Red Sox - 000 000 000 - 0 6 1 Orioles - 001 010 00x - 2 6 1The Red Sox had numerous runners on base against Dylan Bundy (7-6-0-1-3, 108), but could not bring them around. Boston hit into three double plays in the first three innings and finished the game 0-for-9 with RATS. ... Oh, and Dustin Pedroia may be injured.
Drew Pomeranz (5.1-5-2-2-4, 102) did not pitch all that badly. With one out in the third, Craig Gentry doubled into the left field corner, went to third on a passed ball, and scored on Adam Jones's single up the middle. (Speaking of Gentry, he was Baltimore's leadoff hitter, with a .105 on-base percentage. It's only 19 PA, but still.) Manny Machado homered to deep left in the fifth.
The Red Sox's futility:
T1: Pedroia singled to start the game and Andrew Benintendi GIDP. Mookie Betts reached on an E6 and stole second, but Mitch Moreland struck out.
T2: Singles by Hanley Ramirez and Jackie Bradley put men at first and third with no outs. Pablo Sandoval struck out and Christian Vazquez GIDP.
T3: Marco Hernandez looped a single to right. Pedroia popped up. The Orioles' infield became confused and the ball dropped, but Hernandez was forced at second. Benintendi GIDP.
T6: Hernandez singled and Pedroia walked. Bundy retired Benintendi (fly to right), Betts (pop to second), and Moreland (pop to third).
T8: Vazquez singled. Donnie Hart relieved Bundy. Pinch-hitter Chris Young walked. Pedroia flied to deep left. Vazquez tagged and (in a daring move) went to third. Benintendi struck out looking. Mychal Givens relieved Hart. Betts popped to second.
The bottom of the eighth was eventful. After Joe Kelly gave up a hard single to left to Machado, Mark Trumbo grounded to shortstop. Bogaerts stepped to his right and zipped a throw to Pedroia at second. It was close and Machado was called out. However, Machado slid over the bag and his right spike went into Pedroia's left calf. As Pedroia was helped off the field (he was moving very slowly), John Farrell asked the umpires to review the play to determine whether Machado's slide was legal. The umpires seemed to not want to do this.
Hernandez had started at short and, after Young pinch-hit, Bogaerts took over in this half-inning. With Brock Holt on the DL, Sandoval moved to second and Steve Selsky took over at third. Now the umpires were reviewing the play, but it turned out they were responding to Baltimore's challenge of the out call on the force play. That call was upheld, but NESN's replays seemed to indicate that Machado was safe (which would mean the umpires blew the call twice). During one showing of the replay, Jerry Remy said he wasn't sure the Orioles had recorded the force, but he never brought it up again. Farrell remained pissed off as he brought in Fernando Abad to pitch.
Chris Davis lined a pitch to right. Betts ran towards the line and made a very nice diving catch. Dave O'Brien gushed a bit too much about the play, saying that Mookie had "caught it out of the air". (Of course, all fly balls that are ruled outs are caught "out of the air". If they hit the ground, then they are hits.) During the break before the top of the ninth, third base coach Brian Butterfield was ejected by third base umpire Alan Porter. Presumably, Butterfield was talking about Machado's slide, but he was standing in the coach's box, quite a distance from Porter, and not making any gestures. Fans likely had no idea anything was going on until Porter walked over and thumbed him out of the game. Remy quite rightly called the ejection "weak" and "ridiculous".
Also re NESN: Tonight's poll question was: "Do you think there should be ties in major league baseball?" Why would NESN ask this? Is there talk about MLB doing something to the rules that would result in tie games? As far as I know, this is not an issue at all. NESN might as well as if viewers think batters should recite the alphabet before stepping into the batters' box. It makes no sense. ... As it turned out, 8% of voters thought tie games should be an option - so MLB should eliminate the possibility of extra innings? - which was exactly 8% more than I expected.
Pedroia, 2BJackie Bradley likely will be activated from the disabled list. He's been out since April 9 (right knee sprain).
Benintendi, LF
Betts, RF
Moreland, 1B
Ramirez, DH
Bradley, CF
Sandoval, 3B
Vazquez, C
Hernandez, SS
Mookie Betts, in 10 games at Camden Yards last season: .514/.609/1.162, 8 HR, 15 RBI. ... Betts is hitting .529 (9-for-17) over his last four games, .500 (13-for-26) in his last six.
There will always be only one Pedro, but ...
First Four Starts With Red Sox
Pedro Martinez (1998): 32.0 innings, 3 runs, 7 walks, 44 strikeouts, 0.84 ERA, 0.719 WHIP Chris Sale (2017): 29.2 innings, 3 runs, 6 walks, 42 strikeouts, 0.91 ERA, 0.738 WHIPNote: In his fifth start, Martinez allowed 4 runs in 5.1 innings and his ERA rose to 1.69.
Sandy Leon, on catching Sale yesterday: "It's the best game I've ever caught. He was throwing every pitch in every count. He likes to attack."
If you are interested, here's John Farrell's explaination for pulling Sale: "After kind of a long inning after we get a challenge review, we score that run late in the inning, felt it was time to turn it over to a guy that was fresh and powerful." (Farrell also said that if the game had remained scoreless, he might still have gone with Kimbrel in the ninth.)
6 comments:
I posted some of the SoSH Game Thread in yesterday's post.
Brock Holt on the 10-day DL with vertigo. He started feeling "a little weird" during the series in Detroit earlier this month. He described the symptoms as "a little dizziness, a little light-headedness."
I could be wrong, but I feel like OB wasn't sure if the Mookie catch was a trap or not. So he stalls, saying it's a sensational "play" as opposed to "catch," before finally saying it was caught "out of the air" upon getting confirmation in his earpiece. It's 11 seconds from the time it's caught until the time he says it's a catch. Anyway it seemed like a pretty obvious catch all the way.
I love "caught out of the air".
Name me a fly out that WASN'T caught out of the air!
Also re NESN: Tonight's poll question was: "Do you think there should be ties in major league baseball?" Why would NESN ask this? Is there talk about MLB doing something to the rules that would result in tie games? As far as I know, this is not an issue at all.
It's probably being floated as an alternative to that asinine extra-innings rule they tested in the WBC and are testing in the Arizona Fall League and Gulf Coast League this summer, whereby teams get spotted a runner on second base to start the inning. Frankly, tie games would be preferable to that crap.
Frankly, tie games would be preferable to that crap.
I thought it might be something like that (though DOB/JR never said anything about that; of course, as we know, neither of them watched even one pitch of the WBC, so maybe they have no idea that rule even exists). Laura found the WBC rule that said starting with the 11th inning, each team would start their half-innings with a man on first and second!
In a rout, we sometimes wish for a guy to hit an 8-run homer, but under that WBC rule, a leadoff guy could hit a 3-run HR!
I honestly don't know what I would do if MLB tried something like that. ... Would fans revolt? Or would they stay quiet and just accept it?
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