Ohtani Taking Serious Aim At 60 Home Runs This Year

Through almost 100 games, free-agent-to-be Shohei Ohtani is hitting home runs at roughly the same pace Aaron Judge did last season when the Yankees slugger set an American League record with 62  dongs.

The 2023 Angels have played 97 games and Ohtani has hit 35 home runs. That pace would give him 58.5 home runs for the 162-game season.

When the 2022 Yankees had played 97 games, Judge had hit 37 home runs. (He had 34 through 94 games.)

Ohtani belted 15 home runs in June, with a batting line of .394/.492/.952 for a 1.444 OPS. His average this month is only .277, but he has a 1.109 OPS, thanks to a preponderance of extra-base hits (1 double, 2 triples, 5 home runs, and only 5 singles).

There are many articles about plausible landing spots for Ohtani, who turned 29 earlier this month, in either a trade this month (unlikely) or a mega-signing over the winter, and what those teams might need to offer. I have yet to see an article that mentions the Red Sox, even as a super-long-shot candidate. This ranking puts Boston #21, but all 29 non-LAA teams are mentioned. . . .Wait! Here we go!! A hypothetical trade:

Boston Red Sox: SS Marcelo Mayer, RHP Brayan Bello, 2B Nick Yorke, OF/SS Ceddanne Rafaela

Yes, seeing the Red Sox on this list is surprising. Boston is not the favorite to acquire him in a trade, let alone spend half a billion in free agency. But the Red Sox are playing well right now, entering Wednesday just 1.5 games out of a wild card spot. A staff ace like Ohtani would grease the wheels in their playoff hunt while potentially swaying him to stay put at Fenway and play for a big-market team.

So Boston would have to push an extremely strong offer in the Angels' direction, and it all starts with Mayer. The 20-year-old shortstop is a top-three prospect in baseball with an enormous ceiling as a potential five-tool player. Pair him with Yorke, who has been turning heads since he handled the jump to Double-A, and Los Angeles would be looking at a dynamic duo up the middle for several years to come. Throw in Rafaela and the Red Sox could be competitive in the Ohtani bidding while, of course, mortgaging their future for what could be just a two-month rental. But it doesn't hurt to dream.

No team should trade the farm for Ohtani unless they are at least 75-80% sure he would sign with them and avoid free agency. Boston is not a team like that and why wouldn't Ohtani go FA? Getting him would be a true shock, of course, and it would involve maybe three moving vans full of money. It won't happen, but fuck it, hoping for a miracle costs me nothing.

By the way, how many of you remember this from last year?

MLB Used Different Baseballs In 2022, And Juiced Ones Showed Up At Yankees Games
Did MLB Help Aaron Judge's Home Run Record Pursuit With A Different Baseball?
James Dator, SB Nation, December 7, 2022

A widespread study of over 200 baseballs used during the 2022 season showed massive variance, pointing to a "juiced ball," a "dead ball" an[d] a "Goldilocks ball." The study was conducted by astrophysicist Dr. Meredith Wills who does work for the Society for American Baseball Research, and aided by Insider — who published the report on Wednesday morning.

This isn't the first time there have been questions raised about using different baseballs inside a single MLB season. Dr. Wills previously found in 2019 that MLB was using a new ball, which contributed to baseball's scoring explosion. . . .

In 2021 MLB was forced to use two different ball constructions for the season due to production difficulties due to Covid-19 of the new baseballs. . . . The new and old balls were distributed at random, but it didn't mean players were happy. . . .

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred . . . admitt[ed] at the 2022 All Star game that MLB was forced to use the different balls — the first public acknowledgement of the issue from the league. At the time he assured fans that for 2022 there was no issue, and that every baseball in circulation for the season was of the new construction . . .

The Wills and Insider report shows that of the 200 baseball they tested from the 2022 season the majority were from the new "dead" ball stock, which MLB said would be every ball for the season. However, they also found instances of the old "juiced" balls, as well as a third construction which fell into the middle — and is being dubbed the "Goldilocks ball," for being the perfect mix of weight and velocity. More alarming is that there appears, at least from the initial data, to show huge inconsistencies in the ball distribution across MLB ballparks.

Wills and Insider found that 36 Goldilocks balls only appeared in four distinct situations:

Special commemorative balls used on team anniversaries (6)
All-Star week (3)
Postseason (14)
Yankees games (11)

It's that final point that's going to be the most contentious. Finding 11 baseballs is far from a smoking gun, but it is very curious that Goldilocks balls ramped up in use in Yankees home games as Aaron Judge was chasing Roger Maris' AL home run record. In August only two of the different balls were found, jumping to six in September, before dropping back off in October back to two. Judge broke the record on October 4.

I would edit the first sentence in that last paragraph to read:

. . . it is very curious that Goldilocks balls ramped up in use in Yankees home games – and only in Yankees home games – as Aaron Judge was chasing Roger Maris' AL home run record.

Manfred messes with the game, but it's always strictly "in the best interests of baseball". Hey, Bowie Kuhn, I know you died more than 16 years ago, but go fuck yourself. (Yeah, I'm still a little bitter. It's only been 47 years.)

Like everyone else with a connection to baseball, Judge has marveled at what Ohtani can do.

Records are meant to be broken. It's just a record. It'll be exciting for the game if he went out there and got 63-plus. We'll see what happens. . . . It's incredible. . . . I don't like watching it in person, when he's playing against us, doing what he's doing, but it's fun when you can turn on the TV and see that he's throwing eight innings, striking out 10 and hitting two homers in a game. . . . I tried a little toe tap like he does. . . . I haven't mastered that yet. I've still got a couple of more years.

Ohtani also has a seven-game hit streak, in which he's batting .429 (12-for-28) with four homers and eight RBIs.

Judge has not played in a game since June 3, but he still leads the MFY with 40 RBI. (The AL's RBI leader has 80 runs batted in.)

In Play, Run(s): 12 Teams Scored Ten Or More Runs This Past Tuesday

Over the next eight days, the Red Sox will play five games and have three off-days. They are idle today, will host the Mets for three games over the weekend, have a day off on Monday, play Altanta twice, and then have another day off next Thursday, before heading out to San Francisco and Seattle.

The 38-year-old Justin Turner has a current hitting streak of 15 games. It's the second-longest hit streak by a Red Sox batter age 38+, second only to Ted Williams's 17-game hitting streak in 1957. . . . However, hitting streaks at 38+ are not really a Thing.

TSW hit .533 (32-for-60) from July 23 to August 9, 1957. He had an OBP of .608 and he slugged .783 for an OPS of 1.391. He finished that season with a .388 batting average. The MVP voting that year was, umm, interesting, from a WAR perspective.

Turner has also hit safely in 29 of his last 33 games (since June 9), batting .349, with a 1.008 OPS. Not bad for an old man.

Speaking of elderly gentlemen, Nomar Garciaparra will turn 50 years old this weekend (Sunday, July 23).

MLB teams scored a shitload of runs this past Tuesday (July 18). In fact, it was the first time in major league history that 12 different teams scored 10 or more runs in a game. (OptaSTATS pointed out that 12 teams (in three leagues) did that on May 30, 1884 and 13 teams did it on July 4, 1894, but "each of those involved team(s) doing so in both ends of a doubleheader (so fewer than 12 distinct teams were involved)".)

Diamondbacks 16, Atlanta 13
Mets 11, White Sox 10
Royals 11, Tigers 10
Giants, 11, Reds 10
Twins 10, Mariners 3
Cubs 17, Nationals 3
Dodgers 10, Orioles 3
Guardians 10, Pirates 1

(The Padres just missed the cut, with nine runs. Boston was shutout by Oakland 3-0.)

There were four games in which both teams scored in double digits, tying a record with two dates during the same week of 1894 (July 4 and July 9). That season was the second year in which the pitching mound was 60 feet, six inches, from the plate. Also, an average team in 1894 scored 7.38 runs per game as opposed to only 4.6 runs in 2023.

The 16-13 slugfest between the Diamondbacks and Atlanta was the first game in which both teams scored 13+ runs through the first eight innings since the Yankees beat the Red Sox 17-13 in London on June 29, 2019, a nutty affair in which both teams scored six runs in the first inning.

OptaSTATS tweeted that last Tuesday, for the first time in major league history, five players had 2+ home runs and 5+ RBI in a game: Wilmer Flores (Giants), Josh Naylor (Guardians), Austin Riley (Atlanta), Spencer Torkelson (Tigers), and Christian Walker (Diamondbacks). 

Other Fun Stuff In July From OptaSTATS

July 1-2

Mookie Betts' 4th-inning groundout for the Dodgers tonight snapped his streak of 15 consecutive plate appearances without having a hitless at-bat (he went 7-for-7 with 6 BB & 2 SF during that stretch). That's tied for the longest streak by any MLB player in the last 50 years.

MLB, Most Consecutive PA without a Hitless AB - Last 50 Seasons
15 - Pedro Guerrero, Dodgers, July 23-27, 1985
15 - Frank Thomas, White Sox, May 16-20, 1997
15 - Barry Bonds, Giants, August 31-September 4, 1998
15 - John Olerud, Mets, September 16-22, 1998
15 - Mookie Betts, Dodgers, June 28-July 1, 2023

A string of 15 plate appearances by Mookie Betts:
home run 
walk
walk
double
double
sacrifice fly
walk
home run

home run
single
walk
double

walk

walk
sacrifice fly

July 3

Homers for [Atlanta]:
56 in their last 21 games
54 in their last 20
53 in their last 19
52 in their last 18
50 in their last 17
47 in their last 16
46 in their last 15
43 in their last 14
All of those are the most or tied for the most over a span of that length in MLB history

July 4

The Tigers are the only MLB team to strike out 12+ batters while allowing 2 or fewer hits and 0 earned runs and yet lose the game (since earned runs became an official stat in 1913). MLB teams had been a combined 319-0-1 when putting up those numbers over that time (reg & post).

Today marks the 13th consecutive game that Ronald Acuña Jr. of [Atlanta] has either hit a home run or stolen a base. That's the longest streak by any MLB player in the modern era, surpassing the 12 straight by Oakland's Bert Campaneris in 1969 (entirely on stolen bases).

July 5

The Cincinnati Reds completed their 31st comeback win in their 87th game this year. In the last 50 seasons, only two MLB teams have had more comeback wins in their first 87 games of a season, the 2004 New York Yankees and the 1999 Cleveland[s], both with 34. [JoS: So many comebacks for the 2004 Yankees, yet when they really needed one, they choked.]

Yesterday, Reds Elly De La Cruz and Spencer Steer became the first pair of rookie teammates in MLB history to both go 4-for-4 or better and drive in a run in the same game.

July 7

MLB players with at least a dozen XBH, a dozen walks, a dozen runs & a dozen RBI in a 10-game span (since RBI became official in 1920):
Babe Ruth (1921)
Rogers Hornsby (1928)
Mel Ott (1929)
Lou Gehrig (1935)
Vic Wertz (1950)
Ted Williams (1950, 1951)
Mookie Betts (2023)

Francisco Lindor of the Mets is the only MLB player in the modern era to have 8+ hits, multiple triples, multiple homers and multiple steals over a 2-game span.

July 8

The Tigers are the second team in MLB history to allow at least a dozen runs in one game and then no-hit that same team in their very next game. The other was the 1893 Baltimore Orioles, who allowed 14 runs to Washington on August 15 before Bill Hawke no-hit them the next day.

Lowest ERA over an MLB pitcher's first 8 career starts with a specific starting catcher (since ERA became official in 1913):
0.47 - Nolan Ryan with Mark Bailey (1984 Astros)
0.47 - Ervin Santana with Jason Castro (2017 Twins)
0.56 - Blake Snell with Gary Sánchez (2023 Padres)

Elly De La Cruz of the Reds is the only MLB player in the last 50 years to steal second, third and home all with the same batter at the plate.

July 9

Prior to Elly De La Cruz, the last time an MLB player stole 2nd/3rd/home with the same batter at the plate was on July 14, 1915, when the A's allowed White Sox pitcher Red Faber to steal his way home uninhibited as a stall tactic with the game not yet official & a storm brewing. [Is "uninhibited" supposed to be unimpeded?]

Tarik Skubal of the Tigers is the second pitcher in the modern era to throw 5+ strikeouts and allow zero runs in each of his first two starts of the season while also having his team lose both starts. He joins Derek Lowe, who did so in 2001 with the Red Sox.

July 14

Bo and Josh Naylor of the Guardians are the first pair of brothers in MLB history to hit multi-run homers for the same team in the same inning.

Over the last 2 games, Brewers pitchers have struck out 32 Reds batters [14-18] while allowing 0 runs. That's the most strikeouts without allowing a run by any MLB team over a 2-game span in the modern era.

July 15

The Brewers are the first team in MLB history to record 3 straight shutouts while striking out at least a dozen batters in each. [K: 14-18-12]

The Angels are the first MLB team to face a 6+ run deficit in the 7th inning or later, erase that deficit, then fall behind again by 3+ runs and yet still win the game since the Phillies did so against the Pirates on September 16, 1930.

Today marks the only time in the modern era that 4 different MLB pitchers struck out 10+ batters but had their team lose the game on the same day (Alec Marsh, Johan Oviedo, Spencer Strider, Framber Valdez).

July 17

Nick Pivetta of the Red Sox is the only MLB pitcher in the modern era (starter or reliever) to strike out at least 65% of the batters he faced in a game while allowing no hits (min. 20 batters faced).

The Guardians are the only MLB team in the live-ball era (since 1920) to go 9-up, 9-down without getting the ball out of the infield through 3 innings but then score a run in every inning after that.

July 18

Tyler Wells has allowed exactly two earned runs in each of his last seven starts. The last pitcher to allow the exact same amount of earned runs in 8 consecutive starts (min. 5.0 innings each start) was Cleveland's Jim Bagby with zero from June 16-July 16, 1917.

July 20

Since the beginning of the 2018 season, the Rays are 32-9 (.780) at home against the Orioles. That is the best home record for any club against a single divisional opponent over the last six seasons.

Special Shohei Ohtani Edition

July 3

Shohei Ohtani is the second MLB player to have 30+ home runs and 5+ triples prior to the All-Star break. The other player to do so was Willie Mays in 1954. [JoS: The date on which each season begins is not the same; that affects how many games players can play before the ASG.]

July 8

Tonight marks the sixth time this season Shohei Ohtani has finished one hit shy of the cycle. That's tied for the most such games before the All-Star break in MLB history, along with Hall of Famers Duke Snider (1954), Willie Stargell (1975) and Rod Carew (1977). [Ibid.]

July 17

Shohei Ohtani has hit as many HR in the 7th inning or later over his last 28 games (12) as any other MLB player has hit total during that time (since June 12). That's the most HR in the 7th inning or later over a span of 28 games in MLB history.

July 19

Shohei Ohtani has now scored at least one run in eight straight games (min. 1 PA), his third such streak of at least eight games this season. The only player with more eight-game streaks with at least a run scored in the same season in the Modern Era is Babe Ruth (4 in 1921).

Nick Pivetta Is Sixth Relief Pitcher (& First Red Sock) In History To Strikeout 13+ Batters

Nick Pivetta threw six no-hit innings out of the bullpen on Monday night, setting a Red Sox record with 13 strikeouts by a relief pitcher. 

Since 1900, only five other relief pitchers have recorded 13 or more strikeouts in a game. In those 124 years, Pivetta is the only one who also did not allow a hit.

Rube Marquard, May 13, 1911:     8.0-12-5-3-14
Walter Johnson, July 25, 1913:  11.1- 7-2-2-15
Billy O'Dell, July 4, 1961:      9.0- 2-1-1-13
Denny McLain, June 15, 1965:     6.2- 6-2-2-14
Randy Johnson, July 18, 2001:    7.0- 1-0-1-16
Nick Pivetta, July 17, 2023:     6.0- 0-0-2-13

Pivetta struck out 13 of the 20 batters he faced (65%), including seven in a row at one point. Only Randy Johnson, who fanned 16 of 23 batters (69.6%) had a higher K rate.

The old Red Sox record for strikeouts by a reliever was 12, by Diego Segui (7.2-9-4-3-12) on September 22, 1974. Dick Radatz struck out 11 in 8.2 innings on June 11, 1963. Two days earlier, he had struck out 10 in six innings.

Sandwiching Pivetta were Brennan Bernardino and Chris Martin. The trio allowed only one hit to the Athletics – it came with one out in the first inning – and combined for 18 strikeouts. The Red Sox won 7-0, with Connor Wong racking up three hits and three RBIs.

Since June 30, the Red Sox have the best record (11-2), most runs scored (84), and best run differential (+33) in the majors. They have also had 10+ hits in 10 of their last 12 games, batting .312 as a team.

The Yankees are in last place in the AL East.

No. They cannot.

Schadenfreude 342 (A Continuing Series)Schadenfreude Time Machine: June 17-19, 1977

Red Sox pitchers Nick Pivetta and James Paxton were credited with the wins in consecutive games against the Athletics on July 7 and 8.

Pivetta and Paxton – both born in the Canadian province of British Columbia (Pivetta in Victoria, Paxton in Ladner) – were the first Canadians to win consecutive games for the Red Sox since Reggie Cleveland and Fergie Jenkins, way back on June 18-19, 1977 against the Yankees.

Pivetta pitched the middle five innings of Boston's 7-3 win on Friday, July 7. Paxton started and went six innings the next day, as the Red Sox romped 10-3.

Cleveland (born Swift Current, Saskatchewan*) and Jenkins (born Chatham, Ontario) did their thing during one of the Red Sox's all-time greatest series against the Yankees. (Also: Pivetta's 413.2 innings are the most by a Canadian-born Red Sox pitcher since Cleveland's 752.2 innings 1974-78.)

Let's go back to that mid-June 1977 series.

*: Your correspondent was 13 years old; summer vacation had just begun and he would start high school in the fall. And 28 years later, he would find himself spending the night in Swift Current as part of cross-country drive to resettle on the west coast of Canada.

Bill Lee faced the Brownshirts in the first game, Friday night, June 17. Catfish Hunter was the Yankees' starter – for maybe 15-20 minutes. Rick Burleson led off the bottom of the first with a home run into the screen atop the left field wall. Fred Lynn followed with a home run deep into the  right-field bleachers. Hunter got two outs, but he wouldn't get the third. Carlton Fisk crushed a home run over everything in left. George Scott also crushed a home run over everything in left. Hunter was then sent to the showers  after throwing only 29 pitches (did he even break a sweat?), forced to walk off the field as the jeers of more than 34,000 Red Sox fans throbbed in his ears.

New York tied the game 4-4 in the third inning, but Boston got single runs in the fifth and sixth, and Yaz and Fisk went deep in the seventh. The Red Sox won 9-4, as Mickey Rivers of the Yankees donned a batting helmet in center field as protection from the flying chunks of metal and glass coming out of the bleachers. Ahhh, the '70s!

Cleveland started on Saturday afternoon, June 18. (I am not sure if all three games were on TV, but I know this one was.) The crowd at Fenway was reportedly the largest in 20 years; the temperature was 90 degrees. The Yankees got two runs in the first, but Yaz clubbed a three-run dong off Mike Torrez in the bottom half to give Boston a 3-2 lead. After a walk, single, and an error, Torrez got a double play to avoid further damage.

Things remained quiet until the fourth. Bernie Carbo homered. Butch Hobson singled and Denny Doyle tripled. After Doyle scored on Lynn's sac fly, Rice was HBP and Yaz singled, but Torrez again escaped additional trouble.

Carbo homered again in the fifth and Scott went deep to center off Sparky Lyle in the seventh (his MLB-best 17th of the year), but it was the inning in between that was the most interesting.

With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Lynn singled and Rice broke his bat on a hit into right field. Reggie Jackson was extremely slow to charge the ball (something the Yankee announcers said was a common practice that year). Rice hustled into second for a double with Lynn advancing to third. New York manager Billy Martin was furious. Suddenly, Paul Blair was jogging out to right field. Reggie was confused, then realized Martin was publicly embarrassing him – and on national television – by pulling him from the game mid-inning. When Reggie got to the dugout, he opened his arms, as if to say, "What did I do?" It was a scene famously echoed many years later by Alex Rodriguez, standing at second base, in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS. It was an open question whether Martin or Jackson (or both) might begin throwing punches. It was fucking awesome.

Yaz hit another homer in the eighth. Final score: Red Sox 10-4.

Reggie had been "a center of friction" on the team for weeks, refusing to shake his teammates' hands after hitting a key home run in May and dealing with the turmoil from an interview in Sport magazine in which he said "derogatory things" about Thurman Munson, asserting that of all the good players on the Yankees, he was "the straw that stirred the drink" (which remains, quite honestly, an amazing quote).

Jackson screamed at Martin in the dugout: "You never liked me." . . . And later was sipping white wine.

That night he spoke privately to a reporter (reportedly, "every other word [was] an expletive" in the original (where's the tape?)):

It makes me cry, the way they treat me on this team. The Yankee pinstripes are Ruth and Gehrig and DiMaggio and Mantle. I'm just a black man to them who doesn't know how to be subservient. I'm a big black man with an IQ of 160 making $700,000 a year and they treat me like dirt. They've never had anyone like me on their team before.

Reggie was very determined never to miss an opportunity to tout his (alleged) high intelligence or his salary. When told Reggie had an IQ of 160, Mickey Rivers said: "Out of what, a thousand? He can't even spell IQ."

Jenkins got the ball on Sunday, June 19, and pitched a complete game, allowing only three hits and one unearned run. Boston toyed with starter Ed Figueroa (13 baserunners in 4.1 innings) and reliever Dick Tidrow, who allowed four hits (all home runs) in two innings. (Yankees radio broadcast)

The Red Sox did not score in the first two innings – the Yankeed actually led 1-0! – but they got runs in every inning afterwards. Diminutive Denny Doyle donged in the fourth for three runs, part of Boston's busy inning that included three hits, three walks, a stolen base, and a Reggie error! (SI: "When Doyle returned to the dugout, Yaz refused to shake his hand, saying, 'Are you kidding?'")

The Red Sox led 7-1 when they closed out the three-game whipping by taking batting practice against Tidrow. Carbo homered in the seventh and Rice, Yaz, and Scott hit bombs in the eighth, for an 11-1 win.

The Red Sox set a major league record with 16 home runs in a three-game series. Then they went to Baltimore and swept four games from the Orioles, hitting nine more home runs and outscoring the Birds 25-7. It was part of a 10-game stretch (June 14-24) in which they hit a record 33 dongs. (That was also a record.) They slugged .638 and had a team OPS of 1.008. 

BOOM!

Jim Rice told Sports Illustrated:

We've got this standard routine in the dugout now . . . When a guy comes in after a homer, someone will ask him, "Hey, man, you get it all?" The answer's always, "Nope."

Not long after, on July 4, the Red Sox hit eight home runs in a span of four innings against the Blue Jays (then in their first season). The last seven blasts were solo shots.

5th: Scott
6th: Lynn
7th: Hobson, Carbo
8th: Lynn, Rice, Yaz, Scott

I would have devoured a book about the 1977 Red Sox – my second-favourite team, after 2004.

It's Difficult To Form A Coherent Idea About The 2023 Red Sox: Not Great, Not Terrible, Consistently Inconsistent

The Red Sox are 48-43. That would be good for a 2.5-game lead in the AL Central, but Boston plays in the AL East, so they are in last place, 9.0 GB. (They are fifth in the 10-team AL Eastral.)

The Red Sox come out of the break with a five-game winning streak and eight wins in its last nine games. Since June 14, they have the best record in the AL (15-8).

Masataka Yoshida has had multiple hits in seven consecutive games (15-for-29, .517). He and Bo Bichette of the Blue Jays lead the AL with 34 multi-hit games.

June 30: 3-for-4
July  1: 2-for-3
July  4: 2-for-4
July  5: 2-for-4
July  6: 2-for-5
July  8: 2-for-5
July  9: 2-for-4

The Red Sox's record is nine games, which four players have accomplished: Xander Bogaerts (2022), Kevin Youkilis (2007), Jim Rice (1978), and (of course) Roy Johnson (1934).

The major league record is 13 games by Rogers Hornsby in 1923. Hornsby, who hit .402 over five consecutrive seasons, also had an eight-game streak in 1920 and a nine-game streak in 1929. He's also three of the 13 players to bat over .400 since 1900.

 

Jeffrey "FenFan" Moon (who filled in for me during Games 1 and 2 of the 2018 ALDS), posted some mid-season thoughts in a game thread. (The numbers below do not include Sunday's game.)

With one game to play before the All-Star break, it's hard to know what to think about this year's Red Sox team, who have generally hovered around .500 for most of the first half. To quote Joe Walsh, they are Ordinary Average Guys. Just look at the team win/loss splits:

25-22 at home, 22-21 on the road
15-13 in April, 13-13 in May, and 13-15 in June
17-15 in day games, 30-28 in night games
3-3 in extra innings
12-14 in one-run games
four walk-off wins against two walk-off losses

About the only splits that stand out: against American League East division rivals, Boston is 7-0 against Toronto and 5-1 against New York, but they are also 1-7 versus Tampa Bay (they are 3-3 versus Baltimore to date).

At this point, I would give them a solid C; they aren't good, but they aren't terrible. Game to game, series to series, and week to week, you just don't know what the results will be, and it's provided plenty of fodder for Boston sports media programs and traditionally finicky Red Sox fans.

Still, at four games above .500 (47-43), despite being in last place in the division, they are only two games out of a postseason position, mainly because the AL Central is so bad collectively (the current division leader, Cleveland, has two fewer wins than Boston). The team has enjoyed a strong start to the month of July, and the three series following the break will come against sub-.500 teams (the Cubs, the Athletics, and the Mets). Unfortunately, as this season has proven time and again, there are no guarantees with this club.

BB-Ref currently gives the Sox a 25.2% chance to make the postseason and only a 1.3% chance of winning the World Series and taking home the tenth championship trophy Piece of MetalTM in franchise history.

Statistically speaking, when ordered by Wins Against Replacement (WAR), BB-Ref currently shows right fielder Alex Verdugo (3.1 WAR, 119 OPS+) as the team's best player followed by pitcher Brayan Bello (2.8 WAR, 153 ERA+). After that:

James Paxton (1.9 WAR, 170 ERA+)
Jarren Durran (1.9 WAR, 135 OPS+)
Connor Wong (1.7 WAR, 87 OPS+)
Rafael Devers (1.7 WAR, 117 OPS+)
Justin Turner (1.6 WAR, 120 OPS+)
Chris Martin (1.5 WAR, 287 ERA+)
Masataka Yoshida (1.4 WAR, 131 OPS+)
Brennan Bernardino (1.0 WAR, 186 ERA+)

I'm honestly still not sold on this team. Despite the recent success, what happens when they start the second half on the road in Chicago against the Cubs and in Oakland against these same Athletics? Despite both teams being sub-.500 to this point, it would not surprise me to see Boston fall flat and lose both series. I'm not purposely being pessimistic; that's just how the first half has gone, and this team has been streaky.

Some similar thoughts from friend of the blog Matthew Kory (subscribe to Sox Outsider):

The strange saga of the 2023 Boston Red Sox continues. What is there to say about this team beyond a shrugging emoji? They win three against a good team, they lose three against a bad team. They just went 5-1 against Toronto and Texas, but before that they went 1-5 against Miami and the White Sox.

It's difficult to form a coherent and overarching idea of who this team is right now, at least for me. But there are a few different angles to look at. . . .

Part of me thinks I’m being silly. The Red Sox are a .500 team or thereabouts and they've played like a .500 team or thereabouts. They went 15-14 in April (and one March game), they were 13-13 in May, and they've gone 17-16 in June and five July games combined. Are we making this harder than it needs to be?

Well, yes, of course we are. But also, no. Anyone who obsesses over this team can see the talent. You can see how good the offense can be, how good the bullpen and rotation can be. This can be a very good team. This could be a 2021 kind of team. Get in and make a run. If Sale comes back and… . . .

Baseball is always about ifs but this is a team that has been crushed by injuries and currently sports what I'd probably call a 2.5 man five man rotation. Which is just freaking unheard of. The bizarre part is that, of the many starters Boston has had in their rotation this season, the one who has not been hurt and missed time is James Paxton. So, is there a better definition of living on borrowed time than that? . . .

Except, the Red Sox DO have a chance at the playoffs and 20 percent, while not what you want, isn't nothing. . . .  And yet, this team has three starting pitchers! Three! And one of them is a reliever! And one of them is James Paxton!! How is this ever going to turn out well? Is there a universe in which this team can somehow keep Paxton healthy through the season and through a (prospective) playoff run? Sure, Chris Sale could be back by then but A) if so, he'd only be the fourth healthy starter (generally ya need five), and B) who is to say Sale wouldn't step on a rake and trip into a well while on a rehab assignment?

Counting on Chris Sale seems more than iffy at this point. Heck, counting on James Paxton seems iffy at every point. But if you can't count on Paxton, how are you going to count on this team?

Oh, did I mention they have one healthy catcher and no healthy shortstops?

So what do you do with this?

Wait until 2024, I suppose. Signing Ohtani is going to give this team a big fucking boost.

Walter Pitches 6.2 Innings Out Of Bullpen In Unusual MLB Debut

Red Sox left-hander Brandon Walter made his major league debut on Thursday, giving manager Alex Cora 6.2 innings of relief in a 6-0 loss to the Twins. Minnesota's Joe Ryan pitched a three-hit, complete game the Twins' first complete game* of the season.

Walter took over after starter Justin Garza allowed two runs in the first inning and gave up a single to start the second. He recorded 20 outs (6.2-6-3-3-2, 92), the longest debut from the bullpen for the Red Sox in nearly eight decades -- since Clem Hausmann pitched eight innings (8-7-2-4-2) in a 16-inning loss to the Philadelphia Athletics on April 28, 1944.

It was a blast obviously getting to pitch in my first big league game. . . . I just wanted to kind of keep us in the game. Give us length. Save the other bullpen guys and just try to get quick innings. . . . Fastball command was honestly terrible. Went to the cutter, went to the changeup, went to the slider and was able to get ahead with those and create soft contact . . . I learned a little bit about myself, that I can compete at this level. . . . [G]o out and give them multiple innings, give them different looks multiple times through the lineup.

The Red Sox (39-37) will have a rested bullpen for a three-game series against the White Sox (32-44) this weekend.

*: The Twins are one of 13 teams with one complete game in 2023. Texas has three (of which two belong to old friend Nathan Eovaldi; WCWGPLT?).

A Friendly Tip: Do not take betting advice from the New York Post.

Houck Will Have Surgery To Help Facial Fracture Heal

Tanner Houck will undergo surgery next week "to have a plate inserted into his face" to help heal the fracture below his right eye when he was hit with a line drive off the bat of Kyle Higashioka last Friday night.

The Red Sox did not give any timetable for Houck's return, though manager Alex Cora said Houck definitely will pitch again this season. "It was close enough to the eye, but he's OK. Obviously, it wasn't off the temple. . . . It's the best news we could get."

Schadenfreude 341 (A Continuing Series)

Greg Joyce, Post:

It can always get worse.

After Saturday's washout followed Friday's stinker, the Yankees' miserable weekend at Fenway Park sank even lower on Sunday when they were swept out of town.

The Red Sox claimed both games of the day-night doubleheader, 6-2 and 4-1, sending the reeling Yankees back home licking their wounds.

"It sucks," Anthony Rizzo said. . . .

Across 18 innings on Sunday, the Yankees mustered just nine hits — six of them from Jake Bauers and Gleyber Torres combined.

After being stifled by a Red Sox bullpen game in the afternoon, they were shut down by Brayan Bello in the nightcap, continuing to look punchless in Aaron Judge's absence.

With most of their big bats going dormant in unison over the last two weeks, the Yankees (39-33) have now lost eight of their last 11 games — all of them without Judge. . . .

The Yankees . . . were swept in a doubleheader by the Red Sox (37-35) at Fenway Park for the first time since 1976.

The bats that the Yankees need to be their biggest have all gone cold at the worst time. Giancarlo Stanton is 5-for-41 (.122) since coming off the IL. DJ LeMahieu is 15-for-90 (.167) over his last 24 games.

Rizzo, after being robbed of extra bases by center-fielder Jarren Duran in the nightcap, is 4-for-48 (.083) since missing three games with a stiff neck. And Josh Donaldson is 4-for-33 (.121) with three home runs since coming off the IL. . . .

The Yankees scored in the first inning in each of the three games, though it hardly mattered much.

After Torres' two-run homer put them ahead in Game 1, Clarke Schmidt lost the lead in the fifth inning before the Red Sox broke a tie against Michael King with three runs on four straight two-out hits in the sixth.

Then in Game 2, Luis Severino turned in another mediocre start across five innings, giving up all four (three earned) of the runs he allowed with two outs. . . .

[T]he Red Sox outscored the Yankees 25-8 and out-hit them 36-19.

Peter Botte, Post:

Giancarlo Stanton . . . has been searching to regain any semblance of his timing and power stroke since returning from the injured list on June 2.

Stanton now is batting .119 (5-for-42) with 15 strikeouts over his first 12 games since making it back from a six-week hamstring absence.

Those numbers include seven hitless at-bats with one walk and five Ks as the Yankees were swept — 6-2 and 4-1 — by the Red Sox in Sunday's day-night doubleheader at Fenway. . . .

"I just need to figure it out." . . .

The 33-year-old Stanton has spent significant time on the injured list in each of the past five seasons since appearing in 158 games in his first year in pinstripes in 2018 following a trade from the Marlins.

He has appeared in only 315 of the Yanks' last 618 regular-season games . . .

Gary Phillips, Daily News:

The Red Sox didn't tag the Yankees for 15 runs again when their series resumed on Sunday afternoon, yet Boston hammered its division rivals – and the Green Monster – for the second consecutive game, a 6-2 win for the home team.

The Sox started their scoring in the fifth after Clarke Schmidt allowed a walk and a double to Justin Turner, which could have been – but was not – caught against the wall by a leaping Jake Bauers in left. Alex Verdugo then scored on a Rafael Devers groundout before Adam Duvall singled Turner home.

Michael King prevented further damage in the fifth, but he allowed four two-out hits, including RBI doubles to Connor Wong and Verdugo, in the sixth. Both doubles peppered the Monster. . . .

Nick Ramirez then balked in Masataka Yoshida after the outfielder tripled in the seventh. . . .

While the Red Sox had no problem driving the ball, the Yankees' lineup didn't put up much of a fight against Boston in a bullpen game. . . .

Brayan Bello played a part in keeping the Bronx bats silent, as he held the Yankees to one run while striking out eight and walking three over seven innings and 102 pitches. It was the second time in as many starts that the 24-year-old took advantage of an unproductive lineup, as Bello limited the Yankees to two runs over seven innings at Yankee Stadium on June 11.

The struggling Luis Severino, meanwhile, showed some improvement after allowing 16 earned runs over his last three starts, but he still totaled seven hits, four runs (three earned), three walks and six strikeouts over five innings and 81 pitches.

Another Unprecedented Feat For Ohtani:Leading MLB In Home Runs (As A Batter) & Lowest Batting Average Allowed (As A Pitcher)

No player since 1900 has led or been tied for the major league lead in home runs (as a batter) and lowest batting average allowed (as a pitcher) at any point in the season. Until now. Shohei Ohtani has been atop those leaderboards for the past three days.

Ohtani reached 150 home runs and 75 stolen bases in the third-fewest games in history. ESPN's tweet says Ohtani is 4th with 652 games, but in 15 of those games, he was never in the Angels' lineup because he was exclusively a pitcher (someone else was the DH). So he needed only 637 games, for third place.

Willie Mays     598
Jose Canseco    630
Shohei Ohtani   637
Alex Rodriguez  646

In 2022, Ohtani became the first player to finish in the Top 15 among MLB players in both home runs (as a batter) and strikeouts (as a pitcher) since the mound was moved to its current distance in 1893. This year, he's currently in the Top 4 in both categories (first in HR, 4th in K).

Ohtani leads the AL in home runs (MLB, actually) and has struck out more batters than all but one AL pitcher (3 MLB pitchers).

Ohtani leads MLB in hitting home runs (23), throwing wild pitches (11), and hitting opposing batters (9).

Ohtani also has the longest current hitting streak: 14 games. (Mookie Betts has an 11-game streak.)

Ohtani, in the past week: Two HR on Monday, and one HR on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. (Plus, he pitches.)

In his last 18 games for the Angels, Ohtani has 28 hits, 18 extra-base hits, 11 home runs, 15 walks, and three stolen bases. Only one other MLB player in the modern era has matched all of those numbers over an 18-game period: Lou Gehrig, Yankees, June 21-July 5, 1927.

Gehrig's streak was a bit more productive, with more hits (30-28), extra-base hits (19-18), runs scored (21-19), triples (2-1), RBI (30-23), total bases (73-69), and a higher batting average (.441-.412), on-base (.542-.512), slugging (1.074-1.015), and OPS (1.616-1.527). But Biscuit Pants did not pitch.

In each of his last six games, Ohtani has gotten an extra-base hit, drawn a walk, and scored a run. Only two other players in the modern era have done that in six or more consecutive games: Babe Ruth (7 games in 1921) and Barry Bonds (6 games in 1997).

Ohtani leads the Angels in: 

Games played
At-bats
Plate appearances

Hits
Runs scored
Triples

Home runs

Total bases

Runs batted in
Batting average

On-base average

Slugging percentage

OPS
OPS+
Stolen bases

Intentional walks
Walks (tied with Trout)

Wins

ERA (starters)
WHIP (starters)
Lowest batting average allowed (starters)
Innings pitched
Strikeouts

Most strikeouts per 9 innings
Fewest walks per 9 innings

Ohtani vs Texas, June 12-15

Game 1
Walk
Game-Tying HR in 7th inning (459 ft)
Game-Winning HR in 12th inning (388 ft)

Game 2
Single
Double
3 Walks (1 BBI)

Game 3
Single
Walk
HR in 9th inning (453 ft)

Game 4
6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
2 Walks
Game-Winning HR in 8th inning (443 ft)

1,743 feet of home runs -- all of them to the opposite field!!

Schadenfreude 340 (A Continuing Series)

Greg Joyce, Post:

The Yankees, who had played 10 straight games decided by three runs or fewer, were in need of a laugher Friday night.

They got one, but they were the butt of the joke.

Domingo German failed to record an out in the third inning, the Yankees' infield defense was shoddy and their bats stayed quiet until it was too late, all of which combined for an embarrassing stinker of a 15-5 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park. . . .

It got ugly enough that the Yankees turned to utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa to pitch the eighth inning. The Red Sox added one more run against him in his second mound appearance of the season.

The Yankees (39-31) have now lost six of their past nine games, though not even the injured Aaron Judge could have saved them in this dud that delighted the sellout crowd of 37,086. . . .

On a night when the Yankees were inexplicably charged with just two errors, Donaldson, Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres all had misplays in the infield that led to runs while right fielder Jake Bauers added an errant throw. . . .

German had arguably been the Yankees' best starting pitcher over the past month and a half, with a 2.20 ERA in his past seven outings. . . .

But on Friday, it all came crumbling down in a hurry. In his shortest start of the season, German got shelled for seven runs on seven hits (six of them for extra bases), two walks and one hit batter across two-plus innings. The right-hander was given a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning and promptly gave it back in the bottom of the frame, with the Red Sox scoring the first two of 13 unanswered runs. . . .

[German] got just two swing-and-misses on 56 pitches.

Matt Krook relieved German in a 5-1 game and didn't fare much better in his long-awaited MLB debut. He was tagged for five more runs across 1.2 innings — though he didn't get much help behind him. He got two quick outs and appeared to have the third, but Donaldson could not get the ball out of his glove cleanly after he fielded a grounder.

Then, after Krook did not cover first base on a grounder well off away from the bag — Rizzo ranged far to his right to field it — Justin Turner capped off his monster night by crushing a grand slam to center field to put the Red Sox ahead 10-1. . . .

Turner went 3-for-5 with two home runs, a double and six RBIs while Masataka Yoshida went 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles and three RBIs.

Yankees - 100 003 010 -  5 10  2
Red Sox - 226 301 01x - 15 17  1

Time of game with 20 runs and 27 hits: 2:53!

The Red Sox scored more runs against the Yankees in this game (15) than both teams scored in their three-game series last weekend (14). Boston won two of those three games: 3-2, 1-3, 3-2.

Gary Phillips, Daily News:

[T]he Red Sox put a forceful end to [Domingo German's] recent run of success on Friday night.

German, who owned a 2.20 ERA over his previous seven starts, logged his shortest outing of the season, a two-inning implosion that saw him charged with seven earned runs. Trouble began during German's 32-pitch first inning when, with a 1-0 lead, he surrendered a two-run double to Masataka Yoshida. The drive just missed clearing the Green Monster.

Justin Turner, meanwhile, had the distance when he hit a two-run homer over Fenway Park's tall wall in the second . . .

Turner added a grand slam in the third inning following a few defensive mishaps from the Yankees. This time, he went deep off Matt Krook, who made his long-awaited major league debut on Friday. . . . [He] left his first MLB game with a 27.00 ERA after permitting five earned runs over 1.2 innings. . . .

Turner ended the night with a game-high six RBI, while Yoshida totaled three to go along with four hits. Triston Casas, Connor Wong and Pablo Reyes combined for four more RBI. . . .

While Yankees pitchers were ineffective Friday, a handful of ugly defensive plays also contributed to lopsided score. The Yankees were only charged with two errors, but that number could have doubled had it not been for generous rulings by official scorers.

With a new Boston Massacre in the history books, Clarke Schmidt is scheduled to face Brayan Bello on Saturday. . . . Luis Severino and James Paxton are Sunday's probable pitchers.

Greg Joyce, Post:

Aaron Judge spent the Yankees' day off getting another platelet-rich plasma injection in his sprained right big toe. . . .

Judge has been out since June 4 and still has no definite timetable for his return because he has not been able to even begin any baseball activities yet. . . .

Asked if surgery could be on the table if the soreness in Judge's toe does not subside, Boone said, "I don't know." . . .

Asked whether Judge had a chance to be back before the All-Star break, which begins on July 10, Boone was noncommittal. . . . "I don't know. He could be back in a week, he could be back in four — I don't know." . . .

The Yankees . . . entered Friday 4-5 since Judge last played a game, and their offense has largely sputtered without him . . .

Bob Raissman, Daily News:

Without Judge, the product the Yankees put on the field is void of glitz; bland as a bowl of mush. Outside of Gerrit Cole, there's no one enticing Yankees loyalists to pay extra money to see the Judge-less Bombers play on a streaming service.

What does it say about the state of affairs when the Yankees most recent signature video is of John Sterling getting conked on the head by a foul ball in the radio booth?

Without Judge, the Yankees pursuit of Tampa Bay, or a wild card spot, is not all that compelling. . . .

Is there a must-see-at-bat in the lineup? . . .

Jared Schwartz, Post:

Red Sox pitcher Tanner Houck was taken to a hospital and received stitches after frighteningly being struck in the face by a line drive during Boston's 15-5 win over the Yankees on Friday night.

Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka hit a comebacker that knocked Houck to the ground and left his face bloodied in the fifth inning.

The liner had an exit velocity of 89.7 mph.

Houck was able to walk off the field . . . but was holding a towel to his face to cover a large gash.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora said that the liner cut him in his cheek area.

MLB Cancels Two Games As Eastern US Experiences "Hazardous" Air Quality

Major League Baseball postponed two games on Wednesday because of the extremely "hazardous" air quality in the eastern United States, due to over 400 active wildfires in Canada, including more than 150 in Quebec. 

For the past two days, New York City has experienced some of the worst air quality of any major city on Earth. The White Sox/Yankees game in the Bronx and the Tigers/Phillies game in Philadelphia were postponed, as was a WNBA game in Brooklyn.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality Index (AQI) states that a reading over 50 is potentially harmful. From 101 to 150 is classified as "unhealthy for sensitive groups", from 151 to 200 is "unhealthy", 201 to 300 is "very unhealthy", and over 301 is "hazardous".

The air quality in the Bronx was 413, as of 4:30 p.m. ET. Philadelphia's AQI was 233.

During last night's game, which the White Sox won 3-2, the AQI was above 150 in the first inning and over 200 shortly after the game.

The Washington Post reported:

For the second day in a row, New York logged some of the worst air quality of any major city on the planet. But that was hardly the only place to experience the eerie, unsettling and throat-burning smoke that scientists say could become a more common occurrence in a warming world. . . .

In Philadelphia, as elsewhere, schools canceled field trips, moved recess indoors and postponed athletic matches. In Washington, where monuments along the National Mall sat shrouded in the afternoon gloom, commuters donned masks that for the first time in years had nothing to do with a pandemic.

"It looks like Mars outside," said Dennis Scannell, the co-owner of a typically bustling but now silent baseball and softball training facility in Syracuse. The city's Air Quality Index — a measure of outdoor pollution — registered 402 late Wednesday morning. Healthy is considered below 50.

In Binghamton, N.Y., the National Weather Service office tweeted about the dimming sky just before 10 a.m. "Sun is no longer visible, everything's orange, the parking lot lights have come on," it read, alongside a photo of the otherworldly scene.

As of early Wednesday, Canadian officials reported more than 400 active fires, with roughly 240 listed as "out of control." The worst-affected province is Quebec, where at least 154 fires have been recorded.

At the current pace, government officials said this week, Canada is on track to experience the worst wildfire season in its recorded history. Already this year, roughly 2,300 wildfires have burned roughly 9.4 million acres, according to government data. In the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, unusually intense blazes this year have scorched more land than in the past 10 years combined.

Rolling Stone:

The source of the gathering gloom is the smoke from a series of wildfires in Canada. It's not new to have fires in Canada but the current blazes are far beyond anything seen in recent decades . . .

The situation is unprecedented but also part of a growing trend of longer, hotter wildfire seasons in both Canada and the United States. The crisis adding fuel to the fire, quite literally, is climate change. . . .

Canada is experiencing what could become their worst wildfire season on record . . . Wildfires are at more than 10 times their normal average so far this year, and in May alone Canada saw more than 6.6 million acres burn – a total almost the size of Massachusetts. 

Warm and dry conditions will continue to increase wildfire risk in most of Canada in June and July, according to a wildfire outlook from Canadian officials this week. . . .

The pollution from these particles is at historic levels in some cities along the East Coast. New York City now has the distinction of some of the worst air quality in the world – ranking third at midday Wednesday, just behind Delhi and Dahka – according to IQAir, a Swiss air monitoring company. . . .

Scientists say the particulates from wildfires can be more toxic than from some other sources, since a wildfire burns everything in its path – not just trees and shrubs but also parts of homes, trash, and plastics. . . . Researchers have connected poor air quality from wildfires to increased hospitalizations and premature births. . . .

[T]he area burned by wildfires has doubled in Canada since the 1970s and quadrupled in the western United States in that same time. Longer, dryer summers have erased the concept of a "fire season" and turned it into a "fire year" in some parts of the arid West.

The New York Times published pictures of the Manhattan skyline from throughout the day:

Sale To IL With Left Shoulder Inflammation, Extent Of Injury Unclear

The exact status of Chris Sale's injured left shoulder will likely remain unknown into next week.

Sale was placed on the 15-day injured list today, after leaving Thursday's game against the Reds in the fourth inning, with what the Red Sox called "left shoulder inflammation". Sale stressed that his elbow feels fine and he does not anticipate needing surgery for this injury.

It's different than that [shoulder injury in 2018], I would say in a better way than that. . . . This isn't anything that's going to require any procedure, I don't think . . . It's just . . . going to take time. . . . I can't really get too definitive because I don't have anything too definitive. . . .

I hate feeling like this. I started having fun playing baseball again, and now I'm back to not having fun. . . . I felt like I was over the hump, I really did. I felt like I was back to being myself. So when something like this happens, it's deflating.

Sale said he has "a couple more tests I have to go through until we can get a definitive answer", which should come "within the next week". A time frame of five-to-seven days was mentioned.

It was Sale's 11th start of the season, which is the same number of regular season starts he was able to make in the previous three seasons combined (0-9-2). Sale described how he felt on the mound:

First inning was great [his fastball hit 96]. Second inning was kind of when it started happening. Third inning was not very good. And then that fourth inning, that was the one that did it in. . . . I kind of felt it on one pitch, and then after that it just slowly kept creeping up. . . . I couldn't finish pitches. I was raring back for 91. That's just not it [for me], ever.

After a rocky start to the season, Sale had been pitching well, with a 2.23 ERA in his last five starts coming into the game against the Reds. His ERA for his first five starts of the year was 8.22.

Last night's game against the Rays (40-18) at Fenway was rained out. The two teams are playing a doubleheader today (that was pre-planned). Friday's game has been rescheduled for Monday, which had been an off-day. After that, the Red Sox (29-27 at the moment) go to Cleveland and the Bronx for three games each against the Guardians and MFY.

**

Horrible news from the Globe. George Scott III, the son of former Red Sox first baseman George Scott, apparently killed his eight-year-old son, Dante Hazard, before committing suicide yesterday in his New Bedford home. He was 54. Law enforcement officials investigating the disappearance in March 2019 of Lisa Hazard, the boy's mother, had searched the house two or three weeks ago. There is no information on whether the search was connected to the murder-suicide.

George Scott was with the Red Sox for two stints: 1966-71 and 1977-79. The Boomer passed away in 2013.

Can Celtics Be First NBA Team To Go From 0-3 To 4-3?Fun Fact We All Know & Love: The Red Sox Are The Only MLB Team To Do It!

UPDATE: Heat 103, Celtics 84

Heat    - 22  30  24  27 - 103
Celtics - 15  26  25  18 -  84

Boston's last lead in the game was 11-10 with 3:30 left in the first quarter. They trailed 52-41 at the half. The Celtics came as close as seven points several times in the third quarter (66-59, 69-62, 71-64), but could not cut into the Heat's lead any more than that. Miami (12-6 in this postseason) will face the Denver Nuggets (12-3) in the Finals.

On Sunday, May 21, the Miami Heat trounced the Boston Celtics by 26 points and took a 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference Finals.

The Celtics will host Game 7 of that series tonight in Boston. No NBA team has ever come back from 0-3 to win a best-of-seven series. Teams are currently 0-for-150.

2023 Eastern Conference Finals

G1: Heat 123, Celtics 116
G2: Heat 111, Celtics 105
G3: Heat 128, Celtics 102
G4: Celtics 116, Heat 99
G5: Celtics 110, Heat 99
G6: Celtics 104, Heat 103
G7:

Three teams have fought back to play Game 7, but all three -- the visiting team, in each case -- lost the seventh game. The Celtics are the first 0-3 team to force a Game 7 at home.

L L L W W W L

1951 Finals: New York Knicks lost to Rochester Royals
1994 Western Conference Semifinals: Denver Nuggets lost to Utah Jazz
2003 Western Conference First Round: Portland Trail Blazers lost to Dallas Mavericks

Only one major league baseball team has accomplished an 0-3 to 4-3 comeback. In October 2004, the Boston Red Sox lost Games 1, 2, and 3 of the ALCS to the New York Yankees, before winning Games 4, 5, 6 and 7. The Red Sox went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, winning their first championship in 86 years. It's a hell of a story. Since then, the Red Sox have won three additional World Series titles.

Tonight's Game 7 was made possible by Derrick White's miraculous tip-in on Saturday night in Miami. As seen below, the basketball left his fingers with fewer than one-tenth of one second remaining on the clock, and the Celtics down by one point.

ESPN:

It was just the second time in league history a buzzer-beater happened with a team facing elimination at the moment. The other was Michael Jordan's legendary "The Shot" in 1989 to lift the Chicago Bulls over the Cleveland Cavaliers in their first-round series.

With Boston's victory Saturday night, the Celtics won their fifth road elimination game in the past two postseasons, not quite the iconic Bill Russell's 10-0 record in Game 7s, but this is Page 1 Celtics history material here. . . .

White . . . inbounded the ball to Smart and then sprinted down the sideline. When Smart launched it, White was 20 feet away, standing near the corner around the 3-point line.

By the time the ball spun out, White had somehow gotten himself to the rim. . . .

"I mean, it don't do no good to stand in the corner there," White said later . . . "Whether he makes it or not, so I just was crashing the glass, and it came right to me."

Poetry in Motion ☘️ pic.twitter.com/VaLcG9QjQg

— 𝙍𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙮 ☘️ (@CelticsRiley) May 28, 2023

Can't stop thinking about itpic.twitter.com/eBgmbMcebJ

— CelticsNation (57-25) (11/16) (@CookedByCeltics) May 29, 2023

$7.90 — Cheap

As seen at Amazon.com, May 29, 3:00 AM (ET).