G24: Red Sox 8, Yankees 0

Yankees - 000 000 000 - 0  5  1
Red Sox - 020 002 40x - 8 11  1

Dan Iassonga is a horrible major league umpire, a disgrace to the profession. In 2012, NBC Sports called him "one of the game's worst umpires" and he has done nothing to improve his reputation since then. He has blown calls against the Red Sox before, distinguished himself with pointless ejections, and generally made a name for himself as a shitty ump. During last year's postseason, he actually apologized for making a particularly egregious ball-strike call.

For five innings on Saturday, Iassonga called a strike on virtually every low pitch thrown by Yankees starter Michael Pineda (5-5-2-3-3, 106). As long as the ball didn't bounce in front of the plate, there was a good chance Iassonga would be calling it a strike. It got so bad I wondered if Iassonga had money on New York and was trying to help them along. I counted at least 12 pitches that were out of the strike zone and were called strikes for Pineda. Boston's Rick Porcello (7-5-0-1-6, 106) received far fewer gifts.

Fortunately, Iassonga's incompetence - or favouritism - made no difference in the game's outcome. Jackie Bradley led the Red Sox's offense with two triples, a double, two runs scored, and three RBI. He was in the middle of all three Boston rallies, as they pummeled Pineda and a bunch of nobodies with names like Johnny Barbato and Nick Goody. Mookie Betts also drove in three runs and David Ortiz hit his 450th home run as a Red Sock.

Boston put two men on base with two outs in the first inning but that early threat was aborted when Iassonga rung up Hanley Ramirez on a pitch that was well inside. In the second, after the first two batters were retired, Christian Vazquez singled to left. Bradley doubled off the Wall (similar to his game-tying double last night) and Betts followed by poking a double to short right that fell in near the foul line for two runs.

The Red Sox added to their lead against Chasen Shreve in the sixth. Brock Holt walked with one out and scored on Bradley's triple that rolled past Jacoby Ellsbury and into the triangle. Kirby Yates came out of the MFY bullpen and Betts greeted him with a single that scored JBJ, giving Boston a 4-0 lead. Betts stole second and Yates walked Dustin Pedroia, but Xander Bogaerts grounded out to end the inning.

Ortiz led off the seventh against Barbato by golfing a 2-1 pitch over the Red Sox's bullpen for a solo dong. Ramirez walked and Travis Shaw singled to the opposite field, beating the shift. Holt reached base on second baseman Starlin Castro's fielding error, and a run scored. After Vazquez struck out, Nick Goody was next out of the visitors' pen and Bradley ripped the ball into the right field corner. Carlos Beltran was slow to chase after it (or maybe that's as fast as he runs these days) and Bradley had another triple.

The Red Sox tried to pile on more runs in the eighth, but left the bases loaded against Goody.

It was yet another dismal day for the Yankees' weak bats as only two runners advanced past first base. New York stranded two men on in the second inning. They had first-and-third with two outs in the fifth, but Ellsbury grounded out. New York (8-14) has lost four straight games.

After Porcello left, Robbie Ross and Junichi Tazawa finished up.

Michael Pineda / Rick Porcello

Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Ortiz, DH
Ramirez, 1B
Shaw, 3B
Holt, LF
Vazquez, C
Bradley, CF

Porcello pitched 6.1 shutout innings against Atlanta in his last outing, lowering his ERA to 3.51 and his WHIP to 0.94. Boston has won all four of his starts.

Pineda has a 6.95 ERA and 1.59 WHIP. through four starts. In his last time out, Pineda allowed seven runs on 10 hits to the Rays, including four home runs.

                            AVG   OBP   SLG    OPS
Batters Against Porcello   .200  .255  .421   .676
Batters Against Pineda     .316  .356  .674  1.030