April 30, 2017

G24: Red Sox 6, Cubs 2

Cubs    - 000 010 100 - 2  5  1
Red Sox - 200 000 04x - 6  6  0
Three consecutive singles by the Red Sox loaded the bases against old friend and Cubs reliever Koji Uehara with no outs in the bottom of the eighth. Boston went on to score four runs with Pedro Strop on the mound, but did not get a base hit while doing so.

After striking out Mookie Betts, Strop - with Hanley Ramirez at the plate - bounced a 2-2 pitch in the dirt. It caromed over by the third-base on-deck circle and Marco Hernandez scored, snapping a 2-2 tie. Ramirez ended up walking, re-loading the bases. Mitch Moreland grounded out to first, with Strop covering, and Xander Bogaerts scored. Dustin Pedroia hit a routine grounder to shortstop, but Addison Russell's throw to first was low, skipping past Anthony Rizzo and allowing Andrew Benintendi and Ramirez to cross the plate. After Brian Duensing retired Jackie Bradley, it was on to the ninth...

Where Craig Kimbrel retired the Cubs easily, on nine pitches. Willson Contreras popped to Bradley in short left-center, Albert Almora grounded to second, and John Jay grounded back to Kimbrel, who flipped the ball to Moreland for the final out.

Ramirez gave the Red Sox an early lead when he hit a two-run homer in the first inning.

Eduardo Rodriguez (6-5-1-2-9, 108) gave up a solo home run to Kris Bryant in the fifth. In the seventh, Joe Kelly issued one-out walks to Jay and Kyle Schwarber. Kelly then threw a wild pitch and Jay scored from second base. He was initially called out, but the call was reversed after the Cubs asked for a review. Kelly retired Bryant and Robbie Scott got Rizzo to ground out to first to preserve the tie.

Matt Barnes retired the Cubs in order in the eighth. ... Benintendi had two hits and scored two runs. ... Bogaerts singled and walked twice.

Following along on Gameday at work, I was wishing for robots during Benintendi's first inning at-bat:
First pitch: In the strike zone, called a ball.
Second pitch: Out of the strike zone, called a strike.

Good work, Bruce Dreckman. ... Accent on the dreck.
Kyle Hendricks / Eduardo Rodriguez
Bogaerts, SS
Benintendi, LF
Betts, RF
Ramirez, DH
Moreland, 1B
Pedroia, 2B
Bradley, CF
Vazquez, C
Hernandez, 3B
Scott Lauber (ESPN) writes about the return to Boston of Theo Epstein ─ the man recently dubbed the "world's greatest leader".
In March, Fortune magazine ranked the "50 greatest leaders in the world" ... The notion that a baseball executive would even be considered among them?

"It's been a little bit otherworldly when you have magazines ─ legitimate publications on planet Earth ─ referring to him as the greatest leader," [Red Sox team president Sam] Kennedy says. "When you've known someone since they were a kid and you read these things and you hear these things, it becomes laughable because there are so many more important issues and causes and people in the world. ... That said, I think it acknowledges how important a place that sports ─ and especially the Red Sox and the Cubs ─ has in American society." ...

"I was so young and immature and over my head [when I joined the Red Sox], and as I think back on that whole saga, getting the job and the heartbreak in '03 and then winning it in '04, I went through that whole thing with this great group of friends who I work with and we just rode the wave," Epstein says. "We didn't come up for air or get perspective on everything. We couldn't process it in real time. It just felt like one big wild ride, ending with a parade."
Speaking of championship parades, fans attending Sunday night's game can get a picture of themselves with both the 2004 Red Sox World Series trophy and the trophy awarded to the 2016 Cubs (with a suggested donation of $20 to the Red Sox Foundation and Cubs Charities).

Matt Barnes will be available out of the bullpen after serving his four-game suspension.

Also: the Dodgers had an amazing comeback last night. Trailing the Phillies 5-2 in the bottom of the ninth, this happened:
Hector Neris pitching.
Yasiel Puig (fsbbfbf) homered to left-center.
Cody Bellinger homered off right field foul pole.
Justin Turner (pinch-hitter) (s) homered to left.
Chris Taylor (bfs) struck out swinging.
Austin Barnes (fbf) singled to center.
Joely Rodriguez now pitching.
Andrew Toles (bfc) flied out to left.
Corey Seager (cb) singled to left, Barnes to second.
Adrian Gonzalez (cbffff) singled to third (deflected off glove), Barnes scored.
MLB's story states:
It was at least the fifth time since 1956 that a team hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie or win a game. It is the third time the Dodgers have accomplished the feat.

It previously happened on September 18, 2006, when they hit four consecutive homers (Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew, Russell Martin and Marlon Anderson) against the Padres [that was also the last time it had been done by any team]; and June 29, 1956, when they hit three (Duke Snider, Randy Jackson and Gil Hodges [all with two out!]) against the Phillies. ...

It also happened against the Phillies on July 16, 1974, when the Padres (Nate Colbert, Willie McCovey and Dave Winfield) did it.

4 comments:

allan said...

From Elias:

Brett Gardner led off the bottom of the first inning for the Yankees on Saturday with a home run. The previous night, Matt Holliday had hit a walkoff home run. This was the fourth time in Yankees history that the team hit a walkoff home run and a leadoff homer in the next game:

August 11 & 13, 1940: Joe Gordon hit a game-ending home run against the Philadelphia Athletics and then started the next game with a homer against the Red Sox.

August 16 & 17, 1977: Chris Chambliss hit a walkoff home run against the White Sox and Mickey Rivers homered to begin the next game, at Detroit.

August 5 & 6, 1990: Roberto Kelly hit walkoff and leadoff homers on consecutive days against Cleveland.

***

Carlos Gomez of the Rangers hit for the cycle for the second time. The first time was nearly nine years ago (May 7, 2008). Only four other players have gone at least eight years between cycles: Joe Cronin, Joe DiMaggio, George Brett, and Chris Speier.

***

The Mariners scored three runs in the top of the first inning ... but [Cleveland] stormed back for four runs of their own in the bottom of the first ... And that was the end of the scoring ... The last major-league game in which each team scored at least three runs in the first inning and then didn't score again was on September 12, 1993, when the Tigers beat the White Sox, 6–3 in Chicago.

allan said...

MLB are such assholes: "[I]t's extremely hard to believe that three drug tests — both urine and blood, which test for separate things — in 10 days is entirely the luck of the draw."

From a commenter: "If one of his previous tests were positive but still in appeal, there's no sense in testing him again. And if they're all negative, what, he just started doping after three tests and 11 homers? GTFOH."

allan said...

The Nationals are on fire!

NYM - 111 200 000 - 5 9 2
WAS - 501 431 54x - 23 23 0

Anthony Rendon: 6-for-6, 3 home runs, 1 double, 5 runs scored, 10 RBI!

(Note: WAS retired in order in scoreless 2nd inning.)

Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Staff Writer:
"Among the Nats' 23 hits were seven homers, including three from Rendon, who had never before posted a multi-homer game. Rendon went 6 for 6, drove in 10 runs, scored five and finished with 16 total bases. According to baseball-reference.com, no one had hit those benchmarks in the same game. According to ESPN Stats & Info, Rendon is the second player in major-league history with six hits, three home runs and 10 RBI in a game. The other was Walker Cooper, who did it for the Reds in 1949. Meanwhile, Washington has scored 14 or more runs five times already this season. There have been only seven other such games in all of baseball, and no other team has done it more than once."

allan said...

The Nationals were in Colorado last week (April 24-27) and they scored 46 runs in 4 games: 4, 15, 11, 16.

That's not even close to the four-game record. The 1936 Yankees scored 59 runs in a four-game series against the Athletics in Philadelphia in May 1936.

May 23: Swept DH 12-6 and 15-1
(Led first game 12-1 but allowed 5 runs in B9. Scored in 8 of 9 innings in nightcap: 201 112 251.)

May 24: Won 25-2
(A's actually led 2-0 after one inning. Tony Lazzeri had 11 RBI on 3 homers and 1 triple.)

May 25: Lost 7-10
(NY scored 5 runs in T1. Starter Lefty Gomez allowed 3 runs in B1 and left the game. Hurt?)