G127: Cleveland 6, Red Sox 3

Cleveland - 000 202 110 - 6 13  1
Red Sox   - 000 000 300 - 3  5  0

The Red Sox have tied their longest losing streak of the season and the Yankees drew another game closer in the AL East standings. Is it be time to hit the panic button? I'm confident that some people in the media will suggest you do exactly that, but ... it's a friggin three-game losing streak and the MFY are still a whopping eight games out of first.

Shane Bieber (6.1-5-3-0-5, 82) kept the lid on the Boston bats for six innings, allowing only two baserunners. In that time, the bottom of the Cleveland lineup did damage against Nathan Eovaldi (5.1-10-4-1-2, 87).

The Red Sox were able to keep the game scoreless when Mitch Moreland threw out a runner at the plate in the second and Eovaldi stranded two other men. But Cleveland got four straight hits with two outs in the fourth: singles from Melky Cabrera, Jason Kipnis, and Yan Gomes, and a double from Greg Allen.

Eovaldi worked around a leadoff double in the fifth, but Cabrera led off the sixth with a home run. One out later, Gomes and Allen singled. Brantley's two-out hit scored Gomes and the inning ended (eventually) when Brantley was out 8-2-6 trying advance to second. Umpire Gerry Davis was completely out of position. Xander Bogaerts's glove tag might as well have been behind a brick wall, but Davis made a confident call - safe! - as though the entire play was directly in front of his eyes. Bogaerts, however, ran off the field and into the dugout, confident it was the third out. The Red Sox challenged the call - and it was overturned. Third out.

Cleveland added a fifth run without a hit against Brandon Workman in the Seventh. Jose Ramirez walked, stole second, went to third on a grounder, and scored on a fly ball in the right-field corner than Mookie Betts made an excellent catch on, running right towards the wall, but stopped maybe a foot short.

Bieber had set down the Red Sox in order in the first, striking out two, but needed 21 pitches. His work was much more streamlined in subsequent innings, as he threw only 12, 7, 9, and 9 pitches. The only baserunners had been Andrew Benintendi's single in the fourth and Eduardo Nunez's double in the sixth.

But the Red Sox suddenly attacked in the seventh, banging out three hits in a four-pitch span. Benintendi doubled, J.D. Martinez singled, and Bogaerts took a strike before doubling in a run. Moreland sent a rocket to deep center, but Allen ran it down and made a Bradley-esque sliding catch in front of the garage door. JDM tagged and walked home. After a pitching change, Ian Kinsler's groundout scored Bogaerts. The Red Sox trailed 5-3.

Gomes homered in the eighth and the Red Sox could not do anything else over the final two innings. Andrew Miller struck out Steve Pearce and Jackie Bradley and got Betts on a ground ball to second. Brad Hand pitched the ninth and the only blemish came when Kipnis failed to catch Bogaerts's two-out pop-up on the infield dirt. It was a strange error. Seeing a flicker of light, the Fenway crowd came to life, standing and roaring for yet another rally. But Moreland went down swinging.

I listened to the Cleveland announcers for the first half of the game (they became insufferable when their team took the lead). When Benintendi batted in the first, one of them noted that the left fielder had "made a diving catch last night, taking Greg Allen away from a hit." ... Never heard robbing a hit described that way before.

Switching over to NESN in the sixth, Dave O'Brien said Bieber was "throwing a lot of strikes" as the pitch count display showed 68% strikes. However, I recall O'Brien saying only a few nights ago that throwing 70% strikes was not very good.

With two outs in the top of the sixth, Joe Kelly had a 1-2 count on Brantley. OB said "the crowd is itching for a strikeout". No! They were not. They were "itching" for an OUT. I'm sure every single Red Sox fan in attendance did not give a shit how it happened. O'Brien does this all the time - and it bugs the hell out of me. (Surprise!)

Shane Bieber / Nathan Eovaldi

Betts, RF
Benintendi, LF
Martinez, DH
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Kinsler, 2B
Nunez, 3B
Leon, C
Bradley, CF

Two more factoids from an amazing season:

1. The Red Sox have lost more than two consecutive games only once this year.

2. The Red Sox have had 10 winning streaks longer than their worst losing streak.

Boston lost three in a row from April 21-24. The most recent losses - Sunday to the Rays and last night to Cleveland - are only the second time in two months that the team has lost consecutive games (also July 24 and 26).

Here are the 39 wins and 12 losses since June 21:

W W
L
W W W W
L
W
L
W W W W W W W W W W
L
W W W
L
W W
LL
W W W W
L
W W W W W W
L
W W W W W
L
W W
L L

The 10 winning streaks longer than the worst losing streak: 9, 8, 4, 4, 4, 4, 10, 4, 6, and 5 games.

(They have also had three streaks of three wins, so that's 13 winning streaks as long or longer than their worst losing streak. ... That is not a record. I looked at the 2001 Mariners and they had 13 streaks that matched or bettered their four-game losing streak.)

G126: Cleveland 5, Red Sox 4

Cleveland - 000 012 200 - 5  7  0
Red Sox   - 210 000 001 - 4 13  0

I think I finally understand the Red Sox's team-wide conviction (until the final out has been recorded) that they will win every game they play on more than an intellectual level. I can read or hear Mookie Betts's comments after August 5's stunning comeback/victory against the Yankees that the team knew they would come out on top, but it's a different matter when that attitude has, unbeknownst to you, taken up residence in your head.

I was convinced the Red Sox, down by two runs in the bottom of the ninth on Monday, would either force extra innings against Cody Allen or walkoff with their 89th win. I did not know how it would happen, but I knew it would happen. So when Betts smoked a double into the left-field corner and Andrew Benintendi walked and Allen fell behind Mitch Moreland 2-0, it felt like the pieces of a puzzle were falling perfectly into place.

Moreland chopped a slow grounder to the right side. Second baseman Jason Kipnis threw to second for the force but Francisco Lindor's relay to first was late. Betts was on third. After J.D. Martinez took ball one, Allen threw three fastballs up in the zone (out of the zone, for two of them). JDM fouled the first two off to the right side before popping the final one to first. Two outs.

Xander Bogaerts took two breaking pitches for strikes before tapping a roller towards third. The ball was on the infield grass and had no chance of rolling foul, but Jose Ramirez watched it roll anyway, since he had no play on anyone. Betts scored, Moreland was at second and Bogaerts was safe with an infield single. 5-4.

Ian Kinsler got ahead 2-1 and then fouled off three tough pitches, hoping to stay at the plate long enough to jump on a mistake. Allen missed up and away for ball three. His 28th pitch of the inning was a fastball only a few inches higher than the heart of the plate, but Kinsler could only loft it to left for the third out. The win I was sure I would be seeing did not occur, but that is truly a secondary matter to this new feeling.

The Red Sox lost their second straight game for the first time since July 25-26. (The time before that was June 19-20!)

The game began like so many this year, with the Red Sox grabbing a quick lead. Before the first inning was over, they had more hits than they had all day on Sunday. (And after two innings, they had equaled their hits total over the last two games.) After Corey Kluber (6.1-9-3-1-6, 108) struck out Betts and Benintendi, Moreland lined a single to left and Martinez doubled towards the right-field corner. Bogaerts (according to NESN's Dennis Eckersley) "dorked" a hit to shallow center and both runners scored.

In the second, the Red Sox scored again after the first two batters were retired (!). Jackie Bradley doubled to left-center, went to third on Betts's line drive single to left, and scored on Benintendi's opposite-field single to left. Kluber tied a season-high by giving up nine hits, but he did not allow another Boston runner past first base.

Rick Porcello (7-6-5-1-6, 107) began the night by pounding the zone, striking out two in the first inning and throwing only 10 pitches. He allowed two hits with one out in the second and also threw a wild pitch, but struck out Kipnis and Yan Gomes to work out of trouble. He retired the side in order in both the third and fourth, but Melky Cabrera led off the fifth with a home run.

Cleveland tied the game in the sixth when Lindor led off with an infield single, beating Porcello to the bag on a grounder to first. Michael Brantley followed with a home run into the visitors bullpen.

Porcello walked Kipnis with one out in the eighth. Gomes drilled the ball right back at Porcello, hitting him in the lower part of his chest. Porcello made a good throw to second for the force, but then fell to the grass. He was quickly on his feet and seemed to be okay as he talked with the trainer. I expected Alex Cora to pull him, since he was at 98 pitches and why take any chances? But Cora stayed with his starter and Greg Allen hit Porcello's 100th pitch into the Cleveland bullpen for a 5-3 lead.

In the home half of the seventh, Moreland walked with two outs. Adam Cimber came in and face Martinez. His first pitch was extremely low - and plate umpire Pat Hoberg called it a strike. (Hoberg had ruled that Martinez had not checked his swing on a 3-2 pitch in his previous at-bat, so JDM was doubly unhappy at this call. Hoburg had made the right call on the strikeout, but whatever.) Cimber's second pitch was a little higher than the first one, but it also looked too low. (Brooks says it was not.) Hoburg had to be consistent, so he called that a strike, too. Martinez ended up slicing a single to right-center on the next pitch, but who knows what he might have done had the umpire done his job correctly.

In the eighth, Steve Pearce doubled off Brad Hand with two outs, but Bradley struck out.

More NESN Notes: In the bottom of the second, Dave O'Brien said Martinez's opposite-field double in the previous inning had been hit "inside the bag". What actually happened was first baseman Yonder Alonso moved to his right - towards second base, away from the foul line - to try and snag the ball.

In the bottom of the third, Eckersley marveled at the fact that Lindor has "29 dongs". ... When Cimber came into the game, NESN showed some bullpen activity with the legend "Pitching Change Bonus Content" in the bottom left of the screen. (Well, I suppose it is a "bonus" when NESN doesn't cram extra commercials into the break and miss showing part of the game.)

This typo is not as bad as misspelling "Mookie", but NESN had all day to prepare this graphic - and run a spellcheck:

Typo-Spotting Bonus Content: The three factoids are correct.

Corey Kluber / Rick Porcello

Betts, RF
Benintendi, LF
Moreland, 1B
Martinez, DH
Bogaerts, SS
Kinsler, 2B
Holt, 3B
Leon, C
Bradley, CF

Pennant Preview? This week features four games against the Tito-led, AL Central-leading Clevelands. The teams are meeting for the first time this season, with three more games in Cleveland on September 21-23.

Cleveland (71-52) leads its division by 12 games, but would be 16 games behind the Red Sox if they were in the AL East.

Boston has not lost any of its last 13 series, the team's longest such streak in 46 years:

July 2-4:      Won 3 of 3 at Nationals
July 6-8:      Won 3 of 3 at Royals
July 9-11:     Won 3 of 3 vs Rangers
July 12-15:    Won 3 of 4 vs Blue Jays
July 20-22:    Won 2 of 3 at Tigers
July 23-24:    Split 1-1 at Orioles
July 26-29:    Won 3 of 4 vs Twins
July 30-31:    Split 1-1 vs Phillies
August 2-5:    Won 4 of 4 vs Yankees
August 7-9:    Won 2 of 3 at Blue Jays
August 10-12:  Won 4 of 4 at Orioles
August 14-15:  Split 1-1 at Phillies
August 17-19:  Won 2 of 3 vs Rays

Red Sox pitchers have allowed three runs or fewer in seven of their last eight games: 0, 4, 1, 1, 7, 3, 2, 2.

J.D. Martinez's streak of consecutive games reaching base at Fenway Park ended at 51 yesterday. His home stats are: .350/.419/.751/1.170.

Nathan Eovaldi talked with Chad Jennings of The Athletic on Sunday:

I've never been a part of a team that has been this successful. ... [W]e don't expect to lose any games. ... [I]t feels like we lose a lot more than we should. You know what I mean? ... We ended up losing [the final game on the last road trip], and it felt like we had lost so many games on the road trip. We had lost two. We took seven out of nine ...[W]e expect to win every game.

Schadenfreude 239 (A Continuing Series)

Kevin Kernan, Post:

You have to wonder if the Yankees will be fully healthy by the wild-card game.

Life got a lot tougher for the injury-plagued Yankees ... when shortstop Didi Gregorius had to leave the game after two innings because of a bruised left heel.

We are going to see what these Yankees are made of because there is a good chance Gregorius will land on the disabled list, joining Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez.

Three of the most important Yankees are sidelined, and if Gregorius is out for any length of time, that figures to have huge repercussions because Judge said Sunday he is still waiting on the chip fracture in his wrist to completely heal — and that could take a full six weeks. ...

The Yankees were dreaming when they talked about a three-week timetable for Judge.

Fred Kerber, Post:

Another day, another Yankees injury scare.

Shortstop Didi Gregorius left Sunday's game against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium with a bruised left heel after he collided with Toronto first baseman Kendrys Morales in the first inning. ...

The Yankees already have, among others, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and CC Sabathia on the disabled list. On Saturday, catcher Austin Romine took a foul ball off the mask and left the game.

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

Sunday started with such positive health news. Austin Romine had avoided a concussion and Gary Sanchez was making great progress on his return from a groin injury. ...

An awkward collision at first base left their dynamic shortstop, Didi Gregorius, possibly heading to the disabled list with what the team said is a bruised left heel. ...

The Yankees have an uphill battle ahead of them to keep themselves in the playoff picture and mounting injuries do not help. ... They hold a 3.5-game lead over the Astros and A's, who are in a tie for the AL-West division title, for the top Wild Card spot. ...

The Yankees are just not getting any healthier. ...

The Yankees still do not have a clear picture of when they will get back Judge, whom they initially thought would be swinging a bat by now.

Kevin Kernan, Post:

This team is baseball's version of Jenga. One shaky piece and it can all come falling down. ...

[T]here are major issues that won't go away.

Brian Cashman had better find some reinforcements because the Yankees lose a little more talent every day. When Gary Sanchez returns it will be a welcome sight, no matter his .188 batting average. ...

The Yankees need to pick up an outfielder, but refuse to do so. ... The Yankees' fourth outfielder at this moment is Shane Robinson, who looks to be tremendously overmatched and is batting .129.

[T]his problem is not going away.

G125: Rays 2, Red Sox 0

Rays    - 010 000 001 - 2  4  1
Red Sox - 000 000 000 - 0  2  0

The Red Sox were shut out for only the fifth time this season.

They have been held to four or fewer hits only eight times in 125 games. However, two of those eight games have been played in the last 24 hours. (Boston had four hits last night.)

The Rays were powered by solo home runs from Joey Wendle (off Hector Velazquez (4-3-1-3-2, 73) leading off the second inning) and C.J. Cron (off Matt Barnes with one out in the ninth).

The Red Sox had only five baserunners, and two of their three men left on base were stranded at third.

Xander Bogaerts doubled with one out in the second and went to third on Eduardo Nunez's groundout. Jalen Beeks came out of the bullpen and struck out Brock Holt. Beeks pitched four innings after starter Diego Castillo faced only six batters and threw 19 pitches.

The third inning began with Andrew Benintendi's single to right and a walk to Steve Pearce. J.D. Martinez grounded into a double play, moving Benintendi to third, and Xander Bogaerts walked. Beeks had thrown 22 pitches to the previous three batters (6-8-8), but Nunez hacked at the first thing he saw and flied to left. Boston's only other base runner came when Holt reached on an infield error in the fifth and was immediately erased on a double play.

The Red Sox did not hit a ball out of the infield over the last five innings. After Holt reached on the error, the Rays relievers retired the last 14 Boston batters, beginning with Blake Swihart's GIDP. Chaz Roe, Jose Alvarado, and Sergio Romo teamed up to strike out seven of the final nine Red Sox hitters, all swinging.

Diego Castillo / Hector Velazquez

Betts, RF
Benintendi, LF
Pearce, 1B
Martinez, DH
Bogaerts, SS
Nunez, 3B
Holt, 2B
Swihart, C
Bradley, CF

The Red Sox are 32-7 since July 2 (a 133-win pace).

At 88-36, Boston is on a 115-win pace for the season. The AL record for wins is 116.

Baseball Is Broken. How Would Nick Punto Fix It?

More brawls!

That’s Easy.. Hockey rules. Players fight one on one, when a player is in a vulnerable position the umpires stop the fight. The game will police itself and America’s favorite past time would be that much better. #Acuna #Urena https://t.co/y707tJ5tdo

— Nick Punto (@Shredderpunto) August 18, 2018

G124: Red Sox 5, Rays 2

Rays    - 000 002 000 - 2  5  1
Red Sox - 401 000 00x - 5  4  1

Instead of falling behind early and coming back, the Red Sox grabbed a first-inning lead and rode it to the finish. David Price (7-5-2-2-8, 103) was solid and J.D. Martinez hit his 38th home run.

The first two Rays reached base in the top of the first, but Price worked out of that jam and the offense went to work. Andrew Benintendi lined a one-out double into the left-field corner and quickly scored on Mitch Moreland's first-pitch double to right-center. Moreland stole third and Martinez walked. Then JDM felt like stealing second - so he did. Tyler Glasnow (6.2-3-5-3-4, 94) walked Xander Bogaerts on four pitches to load the bases and walked Ian Kinsler on four pitches to force in a run. Brock Holt grounded to first. Jake Bauers's throw to second base was wild and two runs scored.

With Sandy Leon batting, the Red Sox tried a double steal, but Glasnow stepped off the mound. His throw to third was high and Matt Duffy reached way up to grab it. He chased Kinsler back toward second, faked a throw, and tagged him. Then Duffy ran across the diamond toward Holt, who was standing between first and second. After a few feints, Duffy tagged Holt for the final out.

Martinez made it 5-0 with a solo shot into the Red Sox bullpen in the third. After that, the next 15 Red Sox batters were retired. Their next baserunner came with two outs in the eighth.

C.J. Cron hit a two-run dong in the sixth. Kevin Kiermaier doubled to lead off the seventh, but Price struck out Michael Perez and Carlos Gomez (both looking) and got Duffy on a liner to first. Ryan Brasier pitched a clean eighth and Craig Kimbrel got the side in order in the ninth.

The Red Sox:

are 44-15 (.746) at home and 44-21 (.677) on the road

have won 13 of their last 15 games, 17 of 20, and 32 of 39

have swept 12 series this season, but have not been swept in a series of any length

have allowed three or more runs in the first inning eight times this season (including Friday) and are 5-3 in those games

are 60-9 when they score first and 28-27 (!) when their opponent scores first (both records are the best in MLB)

ALE Magic Number: 29.

Tyler Glasnow / David Price

Betts, RF
Benintendi, LF
Moreland, 1B
Martinez, DH
Bogaerts, SS
Kinsler, 2B
Holt, 3B
Leon, C
Bradley, CF

Breathe deeply. Chris Sale is back on the disabled list, with "mild left shoulder inflammation". Brandon Workman has been recalled and Sunday's starter has not been announced.

Last night: The Cubs turned seven double plays in their 1-0 win over the Pirates, tying the record for a nine-inning game. The Cubs turned a DP in every inning but the fourth and fifth, matching the achievement of the Yankees on August 14, 1942 and Astros on May 4, 1969.

It was also the second straight win for the Cubs with a home run giving them a 1-0 victory (Thursday). The other three times that has happened since 1908:

1960 Tigers - May 10 (T9) and 11 (T11)
1964 Angels - July 15 (B8) and 17 (T2)
2018 Giants - March 29 (T5) and 30 (T9) (Joe Panik hit both homers)

The Orioles are a mind-boggling 50.5 games behind the Red Sox. The last three teams to finish more than 50 GB were the 1998 Devil Rays (51), 1998 Marlins (52), and 1979 Blue Jays (50.5).

The Orioles - with 40 games left to play - could shatter (what I believe is) the modern era record: 65.5 GB, by the 1909 Boston Doves. In their previous 40 games, the Orioles have lost 18.5 games in the standings. If they maintain that pace for the rest of the season, they would finish 69 GB!

The Orioles have 36 wins. The Red Sox won their 37th game on May 28 - nearly three months ago!

OH, YEAH? WELL, YOU JUST .... Ah, Fuck it.

Mets Are First Team To Score 40 Runs Over Consecutive Games Since 1953 Red Sox

The Mets scored a total of 40 runs over consecutive games: 16 on Wednesday in Baltimore and 24 in the first game of Thursday's doubleheader in Philadelphia. No team had done that since the 1953 Red Sox.

The Mets are also the first National League team to score 15+ runs in consecutive games since the New York Giants beat the Phillies by the scores of 18-1 and 18-1 on August 2 and 4, 1933.

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

NYM - 200 219 002 - 16 19  0
BAL - 100 000 130 -  5 12  0

Thursday, August 16, 2018 (G1)

NYM - 102 2(10)0 252 - 24 25  0
PHI - 021 1  0 0 000 -  4 10  4

The Red Sox scored 40 runs in consecutive games at Fenway Park against the Tigers on June 17-18, 1953 - also on a Wednesday and Thursday!

Wednesday, June 17, 1953

DET - 000 000 001 -  1  5  2
BOS - 220 710 05x - 17 20  2

Thursday, June 18, 1953

DET - 000 201   0 00 -  3  7  5
BOS - 030 002 (17)1x - 23 27  0

The Red Sox sent 23 batters to the plate in the seventh inning:

Steve Gromek pitching
Sammy White singled to CF
Gene Stephens singled to RF, White to 3B
Stephens stole 2B
Tom Umphlett singled to LF, White and Stephens scored
Johnny Lipon struck out
George Kell doubled to to LF, Umphlett to 3B
Billy Goodman walked intentionally
Jim Piersall singled to CF, Umphlett and Kell scored, Goodman to 3B
Dick Gernert homered, Goodman, Piersall and Gernert scored
Ellis Kinder singled to RF
Sammy White walked, Kinder to 2B
Dick Weik pitching
Kinder to 3B, White to 2B on wild pitch
Gene Stephens doubled to CF, Kinder and White scored
Tom Umphlett walked
Johnny Lipon singled to LF, Stephens scored, Umphlett to 2B
George Kell flied out to LF
Billy Goodman singled to RCF, Umphlett scored, Lipon to 2B
Earl Harrist pitching
Al Zarilla pinch hits for Jim Piersall
Ted Lepcio pinch runs for Billy Goodman
Al Zarilla walked, Lipon to 3B, Lepcio to 2B
Dick Gernert walked, Lipon scored, Lepcio to 3B, Zarilla to 2B
Ellis Kinder singled to CF, Lepcio and Zarilla scored, Gernert to 3B
Sammy White singled to CF, Gernert scored, Kinder to 2B
Gene Stephens singled to RF, Kinder scored, White to 3B
Tom Umphlett singled to LF, White scored, Stephens to 2B
Johnny Lipon walked, Stephens to 3B, Umphlett to 2B
George Kell flied out to left
17 runs, 14 hits, 6 walks, 0 errors, 3 left on base

The Mets also became the first team in the Modern Era (since 1900) to win and lose games in the same season by at least 20 runs. ... If you recall:

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

NYM - 000 000 103 -  4  9  0
WSH - 733 330 06x - 25 26  1

Before the Modern Era, three teams accomplished that feat:

1883 Buffalo Bisons

June 15: Bisons 22, Philadelphia Quakers 4
July 3:  Chicago Cubs 31, Bisons 7
July 17: Bisons 21, Philadelphia Quakers 6
July 19: Bisons 25, Philadelphia Quakers 5

1887 Philadelphia Quakers (Phillies)

June 15: New York Giants 29, Quakers 1
June 28: Quakers 24, Indianapolis Hoosiers 0

1894 Philadelphia Quakers (Phillies)

April 24:     Quakers 22, Brooklyn Grooms 5
June 15:      Quakers 21, Cincinnati Reds 8
July 12:      Cleveland Spiders 20, Quakers 10
August 17:    Quakers 29, Louisville Colonels 4
September 20: Chicago Cubs 20, Quakers 4
September 24: Quakers 21, St. Louis Cardinals 1
September 27: Cleveland Spiders 26, Quakers 4

All three of these 19th Century teams played a 20+-run game on a June 15.

G123: Red Sox 7, Rays 3

Rays    - 300 000 000 - 3  7  0
Red Sox - 200 111 20x - 7 11  0

After the Rays scored their third run of the first inning, Brian Johnson retired 15 of the next 16 batters, allowing only four balls to leave the infield. And if his teammates noticed (or gave a damn about) the deficit, they gave no evidence of it.

Xander Bogaerts tripled in two runs in the home half of the first and he doubled and scored the tying run in the fourth. Although Tampa Bay would not be crossing home plate again, the Red Sox kept scoring runs because ... scoring runs is fun.

The Red Sox improved their record to 87-36. That's three more wins than any Red Sox team has ever won through 123 games. Only five teams in major league history have had more wins in their first 123 games: the 1902 Pirates, the 1906 and 1907 Cubs, the 1944 Cardinals, and the 1998 Yankees.

Ian Kinsler was back in the starting lineup, but Rafael Devers returned to the disabled list, for the third time this season, with a left hamstring strain.

When Matt Duffy followed Mallex Smith's single by grounding into a double play, it looked like Johnson (at only five pitches) would have a quick first inning. But he walked Tommy Pham and gave up three straight hits: back-to-back doubles by C.J. Cron and Joey Wendle and a single by Carlos Gomez.

Boston cut that lead to one run against "opener" Ryne Stanek. Andrew Benintendi singled with one out and went to second on a wild pitch. J.D. Martinez walked with two down. Bogaerts capped an eight-pitch at-bat with a drive to left-center. Center fielder Kevin Kiermaier seemed to have room to make a catch, but he pulled up short and the ball bounced on the dirt of the warning track for a triple.

Bogaerts led off the fourth against Yonny Chirinois (6-9-5-1-1, 88) with a double and scored on Eduardo Nunez's single. The Red Sox took the lead in the fifth when Mookie Betts doubled and scored on Mitch Moreland's single. It was Betts's 100th run of the season, giving him three seasons of 100+ runs scored before his 26th birthday, something only one other Red Sox player (Ted Williams) has done.

Jackie Bradley's double in the sixth scored Blake Swihart. Moreland doubled with one out in the seventh and scored on Martinez's single. That RBI was JDM's 105th of the season - a new career high. He went to third on Bogaerts's second double of the game and scored on a wild pitch.

After the first inning, Johnson (5.2-5-3-2-2, 94) did not allow a baserunner until he walked Michael Perez in the fifth. He also gave up a double to Wendle with two outs in the sixth. Heath Hembree came in and got the third out.

Kiermaier singled off Ryan Brasier in the seventh but was erased on a K-CS double play. In the eighth, an out call at first was overturned in the Rays' favour and an HBP call was upheld in the Rays' favour. (Numerous super-duper-slo-mo replays convinced me that Duffy was not hit by the ball, not even grazed.) Matt Barnes worked out of that jam, though, with a strikeout, a popup to second and another strikeout. Tyler Thornburg got three groundouts in the ninth.

More than half the Red Sox's hits were for extra bases: 5 singles, 5 doubles, 1 triple.

Ryne Stanek / Brian Johnson

Betts, RF
Benintendi, LF
Moreland, 1B
Martinez, DH
Bogaerts, SS
Kinsler, 2B
Nunez, 3B
Swihart, C
Bradley, CF

Pawtucket Red Sox Will Move To Worcester After 2020

Pawtucket Red Sox:

The Pawtucket Red Sox today signed a Letter of Intent to build an innovative downtown ballpark in Worcester, Massachusetts that would be scheduled to open in 2021. ...

The design and construction of the ballpark would be overseen by [PawSox Chairman Larry] Lucchino and Janet Marie Smith, who ... together oversaw a decade of improvements to Fenway Park, starting in 2002. ...

The PawSox will continue to play at 77-year-old McCoy Stadium the next two years.

WCVB:

"We love the PawSox in Rhode Island, but I understand that Larry felt that this was a good thing ... to move it to Worcester," [Red Sox chairman Tom] Werner told reporters at a charitable event. ...

Officials are expected to announce that the team will be renamed the WooSox.

Schadenfreude 238 (A Continuing Series)

Bill Madden, Daily News:

It's time to come to grips with the fact this simply isn't going to be the Yankees' year – and not just because they failed to score with the bases loaded and nobody out in the ninth inning Thursday against a Tampa Bay Rays team that did everything they could to help them out.

For a lot of reasons, we are not going to see a repeat of last year's magical run through the postseason ...

[Gleyber Torres is] a shell of the player who lit up the Bronx with his clutch hitting and defensive flair from April 22-July 4. ... Greg Bird, who showed so much promise ... is looking more and more like a Kevin Maas flash in the pan bust this year.

Bird's foul pop-up on the first pitch thrown to him in the ninth inning Thursday touched off the Yankees' pathetic game-ending pratfall against somebody named Adam Kolarek, the sixth Rays pitcher of the day, who entered the game with a 5.63 ERA and proceeded to accomplish one of the most remarkable Houdini-like saves in baseball history. ...

[W]hat has to be most concerning for the Yankee high command right now is the overall malaise inflicting the team. Okay, Judge is out, but hardly anyone is picking up the slack – which is what good teams do.

Thursday, the Rays, who are not a very good team, did everything they could to try and lose the game, getting two runners picked off base, botching what should have been a routine inning-ending double play in the eighth, and manager Kevin Cash once again pulling his ace, Snell, after just five innings to turn things over to his "Bum of the Inning" club. And still the Yankees, again and again, failed to capitalize. The fire of last year is gone, and you wonder if subconsciously they are taking on the "everything's going to be okay" personality of the manager.

All we know is, suddenly, the Yankees march to the wild-card game is feeling very empty.

Associated Press:

Where is bottom?

A listless Yankees lineup lost again to the Tampa, despite loading the bases with no-out in the ninth inning ... It was the Rays' first series win at Yankee Stadium since 2014. ...

The struggling Yankees lineup, still without injured sluggers Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez, scored just six runs during the three-game series.

Dan Martin, Post:

Meet the second-half Yankees, who lost 3-1 to the Rays on Thursday in The Bronx, to fall to 13-13 since the All-Star break, including 7-9 this month.

After nearly two days of flailing at the plate against Tampa Bay, the Yankees, whose run of average play extends to 25-24 over their past 49 games, finally seemed to wake up in the last two innings — when they trailed by three runs. ...

[The Yankees loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth] with singles by Didi Gregorius and Gleyber Torres and a walk to Neil Walker.

That brought up Greg Bird, stuck in a miserable slump and booed off the field after grounding out to end the seventh.

Bird popped out in foul territory against lefty Adam Kolarek for the first out. ...

Brett Gardner and Austin Romine followed with strikeouts to end it. ...

[A] day after going hitless in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position, the Yankees went just 1-for-11. ...

[T]he Yankees sit just three games ahead of Oakland for the second wild card, something Boone insists is not on his mind.

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

After the Yankees' offense had been shut down for most of the day and they were finally getting something going in the bottom of the night. Down two runs, with the bases loaded and no outs, it was Greg Bird's chance to turn his season around.

Instead the first baseman jumped at the first pitch he saw and popped out on a foul ball in front of the visitors dugout. The boos cascaded on him as he walked back to the dugout. Brett Gardner and Austin Romine both struck out and the Yankees lost ...

In their last 16 games the Yankees have hit just .223, the second-worst team batting average in that span in the American League ...

The problem for the Yankees is that there is no real help on the horizon.

Mike Vaccaro, Post:

The recipe was there for a long, hot day ... Day game after a night game after a blown chance to pick up ground on the devil Red Sox. A bear of a lefty pitcher, Blake Snell, on the mound. Ninety degrees, something close to 174 percent humidity. ...

So maybe it wasn't unusual that Yankee Stadium chose not to harness its frustration any longer. There were 41,033 folks inside, and they were ... hot and bothered [and] ... they opted for alcohol-filled 16-ounce cups to keep from spontaneously combusting.

Anyway, the boos started in the seventh, when Greg Bird grounded out meekly to end the inning, the displeasure cascading out of the upper deck and the bleachers. ...

And by the time Austin Romine swung through strike three from a Tampa Bay lefty named Adam Kolarek ... well, they weren't simply going to slog quietly to their crowded subway cars or trudge silently off to the Deegan.

"THAT'S BRUTAL!" came one editorial parting shot.

"THAT'S @#$%&%!!" came a more colorful version.

Schadenfreude 237 (A Continuing Series)

Greg Joyce, Post:

Aaron Judge ... [is] still not swinging because of lingering pain from a fractured bone in his right wrist, and his rehab process is taking longer than the club originally believed it would. ...

The night Judge was hit by a pitch that caused the injury, the Yankees estimated a three-week time period before he could swing a bat in a game situation. Thursday marks three weeks exactly, and Judge has still not picked up a bat at all. ...

"I haven't really done any motions of trying to extend it out because that's the motion that gets me — when I full extend like that, it kind of bothers my wrist," Judge said, motioning a follow-through with his wrist on a throw. ...

Wednesday marked the 19th game Judge missed since Jake Junis' 93 mph fastball sailed up and in to drill him on the right wrist. The Yankees [are 10-9] without him ...

George A. King III, Post:

"When you fall behind early it can be frustrating ..." [Brett] Gardner said of the Yankees who went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 runners [in a loss to the Rays]. ...

In 3.1 innings, [Luis] Cessa showed why he is a regular on The-Bronx-to-SWB shuttle. Thanks to leaving too many pitches in the middle of the plate, especially his straight-as-rain fastball, Cessa gave up five runs and seven hits to drop the Yankees into a ditch far too deep to climb out of.

Kevin Kernan, Post:

The Red Sox are 10 games better than the Yankees ... The Red Sox deserve to be where they are, all alone in first place in the AL East and the Yankees deserve to be where they are, well behind the Red Sox. ...

Wednesday night's horrible 6-1 loss to the tiny-market Rays at Yankee Stadium brought some truths home for the Yankees about their hitting.

[T]he Yankees came into the night 13th in the AL in batting average (.223) with the bases loaded ...

[T]he team with the best batting average in the AL with the bases loaded is [Cleveland] at .344, the Red Sox are right behind at .342 and then the Astros at .316. ...

The Mariners are one point behind the Yankees and then it's the Royals — the only teams worse than the Yankees' average with the bases loaded. ...

With runners in scoring position the Red Sox lead the AL with a .285 mark, the Yankees are eighth at .252. ...

[T]he Yankees do not have a .300 hitter. Mookie Betts leads the AL with a .352 mark. J.D. Martinez is not far behind at .333.

Daily News:

Judge walked into the clubhouse ... and turned on Franklin's version of "I Say A Little Prayer" on the stereo system.

Amazing!

G122: Phillies 7, Red Sox 4

Red Sox  - 003 000 010 - 4 10  1
Phillies - 000 301 30x - 7 12  2

The Red Sox trailed by four runs when they loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth inning. J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts had both singled off Pat Neshek and Jackie Bradley was safe when Phillies first baseman Justin Bour fielded his ground ball and, trying for a force at second, threw it into the middle of Bogaerts's back.

Rafael Devers lined out to right and Martinez did not risk trying to score. Sandy Leon fouled out to third on the first pitch, with Maikel Franco making the catch near the dugout. Pinch-hitter Mookie Betts knocked an 0-1 pitch back to the mound. Neshek reached to his right with his bare hand and slowed the ball down, so no one else had a play. Martinez scored. Phillies closer Seranthony was called on to face Andrew Benintendi, who hacked at the first pitch - which was nothing he could drive by any means - and grounded out meekly first-to-pitcher. Dominguez retired the Red Sox in order in the ninth.

Boston took a 3-0 lead with one out in the third. Vince Velasquez (2.1-4-3-4-2, 63) walked Nathan Eovaldi and drilled Benintendi. Velasquez tried fielding Brock Holt's slow grounder to the right side, but he failed to grab it. The bases were loaded and Mitch Moreland cleared them with a double to the wall in right-center. Velasquez then walked Martinez and Bogaerts to re-load the bases and remove himself from the game. Hector Neris took over, falling behind Bradley 3-0. He recovered to get a fly to short right and a three-pitch strikeout of Devers. The "3" on the scoreboard was nice, but this was also a squander.

That fact was brought into sharper focus when Eovaldi (5-7-3-0-5, 86) was tagged for three runs in the fourth. Devers committed a throwing error on Rhys Hoskins's grounder and Nick Williams singled to right-center. Wilson Ramos doubled off the top of the wall in right for one run and Odubel Herrera's grounder to first scored another run. With two outs, Carlos Santana singled to right, tying the game.

In the sixth, Devers and Leon singled with two outs. Steve Pearce grounded a ball towards right field. Second baseman Carlos Hernandez ranged far to his left and his soft throw appeared to pull Bour off the bag. Devers raced for the plate and scored. 4-3? Not quite. The Phillies challenged the call at first and it was overturned after replays showed Bour had somehow kept a finger-nail-sized area of his right shoe on the base.

The Phillies took the lead against Joe Kelly in the next half-inning when Ramos led off the sixth with a triple and scored on Scott "0-for-his-last-21" Kingery's sac fly to right. Drew Pomeranz gave up a hit and a walk to begin the seventh before getting two outs. The third out was elusive, however, as Ramos doubled in two runs, Herrera singled, and Franco's single brought in Philadelphia's seventh run.

Ramos's two doubles and a triple made him the first player to have three extra-base hits in his Phillies debut since Ed Freed went 4-for-5 in his first major league game on September 11, 1942. Freed's career in the bigs lasted only 17 days.

(Out of curiosity, I used BRef's Play Index to see how many players had three extra-base hits in their major league debut. Since 1908, there have been seven, with Freed being the first. No one has ever had four extra-base hits in his first game. Freed also walked, so he was on base five times. That is also a record for a player's debut, which has been done eight times. That list includes Casey Stengel (September 17, 1912) and Ted Cox (September 18, 1977).)

Nathan Eovaldi / Vince Velasquez

Benintendi, LF
Holt, 2B
Moreland, 1B
Martinez, RF
Bogaerts, SS
Bradley, CF
Devers, 3B
Leon, C
Eovaldi, P

Last night in Atlanta, in the bottom of the first inning:

Ronald Acuna hit Trevor Richards's first pitch of the game for a home run to left-center
Charlie Culberson hit Richards's second pitch of the game for a home run to left-center

Elias reported it was the first time two batters hit home runs on the opposing team's first two pitches since Jimmy Rollins and Placido Polanco of the Phillies abused Atlanta's Russ Ortiz on September 9, 2004. Acuna (20 years, 239 days old) is now the youngest player in major league history to homer in five consecutive games.

Porcello Is One Of Six AL PItchers With Two Extra-Base Hits In A Season Since 1973

Rick Porcello is one of only six American League pitchers to have two extra-base hits in a season in the DH Era (since 1973).

No AL pitcher has had three extra-base hits in a season since 1973. Porcello may have a chance to be the first when the Red Sox play three games in Atlanta on September 3-5.

Rick Porcello? More like Rake Porcello, amirite? pic.twitter.com/Io7jEh308F

— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) August 14, 2018

Ben Zobrist Ejected After Telling Phil Cuzzi He Is One Reason Players Want Robot Umps

Ben Zobrist was ejected from a game for the first time in his career after telling plate umpire Phil Cuzzi that players would prefer robot umpires.

When you have good, quality at-bats as a hitter and you feel like it's kinda taken away from you, you want some sort of an answer. Or you want to be assured that they're gonna go back and make an adjustment and that's what I asked for. ... [H]e didn't want to talk about that. He didn't want me to tell him that. I just basically said, 'Well that's why we want an electronic strike zone.' ... [I]t's frustrating when you feel like you know the zone and I feel like the at-bat was taken away from me. ...

That's what obviously got me tossed. I'm not going to lie. I think he was going toss me anyway, before I said that, just because I wouldn't go away. ... He knows I'm not going to argue if it's close. I rarely do that. I know the zone pretty well I feel like. If it's close I'm going to walk back. This one I knew. I knew it was never on the plate. I didn't need to look on the video. I got animated, at first, and he didn't even want me to be animated about it. I was told that later.

Cuzzi called Zobrist out on an outside pitch in the sixth inning. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the strike three pitch is called a strike 44.7% of the time.

I posted almost exactly one year ago that Zobrist wants an electronic zone.

If you think Phil Cuzzi has any business working as a major league umpire, check this out:

Whoever heard of someone walking on a 1-6 count?

I also wrote about Cuzzi after his horrible performance on September 26, 2010. The Yankees took 19 pitches thrown by Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth inning and Cuzzi blew the call on eight of them. He got 42% of the pitches wrong!

I wish more players were as vocal about this issue as Zobrist.

G121 : Red Sox 2, Phillies 1

Red Sox  - 001 000 010 - 2  6  0
Phillies - 000 010 000 - 1  2  1

Rick Porcello was just about perfect (7-2-1-0-10, 90) and Brock Holt crushed a pinch-hit home run in the eighth inning.

The Red Sox have 86 wins. The team with the second-most wins in the majors has 75. Boston could get to 90 wins before any other team gets to 80!!

If Cleveland, which holds a 12.5-game lead in the AL Central, was in the AL East, they would be 18 GB the Red Sox

With Chris Sale's 5-1-0-0-12 line on Sunday and Porcello's outing tonight, the Red Sox have had starting pitchers in back-to-back games strike out 10+ batters and not walk anyone for the first time in team history.

Porcello allowed only two baserunners. He retired the first 12 Phillies (seven by strikeout) before Rhys Hoskins led off the fifth with a home run. Two outs later, Odubel Herrera singled to right. Porcello set down the next seven batters. Heath Hembree pitched a clean eighth. Craig Kimbrel walked the leadoff man in the bottom of the ninth, but retired the next three hitters.

The Red Sox took a 1-0 lead when Sandy Leon homered in the third off Nick Pivetta (6-3-1-1-6, 84). Porcello followed thew dong with a first-pitch double to the wall in right-center. There was not a play at second base, but he went in with a head-first slide anyway. (A shot of the Red Sox dugout showed Sale with such a huge smile on his face he made Mookie look like a perpetual grump.) Speaking of Betts, he walked, but Andrew Benintendi grounded into a double play.

In the bottom of the seventh, Heath Hembree was warming up in the bullpen. Porcello's pitch count was in the mid-80s and NESN's Dave O'Brien made a big deal about the fact that Porcello was up second in the top of the eighth. He and Dennis Eckersley wondered if Alex Cora would let Porcello pitch another inning. They noted that his pitch count was low.

First of all, it was not low. It was clear Porcello was going to be at or over 90 pitches by the end of seven innings. He had thrown fewer than 100 pitches in five of last six starts and he had pitched more than seven innings in only three of his 24 starts this year. He was in no trouble, but Hembree has been warming up since the half-inning had begun. Alex Cora has been saying - since before spring training began - that one of his biggest priorities this season is giving his top pitchers a bit more rest before October. How could they NOT KNOW the seventh would be Porcello's last inning?

Sure enough, Holt came out on deck as Leon led off the eighth. (OB acted like pinch-hitting for Porcello was the most natural decision in the world.) After Leon struck out, Holt crushed Tommy Hunter's first pitch off the front of the second deck in right-center for a go-ahead home run. The estimate distance was 424 feet. Betts followed with a double, but was stranded after stealing third.

With one out in the home eighth, Hembree threw an inside slider on a 2-2 count to Herrera. It broke downward and hit Herrera in the back foot, but he clearly swung at it (or made three-quarters of a swing). Plate umpire Will Little immediately came out in front of the plate and was emphatically pointing at Herrera, who was sitting on the ground, which is not the usual he-got-plunked-he's-going-to-first indication.

Even without Little's gestures, it was obvious Herrera swung and, therefore, had struck out. But O'Brien was off in La-La Land and it took him close to ten seconds before he realized Herrera was not going to first base. "Now, wait a minute ..." As we saw some replays, of course OB and Eckersley acted like, well, clearly he swung, no one would question that!

NESN has hired O'Brien and Eckersley to tell us about the game. It is their job! O'Brien is doing "play-by-play", i.e., telling us what is happening on the field as it happens. OB actually makes it his mission to tell us what will happen before it happens, so he really should have been on top of this play.

But so many times, we can see the ball go over the fence and the NESN announcers think it may have been caught, we see an infielder's foot block a runner's path to a base, but OB and Remy/Eck are in the dark, or they are ignorant of Fenway Park's most basic ground rules? How could they not see Herrera had practically taken a full swing at the pitch?

I really want to know: WHAT ARE THEY WATCHING WHILE THE GAME IS GOING ON?

When Dennis Eckersley tells a story from his playing days, he is usually 100% correct. It's uncanny. After Brock Holt had given the Red Sox a 2-1 lead and put Rick Porcello in line for a W, Eckersley recalled a game in which he was pinch-hit for and the guy hit a grand slam, turning what might have been a loss into a potential victory.

It took Eckersley a minute or so to recall his teammate's name. I thought he said Brian Guyette, but the guy was Brian Dayett. On May 22, 1985, Eckerlsey started for the Cubs against the Reds at Wrigley Field. In the top of the fifth, he allowed three runs and the Cubs trailed 4-2. Chicago loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth with one out.

Dayett pinch-hit for Eckersley and hit a grand slam, giving the Cubs a 6-4 lead. It was his only home run that season. The Cubs won 7-4, with Eckersley getting the W.

Rick Porcello / Nick Pivetta

Betts, CF
Benintendi, LF
Moreland, 1B
Martinez, RF
Bogaerts, SS
Devers, 3B
Nunez, 2B
Leon, C
Porcello, P

The next run that Mookie Betts scores will link him with Ted Williams as the only Red Sox players to have three 100-run seasons before turning 26 years old. Betts - who will turn 26 on October 7 - scored 122 runs in 2016 and 101 runs in 2017.

The 2018 Red Sox (85-35):

need to play .500 ball (21-21) or better to break the franchise's single-season wins record of 105, which was set in 1912.

have won 10 of their last 11 games, 14 of their last 16, and 29 of their last 35.

are 43-15 (.741) against the other four AL East teams. In the Divisional Era (since 1969), the best record for any AL East team within the division is 33-15 (.688) by the 1998 Yankees.

are averaging 7.9 runs per game in August. They have scored 10+ runs in four of 11 games this month.

have scored 659 runs, 46 more than any other team (Yankees, 613).

have outscored their opponents in every inning this season, especially the fifth and sixth:

RED SOX   -  73 70 70   70 98 80   73 56 48   21   - 659
OPPONENTS -  60 53 55   58 33 38   45 55 39   10   - 446

are one of only three Red Sox teams to win more than 78 of their first 120 games. The other two: 1946 (83-35-2) and 1912 (82-37-1).

pitched their 12th shutout on Saturday, tied for the most in the AL, and their most in a season since 2011 (13). The Pirates lead MLB with 13 shutouts.

ALWC: The Yankees lead the Athletics by 3.5 games and the Mariners by 6.0 games.

David Bote Hits A Two-Out, Two-Strike, Pinch-Hit, Game-Winning Grand Slam For The Cubs

Late on Sunday night in Chicago, when the Cubs batted in the bottom of the ninth, they trailed the Nationals 3-0. Their win expectancy was only 4%.

Washington pitcher Ryan Madson retired Ben Zobrist on a grounder to first, cutting Chicago's win expectancy to 2%. Jason Heyward was safe on an infield single to second (5%). Albert Almora was hit by a pitch (10%). Kyle Schwarber fouled out to third (4%). Madson hit Willson Contreras, loading the bases (10%). Ian Happ pinch-ran for Contreras.

David Bote - a 25-year-old rookie - pinch-hit for the pitcher. Foul. Ball. Called Strike. Ball. Grand Slam to deep center. Cubs win 4-3!

Here is the Win Expectancy Chart for the game:

One of the Cubs rushing along the foul line to the plate seems not to quite believe what's happening is happening.

It was the first two-out, walk-off, pinch-hit grand slam with a team down by three runs in nearly 40 years Roger Freed of the Cardinals hit the penultimate home run of his 10-year career in the eleventh innings against the Astros on May 1, 1979. Freed would play only 27 more major league games. Bote was playing in his 34th major league game.

Jeff Sullivan, FanGraphs:

In recorded history, there have been 15 walk-off grand slams, with two outs, to erase a three-run deficit. Before Bote, the most recent had been hit by Ryan Roberts [of the Diamondbacks on September 27, 2011.] ...

Bote fouled off the first pitch he saw. He took the second pitch, which was close, but which was called a ball. He took the third pitch, too. This was called a strike ...

At that point, after the borderline call, Bote was behind 1-and-2. The next pitch was low, evening the count at 2-and-2. Now, 2-and-2 is certainly more hitter-friendly than 1-and-2, but at the same time, 2-and-2 is still a pitcher-friendly count. Here are the league-average wOBAs this season through each of the 12 possible counts:

Bote was in the fourth-worst count possible. ... [T]hat means the Cubs' chances of winning would've been even lower than they were when Bote first came up. ... The 2-and-2 pitch wasn't even that bad; Bote simply made perfect contact ...

There is a limit as to how much of a difference is ever possible to make with one swing of the bat. Bote just approached that limit. He achieved the event with the second-highest win-expectancy swing, and he did it in a pitcher-friendly count, which only makes it all the more remarkable. Baseball can hardly get more extreme, more dramatic ...

Here is a list of all of the grand slams hit in the bottom of the ninth (or tenth) with the home team down by three runs (referred to as an Ultimate Grand Slam). MLB.com posted a list of the six pinch-hit UGSs since 1925, with video of the most recent two:

Samuel Byrd, Reds, May 23, 1936 vs. Pirates (no outs, team trailed 3-0)
Jack Phillips, Pirates, July 8, 1950 vs. Cardinals (one out)
Carl Taylor, Cardinals, August 11, 1970 vs. Padres (two outs, last homer of career, against the same pitcher off whom he hit his first home run)
Roger Freed, Cardinals, May 1, 1979 vs. Astros (two outs)
Brooks Conrad, Atlanta, May 20, 2010 vs. Reds (one out, ball bounced off Laynce Nix's glove, capped a seven-run comeback)
Brian Bogusevic, Astros, August 16, 2011 vs. Cubs (one out)

On Monday, Atlanta's Ronald Acuna "became just the fourth player in Major League history to begin both ends of a twin bill with a home run".

The other three:

Harry Hooper, Red Sox, May 30, 1913, against Senators (3-4, 1-0)
Rickey Henderson, Athletics, July 5, 1993, against Cleveland (6-5, 2-6)
Brady Anderson, Orioles, August 21, 1999, against White Sox (3-4, 5-8)

However, Atlanta was playing at home so while Acuna was the first player to bat for his team, he could not have begun either game with a home run because he came to the plate in the bottom of the first inning. That is also true of Henderson and Anderson.

Harry Hooper is the only player to truly lead off both games of a doubleheader with a home run.

Schadenfreude 236 (A Continuing Series)

The Red Sox have not held a 10-game lead in the American League East since 2007.

Ken Davidoff, Post:

What now?

Luis Severino had hinted and teased that he was headed back toward his ace's throne, away from the malaise that characterized his July. Then Monday night happened.

Against the Mets, of all teams, Severino again fell victim to the gopher ball. He again raised concerns about his reliability as the Yankees continued further down their path toward the do-or-die American League wild-card game on Oct. 3.

What now? ...

Mets ace Jacob deGrom easily outpitched his Yankees counterpart ... [dropping] Boone's bunch to 10 games behind the dormant Red Sox in the American League East. Severino lasted only four innings, his briefest work shift of the season, as he gave up four runs and seven hits, including two homers ...

He now has a 7.84 ERA in his past six starts, and he has permitted at least one homer in his past seven starts, totaling 12 in that stretch over 36 innings.

"I think I keep doing the same mistakes over and over," Severino said. ...

If he can't get right, then the Yankees' October might not be much longer than Severino's effort on Monday.

Stefan Bondy, Daily News:

Severino was bombed again Monday night, this time by the Mets, allowing four runs in just four innings of an 8-5 defeat. It was Severino's shortest outing of the season, and it started with a leadoff home run from Amed Rosario. ...

Severino ... has allowed 30 runs over 36.1 innings in his last seven starts for a 7.43 ERA. That's five more earned runs than Severino allowed in his first 118.1 innings this season, when he was cruising to his second All-Star appearance. ...

Entering mid-August with 44 games remaining, it's unclear who represents the Yankees' best option for a one-game playoff. ...

[J.A.] Happ and Lance Lynn, both originally brought in as insurance, are suddenly the Yanks' most reliable starters.

On Monday, the hapless Mets – who entered the game with the worst batting average in the majors – connected on five homers – including two off Severino by Rosario and Jose Bautista. The Mets had 15 hits total, with every player in their lineup getting at least one.

Marc Carig, The Athletic:

CC​ Sabathia landed on the disabled list​ Monday​ with inflammation​ in​ his right​ knee. ... The veteran lefty has long been dealing with a creaky knee, so [GM Brian Cashman] figured that a sabbatical would be inevitable. ...

But when it comes to Luis Severino, a breather apparently will not be part of the program, even though his recent starts indicate that he might benefit from one. ...

Severino offered ample reason to believe he may be reeling from the career-high 193.1 innings he threw last summer. He labored through his four innings, allowing four runs on seven hits. His pitch count spiraled early. He surrendered a pair of homers ... to the opposite field. Both came off fastballs left up in the zone. ...

"I'm not tired," said Severino ...

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

Remember how the Yankees brought in all that pitching insurance before the non-waiver trade deadline? It may not have been enough. ...

The Yankees added Happ and Lance Lynn at last month's non-waiver trade deadline to bolster the back end of a shaky rotation. Now, those two are the most consistent starters over the last two weeks. Lynn, originally scheduled to be a long-man in the bullpen, had to move into the rotation in place of Sonny Gray, who has struggled. ...

Sabathia also went on the disabled list with the same knee ailment around this time last year.

Dan Martin, Post:

The results may have been all too familiar for Zach Britton, but the lefty insisted he felt better on the mound after Monday's 8-5 loss to the Mets at the Stadium. ...

Britton came on to pitch the ninth in a game the Yankees trailed by a pair of runs and for the second straight outing — and third time in four appearances — Britton couldn't keep the opposing team from scoring. ...

[He] saw his ERA over his past seven outings with the Yankees rise to 8.53 (six earned runs in 6.1 innings).

On the bright side — if there is one — Britton didn't walk anyone ... He did hit Michael Conforto with a pitch, though.

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

It's never Sonny in the Bronx.

Struggling Yankees' right-hander Sonny Gray made his second appearance out of the bullpen Sunday and left after allowing two runs on five hits in an inning plus of work.

After the Rangers scored two runs off him in the seventh, Elvis Andrus and Adrian Beltre opened the eighth with a double and single and Boone came out to get Gray before any more damage could be done. The right hander has now allowed 45 earned runs in 50 innings pitched at Yankee Stadium this season for a 7.92 ERA. ...

Gray had pitched to a 5.56 ERA as a starter when Boone had to demote him to the bullpen. ...

Gray does not buy into the idea that there is more pressure on him at Yankee Stadium. ...

So where does this leave Gray? In the same role, according to Boone, as basically an unreliable long man.

They Have A Choice?

ESPN (August 13, 2018)

Umpire Adrian Johnson: A Close Pitch Is A Ball; A Pitch Farther Outside Is A Strike

(I forgot to include this in my game recap.)

More Reasons for Robots:

The first batter Chris Sale faced in the bottom of the first inning on Sunday afternoon was Joey Rickard.

Rickard fouled off the first pitch and then took a slider on the outside edge of the strike zone. However, plate umpire Adrian Johnson called it a ball. Sale's next pitch was even further outside - and Johnson called that one a strike!

I would love to see a Twitter feed that collected screenshots of egregious ball/strike calls. Fans of every team could submit gifs; every game would be covered. Seeing all of the wrong calls in one place - and seeing how many of them there are, every single day - could possibly force MLB to institute an electronic strike zone sooner rather than later.

The Yankees Could Finish With One Of Their Top 12 Seasons Of All-Time - And The Red Sox Still Lead Them By 9.5 Games

Savin Hillbilly, SoSH, August 11:

The 2018 Yankees are on a pace for 102 wins, which would tie them with the 1936 and 1937 teams (Gehrig, DiMaggio, Dickey, etc.) for the 12th most wins in the history of the franchise.

And we're 9.5 games ahead of them.

In related news, here are the nine times a team won 100+ games but did not finish in first place:

1909 Cubs (104-49) finished second to Pirates (110-42)
1915 Tigers (100-54) finished second to Red Sox (101-50)
1942 Dodgers (104-50) finished second to Cardinals (106-48)
1954 Yankees (103-51) finished second to Cleveland (111-43)
1961 Tigers (101-61) finished second to Yankees (109-53)
1962 Dodgers (102-63) finished second to Giants (103-62)
1980 Orioles (100-62) finished second to Yankees (103-59)
1993 Giants (103-59) finished second to Atlanta (104-58)
2001 Athletics (102-60) finished second to Mariners (116-46)

Damn! This throw.

Leaving this here to remind ourselves that Ramón Laureano's glove and right arm belong in a museum pic.twitter.com/UwqWgs66i4

— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) August 12, 2018

August 10: It was a strange Friday night in the minor leagues. Hayden Deal threw perhaps the first two-pitch, three-out inning and the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers won when they scored three runs on a wild pitch. ... On August 6, the Clearwater Threshers had no hits, no walks, no HBPs - and won 1-0.

Marty Dobrow takes a look back at Charlie Zink's only major league game, a wild affair that occurred 10 years ago today:

Rangers -   0 20 085 101 - 17 20  2
Red Sox - (10)02 020 14x - 19 17  2

The larger the glove, the greater the error. This misplay warranted ejection from the park.