June 1, 2016

G53: Orioles 13, Red Sox 9

Red Sox - 133 001 010 -  9 15  1
Orioles - 413 002 30x - 13 14  1
Looking back over the 116-year history of the Boston Red Sox, here is the complete list of the players who have hit home runs in both the first and second innings of a game:
Mookie Betts - May 31, 2016
Mookie Betts - June 1, 2016
Yes, he (somehow) did it again. For the second night in a row, Betts again the second pitch of the game for a home run. During his second at-bat, in the top of the second, Orioles starter Mike Wright threw the ball over Betts's head to the backstop. It did not seem deliberate and the ball wasn't that close to Betts's head, but home plate umpire Doug Eddings - who had a truly shitty game calling balls and strikes, one of the worst I have seen in quite a while - immediately issued warnings to both teams. Betts got his revenge by hitting another home run.

Mookie Betts is the first player in baseball history to hit home runs in each of the first two innings of consecutive games.


Recapping this one would take maybe 10,000 words, and I am not so motivated. Let's just say that there were many baserunners for both teams and a good number of them crossed the plate. More Orioles than Red Sox scored. And Boston's divisional lead is two games.

Xander Bogaerts's consecutive-game hitting streak is now at 25. ... Chris Young hit two home runs and had a ground-rule double. David Ortiz hit one dong. ... Starter Joe Kelly (2.1-7-7-3-1, 59) had nothing. His ERA may be 8.46, but at 2-0, he's undefeated! [/daveobrien]
Joe Kelly / Mike Wright
Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Ortiz, DH
Ramirez, 1B
Shaw, 3B
Swihart, LF
Young, CF
Hanigan, C
Elias:
Mookie Betts blasted three home runs on Tuesday to become the first Red Sox' leadoff batter to go deep three times in one game. Betts is the first Red Sox player to have a three-homer game before his 24th birthday since Fred Lynn in 1975. That was the game in which Lynn, who won the MVP and the Rookie of the Year Award that year, went 5-for-6 and drove in 10 runs.

Boston had a .525 slugging average in May, its second-highest in a month of 10 or more games in team history. The Red Sox had a .556 team slugging average in June 2003 - almost exactly the career slugging average of Willie Mays (.557).
Lynn's 10-RBI game was on June 18, 1975 against the Tigers. In addition to his three home runs, Lynn also singled and tripled.

3 comments:

allan said...

Marc Normandin, SB Nation:
"[Betts is] now on pace for 37 homers and 84 extra-base hits overall ... Over his past 20 games, though, Betts is batting .341/.379/.716 with eight homers and just 10 strikeouts in 95 plate appearances. It's not some fluke, either: since June 15 of last year, a stretch encompassing 136 games and nearly 600 at-bats, Betts is batting .310/.353/.535 with 24 homers and 75 extra-base hits."

allan said...

Elias: "Mookie Betts is the first player in baseball history to hit a HR in each of the first two innings in consecutive games."

allan said...

We will also say that Doug Eddings may be the worst umpire in MLB.