Red Sox - 203 010 100 - 7 10 1 Yankees - 032 010 03x - 9 9 1Rafael Devers gave Boston a 7-6 lead with a home run in the seventh and Matt Barnes recorded the first two outs in the bottom of the eighth.
Barnes failed to retire #9 hitter Mike Tauchman, walking him on five pitches. Tauchman stole second. Barnes failed to retire DJ LeMahieu, who singled. Tauchman scored the tying run. And Barnes failed, in spectacular fashion, to retire Aaron Judge, who launched a 2-0 curveball an eye-popping 468 feet to left-center.
The Red Sox held (and lost) four leads on Sunday night: 2-0, 5-3, 6-5, and 7-6. Barnes stated the obvious afterwards.
[T]wo outs, nobody on, and the nine-hole hitter, can't walk him. Can't walk the nine-hole hitter to get to the top of their order.Actually, it turns out you can - but you really shouldn't.
It was Judge's second home run of the night and his sixth of the season.
Trying to locate a 2-0 breaker down and away ... tried to locate it down there and certainly not put a hanging breaking ball middle up and in on him. Can't do that to a guy, one, who's locked in, and, two, who's got the power that he's got. Just a poor sequence of events there.Again, "Barnesy", you can do that, but . . . oh, piss off.
The Red Sox are 3-7 and 5 GB in the AL East.
Manager Ron Roenicke thought it might "surprise people to be this far down already". Hmmm. Boston does not its top three starters from last season. One was traded, one had surgery, and one is infected with a dangerous virus that is also messing with his heart. That's a big hit for any team to absorb.
On the bright side, Xander Bogaerts went 4-for-4, hit two home runs, singled, doubled, scored three runs, and drove in three. Devers drove in two runs with a single and a home run.
Pillar, LFIn his first start of the season, Paxton threw 41 pitches and got three outs.
Devers, 3B
Martinez, RF
Bogaerts, SS
Vázquez, DH
Chavis, 1B
Plawecki, C
Bradley, CF
Peraza, 2B
The Red Sox plan to fly to Florida (the hottest SARS-CoV-2 hotspot on the planet (9,642 new cases yesterday and about 7,000 new cases so far today)) after tonight's game.
They are off tomorrow and play in Tampa Bay on Tuesday and Wednesday.
More possible strangeness in a strange season:
The Mets:
As of game time, Yoenis Céspedes has not reported to the ballpark today. He did not reach out to management with any explanation for his absence. Our attempts to contact him have been unsuccessful.Ken Rosenthal:
Mets have learned they have no reason to believe Cespedes’ safety is at risk, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.Update:
Yoenis Céspedes has opted out of the rest of the 2020 season for "COVID-related" reasons, according to Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen.Jeff Passan (ESPN):
When Yoenis Cespedes didn't show up today, the Mets sent security to his room. They found it empty. He had taken his belongings, just up and left, and through his agent informed the team mid-game that he was opting out ..
Manager Ron Roenicke thought it might "surprise people to be this far down already". Hmmm. Boston does not its top three starters from last season. One was traded, one had surgery, and one is infected with a dangerous virus that is also messing with his heart. That's a big hit for any team to absorb.
ReplyDeleteI agree; you can't hold out much hope when your current "#1 starter" is Nathan Eovaldi. Also don't forget that Boston had Collin McHugh pencilled into its starting rotation before he opted out for 2020. True, he hasn't started many games in the past few seasons but he would have added the experience that a lot of these guys on the pitching staff, save Martin Perez, just don't have.