Red Sox - 000 010 000 - 1 3 0 Astros - 303 001 00x - 7 11 0Rick Porcello (6-10-7-1-3, 101) had a bad night.
Porcello did not retire any of the first four Astros in the first inning: George Springer doubled, Marwin Gonzalez reached on a bunt single, Jose Altuve doubled in a run, and Carlos Correa walked. Houston then got two sacrifice flies from Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran and took a 3-0 lead.
The Astros doubled their lead to 6-0 in the third. Altuve led off with a home run to left center. Correa singled. One out later, Beltran homered to right. Porcello threw 64 pitches in the first three innings.
Chris Young homered for Boston in the fifth.
Austin Maddox made his major league debut when he relieved Porcello in the seventh. Maddox, a 26-year-old right-hander, has pitched for both Portland (10 games, 1.35 ERA) and Pawtucket (8 games, 1.32 ERA) this year. He retired the 2-3-4 hitters in the Astros' lineup on 10 pitches.
Fernando Abad stranded a runner at third in the eighth, extending the bullpen's consecutive scoreless inning streak to 25.
Astros starter David Paulino (6-3-1-1-4, 81) allowed four baserunners in six innings.
1st - Xander Bogaerts walked with two outs. (Mitch Moreland filed to center.)The Red Sox were retired in order in each of the final three innings (on 10, 8, and 13 pitches).
4th - Dustin Pedroia led off with a single. (He was forced at second by Bogaerts, who did not advance.)
5th - Young led off with a home run.
6th - Mookie Betts led off with a single. (Pedroia flied to right; Bogaerts hit into a double play.)
Porcello has now allowed 124 hits in 15 starts this year - and we're about two weeks away from the halfway point of the season. (He allowed 193 hits last season, an average of 7.8 per 9 innings. This year, his average has jumped to 12.0/9 IP.)
Out of curiosity, I used Baseball Reference's Play Index to see a list of Red Sox pitchers who have allowed 280+ hits in a season. It has happened 25 times in team history, but only twice since 1936. And those two times occurred in the same season! In 1974, Bill Lee gave up 320 hits and Luis Tiant allowed 281. (The team record is 350 hits, by Cy Young in 1902.)
The Yankees lost to Oakland 5-2 this afternoon - their fifth consecutive loss - so the Red Sox had an opportunity to move into a tie for first place. That will have to wait until tomorrow.
Betts, RFPorcello has pitched at least six innings in all but one of his 14 starts this year. He is giving up a ton of hits, 114 so far this year, more than any other pitcher in MLB. Opposing teams have had at least eight in each of his last seven starts. On the plus side, Porcello is walking only 1.8 batters per nine innings (7th-best in MLB, 3rd-best in the AL).
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Benintendi, LF
Young, DH
Bradley, CF
Rutledge, 3B
Leon, C
Paulino is making his fourth start of the season; he also appeared in three games last year for Houston. In 2017, he has allowed 10 earned runs in 13.1 innings (6.59 ERA).
Tonight's game will be broadcast by Fox and Don Orsillo will be calling the play-by-play.
The Red Sox are 17-8 since May 21 (.680), the best winning percentage in the AL. Only the Dodgers (17-7, .708) have a better record since that date.
Red Sox relievers have not allowed a run in their last 24 innings, the club's longest such streak since a 25.1-inning stretch from July 11-August 28, 2009.
The bullpen ranks #2 in the majors in ERA (2.75). Boston relievers have not finished a season with an ERA that low in 102 years (2.56 in 1915). It has been 50 years since they finished a season with
an ERA below 3.10 (2.90 in 1967).
Joe Kelly has not allowed a run since May 1 (17 appearances: 15.2 IP, 10 H, 6 BB, 16 K). In his last 43 appearances - including the postseason - since July 26, 2016, Kelly has a 0.91 ERA.
Craig Kimbrel leads all MLB relievers in WHIP (0.42) and opponents average (.078), and is #2 in K/9 (17.02). Leads AL relievers in strikeouts and is #2 in ERA (0.88). He has struck out 58 of 108 batters this year (53.7%). Opponents are 2-for-their-last-53 (.038). For the season, right-handed hitters are 2-for-59 (.034), with 32 strikeouts.
On May 13, Jackie Bradley was hitting .171/.234/.286. Since then (30 games), he has hit .311/.423/.583 (1.006 OPS).
In his last 25 games since May 17, Mitch Moreland has posted a .337/.406/.607 batting line (1.013 OPS).
Mookie Betts's 113 extra-base hits since the start of 2016 lead the AL and rank #2 in MLB (Arenado, 123). Betts is 12-for-27 (.444) with eight extra-base hits in his last six games; 14 of his last 23 hits have gone for extra bases, including seven of his last 10.
Betts leads the AL with 23 doubles. He also leads the majors with 65 doubles since the start of 2016 and 107 doubles since the start of 2015.
Sandy Leon: 12 of his 16 RBI this year have come in the 7th inning or later.
On Thursday, Dustin Pedroia struck out more than once for the first time since July 31, 2016, snapping a streak of 103 games without doing so. It was the longest streak by a Red Sox hitter since Wade Boggs went 105 games without striking out two or more times (April 12-August 20, 1992).
Rick Porcello has struck out 50 and walked only eight in his last nine starts (56.1 innings). In his career, Porcello has issued 2.03 BB/9, the lowest rate in the AL among active pitchers, and the 2nd-lowest in the majors (minimum of 1,000 IP).
Fernando Abad has a 1.93 ERA since May 1 (14 IP, .204 opponents average (10-for-49)).
Matt Barnes's ERA split: 0.56 in 15 home games and 5.87 in 16 road games.
Red Sox, when leading after 6 innings: 25-2
Red Sox, when leading after 7 innings: 27-0
Red Sox, when leading after 8 innings: 32-0
Red Sox, when trailing after 8 innings: 0-28
2 comments:
Along with my usual issue with the "leading after..." stats (which is that they're never given with context), I don't like how they don't go by half-inning. Let's say you're down 1-0 after 8. You bat in the top of the ninth and take a 2-1 lead. Your closer comes in and blows it in the bottom of the ninth. And let's say that happens 25 times. NONE of those games count toward the "when leading after 8" stat. Yet you're blowing games all the time in the very last inning, which is presumably what the stat is trying to tell you.
I also discovered that the MLB record for most hits allowed in a season (since 1901) is 412, by Joe McGinnity of the 1901 Giants. Of the top 26 seasons, though, only one is from the last 87 years. And that is Wilbur Wood (#6), who gave up 381 hits in 359.1 innings for the 1973 White Sox.
If we look at all seasons since 1871, we find that John Coleman, a 20-year-old rookie, allowed 772 hits for the 1883 Philadelphia Quakers (National League). (There are 215 individual seasons from 1871-1900 that top McGinnity's 412 hits allowed!)
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