Tigers - 002 001 001 - 4 11 1 Red Sox - 100 000 110 - 3 7 0Miguel Cabrera's ninth-inning home run off Brad Ziegler hit off the top of the short fence in front of the Red Sox bullpen. Mookie Betts was right there at the wall, but he must have completely lost the ball in the bright afternoon sun, because he did not attempt to catch it. The Tigers held on for the win and a three-game sweep of the Red Sox. Boston finished the homestand with a 4-5 record. The loss was especially frustrating because the Red Sox had rallied from two runs down to tie the game with single runs in the seventh and eighth innings.
Dustin Pedroia gave Boston a quick 1-0 lead by hitting his 11th home run. Eduardo Rodriguez (5.1-9-3-3-6, 101) gave up two runs in the fourth, both of them coming on Victor Martinez's bases loaded single. (V-Mart finished the day 4-for-4, with four singles and a walk.) The outcome of that inning could have been much worse for the Red Sox as Rodriguez received five or six gift calls (i.e., blown calls on balls out of the zone that were called strikes) from home plate umpire CB Bucknor. Despite the gifts for Boston, I still demand robots!
Xander Bogaerts led off the seventh with a home run. In the eighth, Travis Shaw singled, was bunted to second by Sandy Leon, and advanced to third on Brock Holt's groundout to second. Mookie Betts then lined a triple into the triangle. Center fielder Tyler Collins dove for the ball and did not get it. He was quickly to his feet, though, and while it looked like Betts might try for an inside-the-park home run, he held at third. Pedroia struck out to end the inning.
In the ninth, Bogaerts was called out on a pitch that was well out of the strike zone. (Robots!) So instead of Bogaerts batting with a 2-2 count, he was sent back to the dugout by Bucknor, one of the absolute worst umps in the business and someone who blew well over a dozen calls today. David Ortiz flied to left and Jackie Bradley flied to right. And that was that.
Betts, RFThe third-place Red Sox (2.5 GB) play an afternoon game before heading out west for an 11-game road trip (Angels, Mariners, Dodgers).
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Ortiz, DH
Bradley, CF
Hill, 3B
Shaw, 1B
Leon, C
Holt, LF
Elias:
ReplyDeleteYunel Escobar went 5-for-5 with a double and two runs scored in the Angels' 13-0 rout of the Royals on Tuesday. It's the fourth time that Escobar has gone 5-for-5 (or better) in a game in his MLB career; all three previous instances came in the 2015 season. Escobar is the fourth player in the modern era (since 1900) with at least four such games over a two-season span. The previous three are all Hall-of-Famers: Tris Speaker (1923: three games, 1924: once), Zack Wheat (1924: two games; 1925: twice), and Tony Gwynn (1993: three, 1994: one).
When the Red Sox are doing poorly, Dave O'Brien becomes a huge doom-and-gloomer. He is so over the top with the negativity that we had to mute the last two innings. Basically, with today's loss and the 4-5 homestand and the 11-GAME ROAD TRIP LOOMING (acting like no team in history has ever traveled so far for so long) the 2016 season is utterly shot to shit and the team will never win another game. So go kill yourself.
ReplyDeleteDo your ears and mind a favour. Mute NESN tomorrow night.
DOB was talking about "negative momentum" for the road trip. (Is such a thing even possible?)
ReplyDeleteWatch the Sox go 8-3 or 9-2 and make DOB look like an idiot.
(Well, even if they go 0-11, he will still look like an idiot, but you know what I mean.)
Re his triple, Mookie said: "I was thinking, 'I've got to go, I've got to go', but I'm not as fast as I used to be, so it was just a triple."
ReplyDeleteDOB was talking about "negative momentum" for the road trip. (Is such a thing even possible?)
ReplyDeleteLinear momentum is a vector quantity, so negative momentum would be momentum in the backwards direction.
You have to remember that DOB is all about selling you something, whether it's a sponsor's product or the Red Sox narrative of the day. Always be selling. To make things worse, he thinks he's still on the radio and has to talk all of the time. He can't help himself. And I can't stand him.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, he seems to be creating a narrative rather than selling us on one that already exists. (Unless there is a huge doom/gloom contingent out there...)
ReplyDeleteI was hoping some TV experience would cure him of his constant chatter (which often has nothing to do with the situation, like giving us the town the player was born in), but 99 games in, he seems no better than when he began.
(Unless there is a huge doom/gloom contingent out there...)
ReplyDeleteAbout a team that is hanging in there for a playoff spot, by the way.