Red Sox - 100 000 001 - 2 7 0 Twins - 000 000 000 - 0 5 0Rick Porcello (7-4-0-1-8, 94) was stupendous, allowing the Twins next to nothing, economically retiring 15 of 16 batters from the first inning into the sixth. He went to a three-ball count only three times, issuing his only walk to his penultiment batter.
J.D. Martinez knocked in the Red Sox's first run and scored the second run as Boston won their sixth consecutive game, and remained 5.5 GB the Yankees. But Alex Cora says: "We're not where we want to be yet."
José Berríos (8-5-1-0-10, 109) nearly matched Porcello inning-for-inning. He allowed three straight singles (and a run) to begin the evening, then set down 19 Red Sox hitters in a row. Through seven innings, Berríos threw 78.5% of his pitches for strikes, the highest percentage against the Red Sox since 2007. Mookie Betts lined a single over third baseman Miguel Sanó into left field. Andrew Benintendi crushed a pitch to right, which he may have thought was gone. The ball hit high off the right field wall, however, and Benintendi was thrown out at second. Martinez duplicated Betts's hit, singling on a line to left, and Boston led 1-0.
Berríos needed only a combined 29 pitches to retire the side in the next three innings and ended up throwing a season-high 109 pitches. Berríos had only two three-ball counts: the final batter in each of the sixth and eighth innings. In fact, after Martinez singled in the Red Sox's first run, Berríos went to a two-ball count to only three of the next 24 batters.
The Twins' first real scoring opportunity (outside of a home run) came in the seventh when C.J. Cron doubled off Porcello with one out. Porcello then walked Sanó with two outs before getting Jason Castro on a fly to left. Colten Brewer began the eighth by allowing a single to Jonathan Schoop and walking Max Kepler. Jorge Polanco (repeatedly (and erroneously) labelled "the best hitter in the American League" by both Joe Castiglione and Mario Impemba because he leads the AL in batting average*) bunted the runners to second and third. Nelson Cruz knocked a dribbler down the third base line and Schoop was caught in a rundown and tagged out 1-2-5. Eddie Rosario then grounded to first.
*: Polanco is (on Tuesday morning) sixth in the AL in on-base percentage and OPS, and tied (with Xander Bogaerts) for second in BRef's offensive WAR and sixth in fanGraphs' WAR, and fifth in wRC+. Polanco is a fine baseball player, but he is in no way, shape, or form the best hitter in the AL.
Twins reliever Brian Parker pitched the ninth and the Red Sox added an insurance run. After Benintendi lined out to deep left, Martinez doubled down the left field line. Rafael Devers fouled out to left before Xander Bogaerts lined a double to the gap in right-center that rolled to the wall and scored JDM easily. The Red Sox have hit at least one extra-base hit in 88 consecutive games, the longest active streak in MLB and longest for the Red Sox since a 164-game streak in 2004-05.
Ryan Brasier needed only 11 pitches to throw a clean ninth, getting a fly to left and a grounder to second before striking out Sanó to end the game.
AL East: MFY 3, Rays 0 (Tanaka complete-game two-hitter). MFY –, TBR 1.5, BOS 5.5.
Betts, RFBack with the team: Hector Velázquez and Ryan Brasier. Optioned to Pawtucket: Travis Lakins and Josh Smith.
Benintendi, LF
Martinez, DH
Devers, 3B
Bogaerts, SS
Holt, 2B
Chavis, 1B
Bradley, CF
León, C
Since April 28, the Red Sox have the best record in the AL East (28-17, .622), 0.5 GA of the Yankees (26-16). In that time, both Boston and New York have allowed 189 runs, but the Red Sox have scored 50 more runs (274-224). Based on runs scored/allowed, you would expect the Red Sox to be 30-15 and Yankees 24-18, but reality has not compiled (which is a common complaint about reality). (The Twins have been even better since April 28 - 31-14, .689.)
During their current five-game winning streak, the Red Sox are averaging 7.8 runs per game, batting .323 with a 1.022 OPS.
The Red Sox and Rays are the only teams with as many as five qualifying players with an OBP of .350 or higher: Xander Bogaerts (.391), Mookie Betts (.387), J.D. Martinez (.376), Rafael Devers (.362), and Andrew Benintendi (.352). ... Boston also has three of the AL's top four leaders in runs scored: Bogaerts (1st, 56), Betts (3rd, 54), and Devers (4th, 52).
Jackie Bradley has a seven-game hitting streak and has reached base in 12 straight games. Since May 20 (26 games), Bradley has the second-highest OPS in the American League: 1.055, with a .307/.396/.659 slash line. ... Mike Trout is #1: 1.112 and Xander Bogaerts is #3: 1.051.
AL East: MFY –, TBR 0.5, BOS 5.5. ... Rays/MFY, 7 PM.
I watched between the top of the third and the top of the eighth, so I missed any offense either team had to offer. I fully expected the bullpen to blow it, and Brewer almost delivered, but a nice solid win. I remain hopeful that Boston can make a run here and catch up to New York and Tampa in the standings.
ReplyDeleteI just watched the video recap of the game. During the pregame, the Twins recognized David Ortiz and wished him a speedy recovery from last week's shooting: a nice gesture by his former organization.
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