Red Sox - 102 010 010 - 5 10 0 Yankees - 000 000 400 - 4 5 0
J.D. Martinez's home run leading off the eighth inning against the Red Sox's favourite Yankees reliever, Dellin Betances, just barely got over the right field wall. It was the difference as Boston moved back into a tie for first place. New York had knotted the game in the previous half-inning, though they did very little to earn it.
Eduardo Rodriguez (5-1-0-3-8, 93) had pinpoint control of his fastball. He struck out the final two batters in the second, then struck out the side in the third. He did not allow a hit until one out in the the fourth, when two walks and a single loaded the bases. He got Tyler Austin looking at strike three and Miguel Andujar on a fly to Mookie Betts at the warning track in right-center. Then, after a 55-minute rain delay, Rodriguez returned and struck out the first two batters in the fifth.
CC Sabathia (4-9-4-0-5, 80) had no luck in fooling the Red Sox. Betts stroked a ground-rule double to right to start the game and scored on Hanley Ramirez's groundout. CC allowed two singles in the second. Betts led off the third with a single and Andrew Benintendi hustled his way to a right-field double. Ramirez reached on an infield single, scoring Betts. Martinez hit into a fielder's choice and a third run scored. Ramirez donged to left-center in the fifth, about two minutes before the tarp was pulled out.
Heath Hembree took over in the seventh and retired Austin on a fly to right. Andujar and Gleyber Torres singled and Hembree walked pinch-hitter Neil Walker on four pitches. Joe Kelly came in and walked Brett Gardner on four pitches, forcing in a run. Aaron Judge singled home Torres and Didi Gregorius's fielder's choice grounder scored Walker. Kelly then wild-pitched Gardner home with the tying run. (The entire inning was one huge gift from the bullpen.)
Kelly also pitched the eighth and he walked Sanchez on five pitches. Austin flied out to left and Andujar struck out. Torres singled, but Kelly struck out Walker looking. In the ninth, Craig Kimbrel struck out Gardner, got Judge to fly to center, and retired Gregorius on a grounder back to the mound.
During the rain delay, the Globe posted on the top of its website that the game was a 4-0 final.
When Xander Bogaerts was rung up on a questionable pitch in the top of the fifth, NESN's Jerry Remy said: "After a rain delay, that pitch is probably going to be called a strike". That was an extremely damning thing to say about an umpire - in this case, Stu Scheurwater - suggesting that he would deliberately call pitches incorrectly because he wanted to go home as quickly as possible.
In the top of the seventh, one of Betances's pitches was at 100 mph. Dave O'Brien said that the Yankees have two guys who throw over 100 because Aroldis Chapman "can get it up to 103-plus".
In 2010, Chapman, then a rookie, threw a pitch clocked at 105.1. In a game in April 2011, the stadium gun had one Chapman fastball at 106. However, the pitchF/X reading was only 102.4. In his major league career (regular season, postseason, and All-Star games), Chapman has thrown 8,205 pitches. And it looks like exactly one of them has been reliably clocked above 103. ... 1 out of 8,205.
NESN's replay zooms seemed even worse than usual tonight. Here is the entire TV screen showing Judge about to swing at one of Kimbrel's pitches:
Betts, CFI don't usually advocate rampant bunting. Tonight, however, I do.
Benintendi, LF
Ramirez, DH
Martinez, RF
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Nunez, 2B
Devers, 3B
Vazquez, C
1 comment:
Perhaps it is time for a round of "Bunting Bingo" ?
Guess who is the first & in what innings
Will go for Devers in the 2nd
For those with sadistic tendencies ? Perhaps you could guess which ligament in which of CC's knees ?
Mind you I'd prefer Mookie starts the Onslaught from the off & drives the Big Boy to the "Baseball Rubber Room" !!!!!
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