Atlanta - 030 101 000 - 5 12 2 Red Sox - 101 000 001 - 3 10 0Clay Buchholz (6.1-8-5-4-2, 104) had extreme difficulty with the lower third of Atlanta's order. The 7-8-9 hitters scored all five runs against Buchholz as Atlanta snapped its eight-game losing streak. Boston's four-game winning streak also came to an end.
After Hanley Ramirez's RBI-single gave the Red Sox a 1-0 lead in the first inning (Boston has outscored its opponents 30-5 in the first inning of the last 18 games), Atlanta came storming back. With one out, Buchholz walked Jace Peterson and Erick Aybar was safe on an infield single. Mallex Smith hit a ground-rule double into the right field corner, tying the game at 1-1. Nick Markakis (4-for-5) lined a single to left-center, scoring two more runs.
Boston got one run back in the third when Xander Bogaerts doubled and scored on Ramirez's two-bagger.
In the fourth, Buchholz walked Peterson again. Aybar reached on a force play, moved up on a groundout from Smith, and scored on Markakis's single. Buchholz walked Peterson for the third time to start the sixth and he came around to score on Smith's single.
The Red Sox's best chance to rally came in the seventh against former Boston reliever Alexi Ogando. Christian Vazquez grounded a single to right and Mookie Betts walked. With the potential tying run at the plate, Dustin Pedroia flied to right; Vazquez tagged and went to third. A passed ball put Betts on second. Bogaerts struck out and lefty Hunter Cervenka came out of the bullpen to retire David Ortiz on a grounder to second.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Betts singled and took second on indifference. Pedroia's single off the Wall scored Betts and made it 5-3. Again, Boston had the tying run at the plate. But Bogaerts grounded Arodys Vizcaino's first pitch into the shortstop hole, and Pedroia was forced at second by Aybar to end the game.
Ramirez finished with two singles and a double. ... Betts's ninth-inning single extended his hitting streak to nine games. ... Bogaerts doubled and walked twice.
NESN Note: In the top of the eighth, NESN's Dave O'Brien wondered if the Red Sox's inability to score runs (on a Thursday night) was in any way tied to the team's early morning flight to Atlanta on Monday after Sunday night's late game. (Never mind that the team played and won two games in Atlanta, took another night flight to Boston, and then played yet another kick-ass game in the meantime.) It's one thing to wonder such a thing, it's another to say it out loud over the air. Jerry Remy likely thought O'Brien had momentarily lost his mind, but he was very polite when he responded.
Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Ortiz, DH
Ramirez, 1B
Shaw, 3B
Young, LF
Bradley, CF
Vazquez, C
5 comments:
Elias:
In 20 games in 2016, New York has scored just 72 runs and has knocked just 44 extra-base hits. Both totals are the lowest through this point of the season since 1990, when the Bombers finished 67-95, the worst record in the American League.
LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (on the 15-day DL with right patella subluxation) will make his 1st rehab start tonight for Pawtucket.
Steven Wright has pitched at least 6.0 innings and allowed 2 runs or fewer in each of his 4 starts this season. The only other Red Sox pitchers in the last 20 years (1997-2016) to begin a season with 4 such starts are Pedro Martinez (4 in 1998), Curt Schilling (4 in 2006), and Clay Buchholz (6 in 2013).
According to Elias, Ortiz became the 1st Red Sox player ever to record as many as 3 doubles at the age of 40 or older.
The Red Sox have a major league-best 20 stolen bases in only 22 attempts, MLB's best success rate (90.9%).
The Red Sox have scored in the 1st inning in 7 of their last 8 games (20 runs total).
Has anyone noticed on MLB TV for the iPad that the horizontal scoreboard along the bottom of the screen (it can be "dragged up" or brought up by double-tapping) indicates "Balls" with a "P" instead of a "B"? Am I missing something, or is that a typo built into MLB TV's software this season? I emailed MLB TV some weeks ago, but it hasn't changed.
I think Dave O'Brien does a great job calling the games, a big step up for the NESN telecasts.
That said, it's funny how weird he can get during lulls. I may have shared this before, but I'll never forget the moment on WEEI last season when O'Brien managed to, without any irony or dark comedy, cap an anecdote about Ortiz' father worrying about him during hitting droughts: "It reminds me of something Joe Paterno once said, about the drive we have to protect our children..."
Yikes. I can see why that comment stuck in your mind!
I also think OB made some comment about "National League style" baseball and low scoring games. However: National League outscoring AL for first time since 1974
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