Tag: ron roenicke

Red Sox Left-Hander Darwinzon Hernandez Records Four Strikeouts During Sim Game in Pawtucket With Chaim Bloom Among Those in Attendance

When Darwinzon Hernandez eventually returns to the Red Sox in the coming weeks, he will likely make at least one start before the end of the 2020 season.

The left-hander has been getting stretched out during his time at the club’s alternate training site in Pawtucket, and that stretching out was on full display earlier Sunday morning.

With Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom in attendance at McCoy Stadium, Hernandez worked the first 2 1/3 innings of a simulated game where he faced 11 total hitters.

In those 2 1/3 frames of work, the 23-year-old kept the opposition off the scoreboard while scattering two hits and two walks to go along with four strikeouts.

According to The Providence Journal’s Bill Koch, Hernandez finished with a final pitch count of 40-50 before reaching his preset limit and also reached 96 mph with his vaunted four-seam fastball.

Prior to Sunday, Hernandez’s last outing at McCoy had came on Tuesday, which as Koch notes, implies that the Venezuela native is on a “five-day program often followed by starters.”

Upon signing with Boston as an international free agent for $7,500 back in 2013, Hernandez originally came up as a starter through the Sox’ minor-league pipeline. His success as a reliever during his rookie season in the majors in 2019, however, made it appear as though that would be his role long-term, but due to all the starting pitching struggles the Red Sox have endured so far this year, that philosophy has since changed.

On Saturday, Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke somewhat addressed this issue pertaining to Hernandez, although he really didn’t divulge too much into what the immediate future would hold for the southpaw upon his return to the majors.

““I would think at the beginning as a reliever and maybe try to build him up a little bit better there also,” the Sox skipper said of Hernandez. “And then if he slips into that starting role, then we’ll try to do that.”

Of course, Hernandez has to be activated from the 10-day injured list first. He was initially placed on the IL last month after contracting COVID-19 at his home in Venezuela, which in turn hampered the amount of work he could get in during the Sox’ Summer Camp workouts.

As noted by MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo, when the Red Sox want to activate Hernandez, as well as fellow southpaw Josh Taylor, from the COVID-19 related injured list, they would need to open up two 40-man roster spots for that to happen since the pair of hurlers currently do not count against the club’s 40-man roster.

For now, Hernandez’s next sim game appearance in Pawtucket should come on Friday if he truly is on a five-day throwing program.

 

Red Sox Option Dylan Covey to Pawtucket in Order to Make Room on Roster for Chris Mazza

Before making his first career major-league start on Sunday night, right-hander Chris Mazza needed to be added to the Red Sox’ active roster. In order to make that happen, the Sox optioned fellow righty Dylan Covey to the club’s alternate training site in Pawtucket prior to Sunday’s contest against the Yankees.

In his second stint with Boston after initially getting recalled from Pawtucket back on August 8, Covey, who just turned 29 on Friday, surrendered three earned runs on five hits, no walks, and two strikeouts over three relief appearances and 4 1/3 total innings pitched.

All three of those runs came in Friday’s loss to the Yankees, as the California native now owns a 7.11 ERA and .692 OPS against through his first four outings as a member of the Red Sox dating back to July 25. He will likely be up with the big-league club again before the end of the 2020 season.

—

As for Mazza, the 30-year-old will make his second appearance with the Red Sox a little more than two weeks after making his team debut at Yankee Stadium on August 1.

Mazza limited New York to just one hit and two walks while fanning three over 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief in that outing, and he will now get the chance to start a game for the first time as a major-leaguer.

Prior to coming over to the Sox in December, the Bay Area native made 13 starts for the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in Syracuse last season and posted a 3.77 ERA and .234 batting average against over 74 innings pitched.

That being said, expect Mazza to get anywhere between three to five innings of work in on Sunday depending on how he looks early on. First pitch is scheduled for 7:08 p.m. eastern time on ESPN and WEEI.

Red Sox Lineup: J.D. Martinez Gets Start in Right Field in Sunday Night Contest Against Yankees

After allowing eight or more runs for a sixth consecutive game in an 11-5 loss at the hands of the Yankees on Saturday night, the Red Sox will look to put an end to their week-long skid on Sunday.

Right-hander Chris Mazza will make his first career major-league start and second overall appearance of the season for Boston in this one.

The 30-year-old held the Yankees scoreless over 2 2/3 innings innings of relief in his team debut at Yankee Stadium on August 1.

Mazza will be opposed by veteran left-hander J.A. Happ for New York, who will be making just his third start of 2020 after his last turn through the rotation was skipped. That being due to the fact the 37-year-old has surrendered eight earned runs over seven innings pitched thus far.

Here’s how the Red Sox will be lining up behind Mazza and against Happ to begin things on Sunday:

With the left-hander on the mound for the Yankees, the left-handed bats of Mitch Moreland and Jackie Bradley Jr. will start this one on the bench. Because of that, Michael Chavis makes his second consecutive start at first base, while J.D. Martinez makes his second start of the year in right field.

On account of Martinez manning right field on Sunday, Christian Vazquez will DH for the Red Sox and Kevin Plawecki will make his sixth start of the season behind the plate in his place.

Also worth noting here, Kevin Pillar is leading off once again, Alex Verdugo is starting in left, and Jonathan Arauz is batting out of the nine-hole and starting at second base.

Among these nine hitters, Rafael Devers, Vazquez, Chavis, and Martinez have all taken Happ deep at least once in their careers, while Vazquez is a lifetime .286/.348/.619 hitter off the Yankees starter.

First pitch Sunday is scheduled for 7:08 p.m. eastern time on ESPN and WEEI. The Red Sox still need to make some roster moves before this game starts, so stay tuned for that.

Nathan Eovaldi Surrenders Three Home Runs as Red Sox’ Struggles Against Yankees Continue in 11-5 Loss

Another night, another game allowing eight-plus runs, and another blowout loss for the Red Sox on Saturday. This one came in 11-5 fashion at the hands of the Yankees once again.

Nathan Eovaldi made his fifth start of the season for Boston in this one, and he had a tough time missing Yankees bats in his first go-around at the Stadium since last season.

That being the case because over 5 1/3 innings of work, the right-hander got shelled for eight runs, all of which were earned, on nine hits and two walks to go along with just three strikeouts on the night.

The first two of those New York tallies came right away in their half of the first, when after retiring two of the first three hitters he faced, Eovaldi served up a two-run home run to Gio Urshela off a 1-0, 98 mph heater on the outer half of the plate. 2-0 Yankees.

After settling in a bit in the second and third innings, Eovaldi was again the victim of the two-run home run ball when Gary Sanchez took the fireballer deep to left off a 2-2, 90 mph splitter down the chute, which actually gave the Yankees the lead again at 4-3.

In the sixth, the long ball came back to bite Eovaldi once more. There, two straight hits from Gleyber Torres and Mike Tauchman to lead off the frame brought Clint Frazier to the plate with one out and runners in scoring position, and the Yankees outfielder took full advantage by crushing a three-run blast to right field off a first-pitch cutter to simultaneously give his side a 7-3 lead and put an end to Eovaldi’s outing.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 89 (59 strikes), the 30-year-old hurler relied on his cut-fastball 44% of the time he was on the mound Saturday, inducing six swings-and-misses with the pitch. He also topped out at 99.3 mph with his four-seamer, a pitch he threw 19 times.

Hit with his second losing decision of the year while seeing his ERA inflate to 5.93, Eovaldi will look to bounce back in his next time out, which should come against the Orioles in Baltimore on Thursday.

In relief of Eovaldi, Heath Hembree came on for Eovaldi with two outs to get in the bottom of the sixth, closed the book on the starter’s night by allowing one inherited runner to score, and sat down the final two Yankees he faced.

From there, Matt Barnes had a tough time of things in the seventh considering he yielded three runs (two earned) on one hit, one walk, and one hit batsman in the frame, while Phillips Valdez tossed a perfect ninth inning to keep his side’s deficit at eight runs. Not like it mattered much in the end, but still.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against veteran left-hander James Paxton for the Yankees, who was coming off his best start of the season thus far in his last time out against the Rays.

Down by a pair after just one inning, the Boston bats got things going in the third starting with a leadoff walk drawn by Jose Peraza.

As the lineup flipped back over, Rafael Devers moved Peraza up to third on a one-out double, and the two infielders were subsequently driven in on a two-run single off the bat of J.D. Martinez that he tried to unsuccessfully turn into a double himself.

Xander Bogaerts followed by taking Paxton 380 feet to left-center field for his fourth big fly of the season. Just like that, the Red Sox had themselves a 3-2 lead, which would actually only last 1 1/2 innings before the Yankees took this one over.

The only other offensive production the Sox were able to garner on Saturday came well after Paxton’s day had ended. In the top half of the ninth, Alex Verdugo deposited his fifth homer of 2020 433 feet deep into the right field seats, while Jose Peraza later scored off an RBI triple from Kevin Pillar.

Both run-producing hits from the pair of outfielders came off Luis Cessa, and they cut the Red Sox’ deficit down to six runs at 11-5, which would go on to be Saturday’s final score.

Some notes and observations from this loss:

From The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier:

From MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo:

From MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith:

Alex Verdugo’s OPS on the season is now .848. Michael Chavis’ is now .857. Both are currently riding multi-game hitting streaks.

On a night the pitching was rather dismal, Phillips Valdez continues to impress.

—

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

Right-hander Chris Mazza will make his first career start for Boston, while left-hander J.A. Happ will get the ball for New York.

Mazza, 30, will need to be recalled on Sunday, a little over two weeks after tossing  2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief at Yankee Stadium in his Red Sox debut on August 1.

Happ, meanwhile, has allowed four earned runs in each of his first two starts of 2020 and was actually skipped his last time through the Yankees’ rotation. The 37-year-old veteran southpaw owns a lifetime 3.00 ERA and .676 OPS against in 25 career outings (24 starts) and 141 1/3 innings pitched against the Red Sox.

First pitch Sunday is scheduled for 7:08 p.m. eastern time on ESPN and WEEI. Red Sox looking to put an end to this six-game skid.

 

Red Sox Rookie Left-Hander Kyle Hart Will Make Second Start of Season Against Phillies on Wednesday

After allowing seven runs (five earned) over two-plus innings in his major-league debut against the Rays on Thursday, Red Sox rookie left-hander Kyle Hart will get another start against the Phillies on Wednesday, manager Ron Roenicke announced earlier Saturday.

Per Roenicke, the reasoning behind this is that the Red Sox “wanted to try to give [Hart] more than just one start” rather than option him back down to the club’s alternate training site in Pawtucket.

The 27-year-old southpaw may have struggled for the most part in his first career start against Tampa Bay, but he did show some glimpses of promise, like when he struck out four of the first 11 hitters he faced or recorded five swings-and-misses

As noted by The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier prior to Saturday’s announcement from Roenicke, “No young Red Sox pitcher has made more than one big league start as a first-time call-up since 2015, when Eduardo Rodriguez and Henry Owens made their debuts.”

By naming Hart as Wednesday’s starter, the Red Sox are perhaps trying to five Hart a boost of confidence and reassurance after a shaky debut. Roenicke divulged into this more during his pregame media availability on Saturday.

“It’s hard enough to do well and perform here in the big leagues,” the Sox skipper said. “So I think with Kyle, just go out there again and relax and pitch the way you can. And hopefully we get a good start from him.”

As previously mentioned, Hart allowed seven runs, two of which were unearned, on seven hits (two home runs) and three walks to go along with four strikeouts on Thursday against Tampa Bay. He needed 73 pitches (44 strikes), to get through two-plus innings while retiring six of the 17 hitters he faced.

Facing off against the Phillies at Fenway Park on Wednesday, the former 19th-round pick out of Indiana University will be opposed by a club that entered Saturday with the highest collective wRC+ (142) against left-handed pitching in the National League so far this season, according to FanGraphs.

Right-Hander Chris Mazza to Make First Career Start for Red Sox on Sunday Night

Right-hander Chris Mazza will make his first career major-league start for the Red Sox in Sunday night’s game against the Yankees, manager Ron Roenicke announced Saturday.

Per Roenicke, Mazza’s last outing at Yankee Stadium, in which he tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief on August 1, factored into this decision.

The 30-year-old hurler allowed just one hit, walked two, and fanned three in what was his Red Sox debut earlier this month, but he was promptly optioned back to the club’s alternate training site in Pawtucket on August 6 when roster sizes across baseball had to be reduced from 30 to 28 players.

That being said, a roster move will have to be made in order to add Mazza back to the active roster, which is exactly what Roenicke said would happen earlier in the week.

Prior to being claimed off waivers by the Red Sox from the Mets back in December, Mazza made 17 total starts between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse last season. With Syracuse, the California native posted a 3.77 ERA and .234 batting average against over 13 starts and 74 innings of work.

By going with Mazza for Sunday night’s contest, Roenicke and Co. “are trying to be a little bit more specific” in terms of managing the club’s starting rotation. Through Boston’s first 20 games of the season, 10 different starting pitchers have already been used.

Following Mazza’s start on Sunday, the Red Sox will turn to left-hander Martin Perez on Monday to close out this series against New York before going with Zack Godley and rookie Kyle Hart in next week’s two-game set against the Phillies back at Fenway Park.

When asked about the struggles his pitching staff has endured so far this season, Roenicke acknowledged that it is certainly “more difficult to manage” when you don’t have five definitive starting pitchers and that the 2019 Red Sox “kind of went through the same thing.”

With that in mind, it’s Nathan Eovaldi getting the ball for the Sox on Saturday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. eastern time on FOX and WEEI.

Red Sox Lineup: Michael Chavis Starts at First Base as Jose Peraza Returns for Second of Four Against Yankees

After allowing more than eight runs in their fifth consecutive game in yet another loss on Friday, the Red Sox will look to bounce back against the first-place Yankees in the Bronx on Saturday.

Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi will make his fifth start of the season for Boston, while left-hander James Paxton will be making his fourth start for New York.

The Red Sox are 3-1 in Eovaldi’s starts this year, so this outing comes at a perfect time seeing how Boston is currently riding a five-game losing streak in which they have been outscored 52-25.

Paxton, meanwhile, is coming off his best start of the season in his last time out against the Rays on August 9 in which he yielded three runs, fanned 11, and walked only one batter. The 31-year-old surrendered five runs (three earned) on seven hits in just three innings of work in his first start of the year against the Sox on August 2.

Here’s how the Red Sox will be lining up against Paxton and behind Eovaldi to begin things on Saturday night.

With a left-hander on the mound for New York, Kevin Pillar moves to the leadoff spot for the sixth time this season while Michael Chavis takes over for Mitch Moreland at first base.

Also worth noting, Jose Peraza is back starting at second base and batting out of the nine-hole after taking a 105 mph comebacker off his right knee while pitching in the ninth inning of Thursday’s loss to the Rays.

Among these nine hitters, J.D. Martinez and Jackie Bradley Jr. have seen Paxton the best. The former owns a lifetime OPS of 1.415 with two home runs in 17 career at-bats against the Yankees starter, while the latter owns a lifetime OPS of 1.129 in 15 career at-bats against him.

First pitch Saturday is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. eastern time on FOX and WEEI. Red Sox looking for their first victory since Sunday. They are winless in four attempts against the Yankees so far in 2020.

Red Sox Get Dominated by Gerrit Cole, Yankees as Losing Streak Grows to Five Straight Games

A change of venue could not turn things around for the Red Sox on Friday night, as they saw their losing streak grow to to five in an 8-3 series-opening defeat at the hands of the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

Colten Brewer made his first career start and his seventh overall appearance of the season for Boston to kick off the weekend, and his first taste of the opener role was not very favorable.

That being the case because over 2 2/3 innings of work, the right-hander surrendered two runs, both of which were earned, on four hits and three walks to go along with two strikeouts on the night.

Both of those New York tallies came in the bottom half of the third, when after escaping a bases loaded jam in the first and retiring three of the four hitters he faced in the second, Brewer served up a one-out, two-run double to Gleyber Torres off a 2-1 heater on the outer half of the plate to put his side in a 2-0 hole.

That damaging blow was followed by a Mike Tauchman pop out, and thus marked the end of Brewer’s rather stressful outing.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 73 (41 strikes), the 27-year-old hurler turned to his four-seam fastball 51% of the time he was on the mound Friday, inducing two swings and misses and topping out at 95.2 mph with the pitch.

Eventually hit with his first loss of the season, it’s unclear at this point if Brewer will get another crack in the opener role anytime soon. In the meantime, I would expect him to make his next appearance as a reliever.

Speaking of relief pitchers, Austin Brice got the first call out of the Red Sox bullpen in relief of  Brewer, as the 28-year-old came on with one out to get in the bottom half of the third, got that out on a grounder, and also punched out the side in the fourth. A nice bounce-back effort from him after Tuesday’s rough showing.

From there, Ryan Brasier was responsible for the fifth, recorded the first two outs relatively easily, but then ran into a whole world of trouble following a single from Torres.

A few moments after giving up that base hit, the soon-to-be 33-year-old fell behind in the count against Tauchman at 3-2, which first baseman Mitch Moreland saw as a chance to play behind the base since Torres would be running with two outs.

Brasier, however, did not pick up on this, as he instead cocked back like he was ready to throw over to Moreland, but with no one covering the bag, a balk was called and Torres was awarded second base.

That bout of sloppiness, which was also bountiful on Thursday, came back to bite the Sox almost immediately when Tauchan proceeded to lift a run-scoring double to left to bring in Torres.

To make matters even worse, the ever-dangerous Gary Sanchez followed that up by absolutely demolishing a 1-2, 96 mph fastball on the outer half of the plate from Brasier and deposited it 457 feet into the left field bleachers.

Brasier did manage to get Clint Frazier to whiff to finally end the inning, but the damage had already been done as the Yankees went into the sixth with a 5-1 edge.

The recently-recalled Dylan Covey, celebrating his 29th birthday on Friday, was next up for Boston, and he tossed a scoreless bottom of the sixth before getting rocked for three runs on four hits in the seventh.

That late outburst increased New York’s run total to eight, and they tacked on two more against Brandon Workman in the ninth before Marcus Walden wrapped things up to hold the deficit at seven runs. Not like it mattered much in the end anyway.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against Yankees ace right-hander Gerrit Cole, who was making his first start against Boston while donning the pinstripes. To put his outing in simple terms, the $324 million man came as advertised.

As a matter of fact, the only ounce of offense the Boston bats could produce off Cole was not until the fourth inning.

There, after the Yanks starter had faced the minimum nine batters through his first three innings of work, Red Sox leadoff man re-introduced himself to Cole in the fourth by crushing a 385-foot solo shot to deep right field.

Verdugo’s fourth homer of the season cut his side’s deficit in half at 2-1, and they nearly scored again an inning later, but as he is expected to do, Cole held the Red Sox in check. He finished his night with no walks and eight strikeouts over seven quality frames.

Fortunately, Cole was only able to go seven innings, and the Sox took advantage of that right away in their half of the eighth when Verdugo and Rafael Devers picked up an RBI each off Jonathan Holder to make it an 8-3 contest.

Alas, three runs is all the Red Sox would be limited to, as Adam Ottavino closed things out in the eighth and Ben Heller secured the 10-3 victory for New York and 10-3 loss for Boston in the ninth.

Some notes and observations from this defeat:

From The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier:

From The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham:

From MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith:

The Red Sox’ No. 3-5 hitters, J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, and Mitch Moreland, went a combined 1-for-12 with eight strikeouts on Friday.

Friday’s game took 3 hours and 35 minutes. Going into the weekend, the Red Sox were third in baseball in average time per game (3 hours and 19 minutes).

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Next up for the Red Sox, the second-third of the 2020 major-league season begins on Saturday night in the Bronx.

Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi will be getting the ball for Boston, while left-hander James Paxton will be doing the same for New York.

Eovaldi is coming off six quality innings of three-run ball to go along with 10 strikeouts in his last time out against the Blue Jays. The 30-year-old, who once played for the Yankees, owns a lifetime 3.54 ERA and .687 OPS against in 28 career outings (26 starts) at the Stadium.

Paxton, meanwhile, has allowed exactly three eanred runs in each of his first three starts this season. The 31-year-old made four starts against the Sox in 2019 and went 3-1 with a 3.28 ERA over 24 2/3 total innings pitched.

First pitch Saturday is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. eastern time on FOX and WEEI. Red Sox looking to snap out of this slump.

 

Red Sox Lineup: Xander Bogaerts Returns After Day off for First of Four Against Yankees

After a 2-5 homestand, the Red Sox return to the Bronx for the first of four against the first-place Yankees on Friday night.

Coming into the weekend winless against the Yankees thus far, the Sox will send Colten Brewer to the hill for his first career major-league start in the series opener.

New York, meanwhile, will be sending $324 million man Gerrit Cole to the mound in what will be the right-hander’s first start against the Red Sox while donning pinstripes.

Through his first four outings of the season, the 29-year-old hurler is 3-0 with a 3.22 ERA and .677 OPS against over 22 1/3 total innings pitched. The Yankees are 4-0 in Cole’s four starts.

As for Brewer, who has been one of the more effective relievers out of the Red Sox bullpen to this point, the 27-year-old will be making his first professional start since June 15, 2016, when he was pitching for High-A Bradenton out of the Pirates organization.

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

As expected, Xander Bogaerts is back in the lineup after getting Thursday off due to “lower half fatigue” while Jonathan Arauz is starting at second base over Jose Peraza due to the fact the 26-year-old took a 105 mph comebacker off his right knee while pitching in the ninth inning of a blowout loss against the Rays less than 24 hours ago.

Among these nine hitters, Bogaerts, Mitch Moreland, and J.D. Martinez have all taken Cole deep before in their careers.

In terms of who has seen the Yankees ace best, Christian Vazquez is a lifetime 3-for-5 (.600) hitter off Cole.

First pitch Friday is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. eastern time on NESN and WEEI. Red Sox looking to snap a four-game skid against another tough divisional opponent.

Colten Brewer to Make First Career Start for Red Sox in Series Opener Against Yankees

Right-hander Colten Brewer will make his first career start for the Red Sox against the Yankees on Friday night, the club announced.

Brewer has made 75 relief appearances with both the Padres and Red Sox since making his major-league debut in April 2018, but Friday will mark his first start at the highest level. He will be the 10th different Boston pitcher to make a start this season through the club’s first 20 games.

The 27-year-old was originally brought up as a starting pitcher upon getting drafted by the Pirates in the fourth round of the 2011 amateur draft out of Canton High School in Texas, but his last start before moving to the bullpen full-time came on June 25, 2016.

In three career relief appearances at Yankee Stadium, where the Red Sox will open a four-game weekend wraparound series on Friday, Brewer has surrendered two earned runs on three hits (one home run) and one walk over two total innings of work. That’s good for an ERA of 9.00 and an OPS against of 1.067, albeit it is a relatively small sample size.

The highest number of innings Brewer has worked in a game through his first six outings of the 2020 campaign has been three, which he accomplished against the Rays this past Monday while raising his ERA on the year to 3.60.

With that in mind, expect the righty to be more of an opener than a starter in what will be a bullpen game for Boston in the first of four against Gerrit Cole and the first-place Yankees.

First pitch Friday is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. eastern time on NESN and WEEI.