees a 4-1 lead, and Mazza’s evening came to a close shortly thereafter once he retired the side in the third by getting Brett Gardner to fly out to center and Clint Frazier to fan on five pitches.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 66 (40 strikes), the 30-year-old hurler relied on his sinker 42% of the time he was on the mound Sunday, inducing one swing-and-miss with the pitch. He also topped out at 93.3 mph with his four-seam fastball, a pitch he threw 12 times.

Later hit with his first losing decision of the season while raising his ERA to 6.35, Mazza could still very well get another start for Boston despite this rough showing. If that happens, the Bay Area native could very well take the mound again against the Orioles in Baltimore on Friday.

In relief of Mazza, another pitcher who does not rely on his velocity got the first call out of the Red Sox bullpen in the form of Ryan Weber.

Fresh off six one-run innings of relief against the Rays on Wednesday, the right-hander impressed once again on Sunday by sitting down eight of the 10 hitters he faced with the help of a double play over three scoreless frames from the middle of the fourth up until the end of the sixth.

From there, Ryan Brasier danced his way around a bases loaded jam and kept the Yankees off the board despite needing 30 pitches to do so in the eighth, while Marcus Walden bounced back from Thursday’s disastrous outing with a 1-2-3 ninth.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against another veteran left-hander for the Yankees in 37-year-old J.A. Happ, whose last turn through the Yanks’ rotation was actually skipped partly due to his sluggish start to the 2020 season.

As it turns out, Happ was anything but sluggish on Sunday, as he held the opposition to just one run over 5 2/3 innings pitched.

That one Boston run came courtesy of Kevin Pillar, when with two outs and the bases empty in the top of the third, the Red Sox center fielder took a 1-1, 84 mph slider on the inner edge of the strike zone from the Yankees starter and deposited it 382 feet down the left field line for the solo shot.

At the time, Pillar’s second big fly of the season cut his side’s deficit in half at 2-1. However, that deficit would only grow while the Boston bats were held in check by Happ as well as Adam Ottavino and Chad Green out of the Yankees bullpen.

The Sox offense did make a bit of noise in the ninth though, when with Zack Britton on the hill for New York, the pinch-hitting Jose Peraza followed up a Christian Vazquez two-base hit and plated a run on a fielding error committed by the Yankees reliever.

That made it a 4-2 contest and brought the tying run to the plate in the form of Kevin Plawecki, but the veteran backstop whiffed on five pitches, and that was that in what would go down as a two-run defeat.

Some notes and observations from this loss:

Chris Mazza was the 11th different starting pitcher used by the Red Sox through the club’s first 22 games of the season. They are now 6-16 on the year.

The Red Sox allowed four or fewer runs in a game for the first time since August 9, which also happens to be the last time they won.

The Red Sox are 5-20 against the Yankees dating back to the start of the 2019 season. They have been outscored 44-20 by New York in six games this year.

The Red Sox went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position in this one and left six men on base as a team.

Kevin Pillar’s last seven games: 8-for-26 (.308) with one home run, four RBI, and two walks.

Alex Verdugo went 2-for-4 on Sunday with a hard-hit double, a stolen base, and an outfield assist.

From The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham:

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Next up for the Red Sox, it’s the finale of this four-game series at Yankee Stadium on Monday night.

Left-hander Martin Perez will get the start for Boston, while fellow southpaw Jordan Montgomery will do the same for New York.

Perez is coming off an outing in which he allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings of work in a loss to the Rays. The 29-year-old has only made one career start at Yankee Stadium and it did not go too well, as he got shelled for seven runs on 11 hits in five innings pitched on August 12 of the 2018 season.

Montgomery, meanwhile, held Boston to just one run over 5 2/3 innings pitched in his 2020 debut back on July 31. The Red Sox wound up losing that contest by a final score of 5-1.

First pitch Monday is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. eastern time on NESN, MLB Network, and WEEI. Red Sox looking to put a stop to this losing streak.