G67: Red Sox 2, Astros 1

Red Sox - 001 000 010 - 2  7  0
Astros  - 000 000 100 - 1  6  1

Drew Pomeranz and Mookie Betts led the Red Sox to victory. Good Pomeranz showed up tonight (6.1-4-1-3-4, 97) and Betts scored both runs, the second one coming on his 12th home run of the year, in the eighth inning. Betts also threw out a runner at the plate in the sixth.

Update: The Yankees (38-27) lost again, their fourth defeat in a row. Boston (38-29) is now only 1 GB!

Betts walked with one out in the third. Pedroia singled to right, and Betts went to third. Xander Bogaerts struck out, but Mitch Moreland singled to left, scoring Betts. Mike Fiers's wild pitch moved the runners to second and third and Andrew Benintendi walked. But the bases were left loaded when Chris Young grounded out to shortstop.

Pomeranz was helped out by double plays in the first and fourth innings. And in the sixth, after Pomeranz issued two-out walks to George Springer and Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa singled to right. But Betts gunned down Springer at the plate.

There was also a bit of a scare in the seventh. Brian McCann homered off Pomeranz, tying the game at 1-1. Joe Kelly relieved Pomeranz. Yuli Gurriel doubled to right center and went to third on Alex Bregman's groundout. Derek Fisher was intentionally walked and Norichika Aoki pinch-hit for Jake Marisnick. It was a tense at-bat - ball, ball (Fisher stole second), called strike, swinging strike, foul, foul, ball, foul - before Aoki lined out to third, where Josh Rutledge had to leap to snag the ball.

Fiers (7-5-1-2-4, 97) was pulled after seven and Will Harris took over, facing the top of Boston's order in the eighth. Betts crushed Harris's first pitch over the fence in left.

In the bottom of the eighth, Altuve doubled off Matt Barnes with one out. Barnes then walked Correa on four pitches. Altuve stole third, but Evan Gattis grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Craig Kimbrel retired the side in order in the ninth.

Drew Pomeranz / Mike Fiers

Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Benintendi, LF
Young, DH
Bradley, CF
Rutledge, 3B
Vazquez, C

The Astros (45-22) lead the American League West by 11 games. Since winning 11 games in a row (May 25-June 5), Houston has lost six of nine games. Fiers is the team's only pitcher from the Opening Day starting rotation to have avoided the disabled list.

How do you solve a problem like Pablo? That's what the Red Sox are wondering as Mr. Sandoval turned in yet another putrid night at the plate. Rob Bradford writes that "the Sandoval signing is trending toward becoming one of the worst in franchise history". In 158 games with Boston, Sandoval is batting .236 with a .646 OPS.

Dave Cameron at Fangraphs calls Sandoval "the most glaring example in baseball of a sunk cost":

He still swings at everything — he has the fifth-highest O-Swing% [percentage of pitches a batter swings at outside the strike zone] of any hitter with 100+ plate appearances — and allows pitchers to get him out on pitches out of the zone. Only 38% of the pitches he’s been thrown this year have been strikes, the lowest rate in the majors, so Sandoval is currently swinging at balls and swinging through strikes. That is a bad combination. ...

He has no trade value, and is not likely to ever be someone the team could move for any real return. Sandoval's presence on the roster is solely about whether he can help the team win, and right now, the answer looks to be mostly no. ...

Dave Dombrowski said this week that the organization doesn't feel [Rafael] Devers is quite ready yet, but some of that probably involves the team not yet making the decision that it's time to cut Sandoval and give his roster spot to someone more useful.

They should be there, though. Sandoval looks like a below-replacement level player ... the Pablo Sandoval experiment failed, and it's not going to be any more successful by letting him get at-bats that could go to a better player.

More bad news: Roger Clemens will be filling in for Joe Castiglione on the radio broadcast tonight. Awful Announcing wonders "what WEEI has to gain" since Red Sox fans "seem to largely hate him at worst, and are pretty indifferent to him at best. ... [I]t sure seems to be pretty significant trolling of a large segment of their Red Sox-fan audience."

I won't listen to even one second of Fat Billy, but I am curious about how it goes, since Clemens was not known for his silver tongue during his playing days. So if anyone has the stomach to tune in, feel free to report in the comments.

G66: Phillies 1, Red Sox 0

Red Sox  - 000 000 000 - 0  5  0
Phillies - 000 000 01x - 1  4  0

Chris Sale (8-4-1-1-10, 110) was the tough-luck loser on Thursday night, as Philadelphia snapped an eight-game losing streak. Nick Pivetta (7-4-0-2-9, 107) matched zeroes with Sale before the Phillies bullpen took over.

After Sale doubled to begin the top of the eighth and got to third with one out, the Red Sox squandered the opportunity to score. Dustin Pedroia struck out on three pitches and Xander Bogaerts fouled out to first. In the bottom half, Sale gave up a one-out single to Andrew Knapp and a run-scoring double into the left field corner to Ty Kelly.

Sale: "I threw the worst pitch of the game at the wrong time."

(Philadelphia's other two hits were Maikel Franco's one-out double in the second and Tommy Joseph's single with two outs in the fourth. Sale also walked Howie Kendrick with two outs in the sixth.)

Jackie Bradley drew a two-out walk in the ninth, but Pablo Sandoval went down a-hackin', striking out on three pitches (the last two bounced in front of the plate).

Boston loaded the bases in the second inning. Mitch Moreland singled and Andrew Benintendi walked. After Bradley and Sandoval both fanned, Sandy Leon walked. Sale grounded out to second, with Kendrick making a dive to his right and getting up and throwing to first in time.

In the fifth, Leon singled with one out. He went to second on a wild pitch and when Betts hit a two-out single to left, Leon was thrown out at the plate.

Since the DH rule went into effect in 1973, only three American League starting pitchers have hit an extra-base hit in the eighth inning or later. Sale's double tonight was one of them. The other two happened on the same day (!), in separate games. On June 18, 2006, Detroit's Kenny Rogers doubled in the eighth against the Cubs and Jon Garland of the White Sox hit a two-run homer in the eighth against the Reds.

Sale's double was also the first hit by a Red Sox pitcher since Rick Porcello singled on April 25, 2016 (a 1-0 win over Atlanta). Sale's double snapped an 0-for-35 streak (with 25 strikeouts) for Boston pitchers.

Chris Sale / Nick Pivetta

Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Benintendi, LF
Bradley, CF
Sandoval, 3B
Leon, C
Sale, P

The Phillies have lost eight straight games, and now they have to face Chris Sale, who leads the majors in swings-and-misses on pitches within the strike zone (20.2%).

Brian Johnson, on the discomfort in his shoulder (he has returned to Boston for some tests): "Warming up in the bullpen I felt a little tightness and the more and more I threw, it got a little bit more uncomfortable. When Carl [Willis] came out I said something."

The Red Sox began last night's game as the only major-league team without a player with at least 10 home runs. It was the furthest into a season (65th game) that the Red Sox had gone without a player hitting 10 homers since 1993, when Mo Vaughn hit his 10th in the team's 76th game.

Also: Yaisel Puig was being heckled by some Cleveland fans ... so he hit a home run and then gave the fans the finger(s). (He has been suspended for one game.)

NESN: O'Brien And Remy Display An Ignorance Of The Rule Book

When Andrew Benintendi batted in the seventh inning on Wednesday, NESN's Dave O'Brien said that Benintendi's game-winning hit from the previous night was actually a single and not a double. (The live play-by-play at ESPN.com referred to it as a double, but I don't know when the change was made.)

Both O'Brien and Jerry Remy displayed an ignorance of the rule book when they discussed the play.

Dave O'Brien: It's an interesting debate what happened last night to end the ball game, in 12 innings when Benintendi hit that searing line drive to right. It was a game-winning single, officially. That's what it goes into the books as. But, if you recall, it bounced on the warning track and skipped into the stands, which, we're thinking, is a ground-rule double. Obviously, it is. It's an automatic double. But in that circumstance, the official scorer can rule it as he or she sees fit in that case and chose to make it a base hit. Now we have seen players hit home runs, game-winners like that, many times.

Jerry Remy: Right.

O'Brien: That's not ruled a base hit. That's a home run.

Remy: Exactly. And last night in the 12th inning, you know, the ball by Benintendi goes out and it goes -- you know, you know you won the game as soon as he made contact. I mean, the game's over. But then it bounces up into the stands, so -- I kind of thought it was going to be a ground-rule double. I didn't realize that it was going to be ruled a single.

O'Brien: You know, it doesn't cheapen the moment. It's a great moment for Benintendi, for the rest of his career, the walkoff. But that's a little statistical matter, you know? He doesn't have a double now, that's a base hit, great moment for him. But it's not two bases.

The play was neither "an interesting debate" nor "a statistical matter". The rules of major league baseball are extremely clear on what happens in exactly the type of situation that occurred on Tuesday night.

From "Official Baseball Rules, 2017 Edition":

9.06 Determining Value of Base Hits

... (f) Subject to the provisions of Rule 9.06(g) ([formerly] Rule 10.06(g)), when a batter ends a game with a safe hit that drives in as many runs as are necessary to put his team in the lead, the official scorer shall credit such batter with only as many bases on his hit as are advanced by the runner who scores the winning run, and then only if the batter runs out his hit for as many bases as are advanced by the runner who scores the winning run.

Xander Bogaerts was on third base when Benintendi came to the plate, so he needed to advance only one base to score the winning run. Which he did. Benintendi stopped running the bases after he rounded first, and he was credited with a single. It is a very clear decision, not one made on a whim of the official scorer, as O'Brien implied.

The comment accompanying Rule 9.06(f) provides greater clarity:

The official scorer shall apply this rule even when the batter is theoretically entitled to more bases because of being awarded an "automatic" extra-base hit under various provisions of Rules 5.05 and 5.06(b)(4) ([formerly] Rules 6.09 and 7.05). The official scorer shall credit the batter with a base touched in the natural course of play, even if the winning run has scored moments before on the same play. For example, the score is tied in the bottom of the ninth inning with a runner on second base and the batter hits a ball to the outfield that falls for a base hit. The runner scores after the batter has touched first base and continued on to second base but shortly before the batter-runner reaches second base. If the batter-runner reaches second base, the official scorer shall credit the batter with a two-base hit.

With Benintendi's hit bouncing from the field of play into the stands, he was "theoretically entitled to" two bases, but ONLY if he touches both first and second base "in the natural course of play". That did not happen. By the time Benintendi reached first, Bogaerts had likely scored. And so Benintendi stopped running the bases. He never got anywhere near second base, so he could not be awarded a double - even if his hit would normally have been ruled a ground-rule double if it had occurred at an earlier point in the game.

For the record, none of the game stories I saw mentioned Rule 9.06(f) (though Alex Speier sort of came close, but that was in his online newsletter, which I think was written some time on Wednesday):

Jason Mastrodonato, Boston Herald: "Benintendi roped a liner that bounced into the right-field stands for was [sic] technically scored a walkoff single ..."

Bill Ballou, Worcester Telegram & Gazette: "Boston won its second straight in extra innings on Tuesday night as it beat the Phillies, 4-3, in 12 on Andrew Benintendi's single to right field ..."

Evan Chronis and Craig Forde, MLB.com: "In the 12th inning, Andrew Benintendi blasted a game-ending single to right field to score Xander Bogaerts and give the Red Sox a 4-3 win ..."

Alex Speier, 108 Stitches: "With his 3-for-5 game Tuesday that included a double and the walkoff single (because Benintendi was mobbed before touching second base, he did not get credit for a two-bagger) ..."

I don't know if the rule was mentioned in any of the Boston Globe stories, because I do not have a subscription (and will not purchase a subscription) to the newspaper's website.

(Thanks to fusionmouse for pointing out Rule 9.06(f) to me in the game thread.)

G65: Red Sox 7, Phillies 3

Red Sox  - 230 100 001 - 7 13  0
Phillies - 003 000 000 - 3  6  0

After three straight games lasting more than four hours - 4:06 on Sunday, 4:16 on Monday, and 4:24 on Tuesday - the Red Sox dispatched the Phillies with ease in a speedy 3:26. The win gives Boston a 16-7 record in their last 23 games.

It was The Mookie Betts Show, as the Red Sox leadoff hitter went 4-for-5, with a single, a double, and two home runs. He drove in three runs and scored four times. (He was 3/4 of the way to the cycle after only four innings, but could not get the elusive triple.) Betts also made a great diving catch in right field in the fifth, one of numerous impressive fielding plays by the Red Sox.

After Brian Johnson (2.2-4-3-1-1, 44) left the game with shoulder discomfort in the bottom of the third, Hector Velazquez came in and put a lid on a brewing Phillies comeback. He pitched 3.1 innings and allowed only one hit and one walk, and was credited with his first major league win. The Red Sox bullpen has not allowed a run in its last 21.1 innings.

This game belonged to Boston from the start. Betts and Dustin Pedroia began the evening with singles off Jeremy Hellickson (5-9-6-3-1, 93). Xander Bogaerts doubled into the left field corner to score Betts and Pedroia scored on Andrew Benintendi's fly out to left.

After Johnson retired the Phillies in order on eight pitches, the bats went back to work. Pablo Sandoval singled. Hellickson walked Sandy Leon on four pitches. Johnson tried to bunt and popped out to first in foul territory (or so I was told; NESN failed to show the catch). Betts doubled to left for one run and Bogaerts singled for two more. Boston led 5-0.

NESN returned for the bottom of the second and showed a sponsored graphic of the five AL pitchers who have recorded the most outs on fly balls. As I was questioning the point of this, since there were no Red Sox among the leaders, I heard the distinctive pop of a ball in a catcher's mitt. NESN was now showing the sponsor's pink logo and whatnot. I thought, we've just missed a pitch, haven't we? When the game was shown, Johnson threw a strike to Tommy Joseph and sure as shit: the count was 1-1.

In the top of the ninth, as Betts batted with a chance for the cycle, NESN showed replays of his previous hits. They were shown in a small box in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, a new development that NESN began at the same time they started polluting the left-hand side of the screen with redundant and irrelevant information. I'm certain that they now show replays in that box so they won't miss pitches. But they still managed to miss the first pitch to Betts because the replay box was covering the part of the screen where the catcher caught the ball! (Screenshot.) Oh my god, NESN is so lame. Despite many years spent broadcasting Red Sox games, NESN still reminds me of a public access station far too much of the time. (The network showed the big graphics 23 times tonight.)

Okay. Johnson gave up several hard hit balls in the third. Freddy Galvis doubled and, with two outs, Howie Kendrick singled him in. Aaron Altherr smashed a hanging curve for a two-run homer and Joseph doubled. What began as a mound visit by pitching coach Carl Willis ended with the trainer walking Johnson off the field. Velazquez came in to face Maikel Franco as the potential tying run. He got a grounder to third for the final out.

Betts homer in the fourth gave Boston a 6-3 lead. Velazquez gave up a two-out double to Galvis in the fourth, but Hellickson was the next batter and he grounded to short. The Phillies went in order in the fifth and managed only a two-out walk in the sixth. In those two innings, I starred four of the six outs as great fielding plays. Betts robbed Kendrick of a hit with a diving catch and Pedroia ranged to his left, spun, and threw out Altherr to end the fourth. In the fifth, Sandoval made an excellent play diving to his left and throwing out Franco and Pedroia recorded the third out with a backhand swipe at a short-hop grounder off Cameron Rupp's bat.

Philadelphia made a bit of noise with one out in the eighth against Matt Barnes. Joseph walked and Franco grounded to third. Josh Rutledge had replaced Sandoval and he threw wide to Pedroia at second. The umpire ruled the runner was safe - Pedroia's foot had come off the bag before he caught the ball. Boston asked for a review - and the call was reversed. So with two outs, Daniel Nava singled to left, putting runners at first and second. Barnes struck out Rupp to end the inning.

Robbie Scott pitched the ninth and he had two great catches made behind him. Andrew Benintendi ran into foul territory and leapt up against the side wall, reaching into the stands to grab Galvis's popup for the first out. Andres Blanco then drove the ball right back at Scott. But the ball stayed on the mound and Scott made the throw to first. Odubel Herrera hit a shot to left center, but Bradley ran back and jumped before the warning track and made the game-ending catch.

On the negative side, the Red Sox had two more runners put out on the bases, giving them 32 for the season, worst in the majors. In the seventh, Benintendi was doubled off first after Altherr made a stunning catch of Hanley Ramirez's line drive to the warning track in right. In the next inning, Bradley doubled and ran to third when Leon popped to first. He passed third base and did not step on the bag when he raced back to second, so he was easily put out.

Brian Johnson / Jeremy Hellickson

Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Benintendi, LF
Ramirez, 1B
Bradley, CF
Sandoval, 3B
Leon, C
Johnson, P

Roster: The Red Sox recalled pitcher Hector Velazquez and optioned infielder Deven Marrero.

The home-and-home, four-game series with the Phillies moves to Philadelphia after the Red Sox won the two games in Boston in extra innings.

The Red Sox had not won two consecutive games lasting 11+ innings since 1975. On April 11 and 12, 1975, in the third and fourth games of the season, the Red Sox beat the Orioles 6-5 in 12 innings and 3-2 in 13 innings in Baltimore. In the first game, Baltimore's Doyle Alexander relieved starter Mike Cuellar in the sixth inning and pitched the final 6.1 innings. In the second game, Red Sox starter Reggie Cleveland pitched the first 12 innings (facing 47 batters, the most any Boston pitcher faced in a game that season) before Dick Drago came in to get the save.

(The Red Sox record for batters faced by a pitcher? Red Ruffing faced 73 Yankee batters in the first game of a doubleheader on September 5, 1927. Ruffing pitched 15 innings and gave up 16 hits and 11 walks. (Using this Pitch Count Estimator, Ruffing threw approximately 332 pitches. This one estimates 266.) Boston won 12-11 in 18 innings.)

The last time the Red Sox had consecutive extra inning walkoff wins at home was June 24 and 26, 2006, when they beat the Phillies 5-3 in 10 innings and 8-7 in 12 innings.

Also: The first four batters in the Cubs' lineup - Anthony Rizzo, Ian Happ, Kris Bryant, and Jason Heyward - homered against the Mets in New York, the first time in Cubs' history that each of the first four hitters in the order homered in a road game. ... The Twins banged out franchise-record 28 hits in a 20-7 win over the Mariners. (The franchise includes the Washington Senators, who had 27 hits (in 12 innings) on May 16, 1933.) Minnesota's Eddie Rosario homered three times, the first #9 hitter to hit three dongs in a game since Trot Nixon on July 24, 1999. (I was at that game!)

G64: Red Sox 4, Phillies 3 (12)

Phillies - 002 001 000 000 - 3 12  0
Red Sox  - 111 000 000 001 - 4 14  0

Andrew Benintendi's single to right field scored Xander Bogaerts from third base as the Red Sox celebrated their second walkoff win in two nights. Benintendi also threw a runner out at the plate in the top of the eighth.

Luis Garcia was Philadelphia's fourth pitcher of the night and he retired Dustin Pedroia on a grounder to first. NESN (being NESN) stayed with the center field camera, so all viewers actually saw was Garcia standing near the mound watching the play develop off-screen. Bogaerts believed he had walked on four pitches, but home plate umpire Stu Schuerwater called pitch #4 (which was in the exact same place as pitch #1, a ball), a strike. Garcia was wide with his next offering and Bogaerts took first. Mitch Moreland singled off the wall (but NESN just about missed him hitting the ball because it was busy showing a replay of his third-inning home run). Thankfully, NESN allowed everyone to see Benintendi's drive to deep right. The ball bounced off the warning track into the stands; by then, Bogaerts had crossed the plate with the game-winning run. Benintendi stopped running after passing first base, so he was credited with only a single.

The night began with David Price (6-4-3-4-6, 103) retiring the Phillies in order on only six pitches. The Red Sox took an early lead as they loaded the bases with one out in the first (Pedroia singled, Bogaerts doubled, Moreland was hit by a pitch) and Blake Lively (7-8-3-2-2, 108) walked Benintendi to force in a run. Hanley Ramirez ended the inning with a double play. (NESN got confused on this play also, and we saw the extremely close play at first base only on a replay.)

Price had a much different second inning, throwing 32 pitches and walking two batters, but leaving the bases loaded. His teammates added a run on doubles by Jackie Bradley and Christian Vazquez. The Phillies tied the game on a two-run blast by Aaron Altherr. Moreland gave the Red Sox a 3-2 lead with a 449-foot dong to center.

After the third, Boston did not do much at the plate until extras. Bogaerts hit his second double in the fifth, but was thrown out by the pitcher when he tried to steal third. It was Boston's 30th out on the bases this season, which is the most of any team.

The Phillies tied the game in the sixth. Tommy Joseph doubled to right, went to third on a single by Maikel Franco, and scored on a fielder's choice when Michael Saunders beat the relay from second base, avoiding a double play.

Howie Kendrick singled to begin the eighth, off Blaine Boyer. With one out, Franco hit a high fly to left that struck the very top of the wall. Benintendi was too close to the wall and he chased the carom in the direction of the infield. Kendrick raced around third and Benintendi made what looked like a soft lob to the infield, but his throw sailed to Vazquez on the fly and Kendrick was tagged out. (Why the Phillies did not ask for a review of Franco's hit is a mystery.) Saunders was given an intentional walk and Cameron Rupp reached on a hit that caromed off Boyer to Bogaerts in short center. He could not get a force at second, so the bases were loaded. Boyer then struck out Freddy Galvis on a high 95-mph fastball.

Both teams threatened to score in the tenth. Kendrick began the top half with a grounder to the right of Moreland at first. He ranged far towards second, turned and fired the ball to Heath Hembree, who stutter-stepped and dragged his foot across the bag for the out. Joseph and Franco both singled, putting runners at first and third. Hembree fell behind Saunders 3-1, but struck him out with his next two pitches. Hembree was ahead of Rupp 0-2 and put him away with a low pitch over the plate - BUT Schuerwater called it a ball. That blown call did not cost the Red Sox because Rupp hit a fly down the right field line and Mookie Betts raced over and caught the ball just before banging into the low, padded wall.

With one out in the bottom half, Pedroia and Bogaerts singled. Moreland struck out on a pitch that actually bounced in front of home plate. Benintendi chopped a ball to third. Franco ran in and gloved it, but decided not to risk a throw to first. Pedroia rounded third, fully expecting a throw to first, and when he tried to stop, he fell down. Franco likely heard Galvis, the shortstop, yelling behind him because he whirled and threw the ball to Galvis, who tagged Pedroia while he was still on the ground in foul territory.

Fernando Abad set down the first two Phillies in the eleventh, but he walked Daniel Nava (after Nava would not bite on a high 61-mph changeup). Altherr singled to right and Betts's throw to third was late. Facing Kendrick, Abad nearly threw a wild pitch (which would have scored a run) before Kendrick chopped the ball up the middle. Abad wisely stepped aside, and Bogaerts grabbed the grounder and stepped on second to end the threat.

Hanley Ramirez was hit by Garcia's first pitch in the home half of the eleventh. Bradley singled him to second. Deven Marrero bunted the ball back to the mound and Garcia forced Ramirez at third. Then Garcia got out of trouble as Vazquez popped to second and Betts popped to short.

Abad allowed a leadoff single in the twelfth to Ty Kelly. Franco put on a 12-pitch battle, fouling off seven straight pitches before grounding into a double play. Pedroia made a slide/dive to his right and shovelled the ball out of his glove to Bogaerts who completed the play. Abad then got Saunders on a first-pitch grounder to short.

And the Red Sox won the game a few minutes later. The bullpen threw six shutout innings, although they did allow eight hits and two walks. That's 11 shutout innings in the last two games. For what it's worth, the Boston bullpen has been charged with only five losses this year, tied for the second-fewest in the American League.

I meant to ask last night why Odubel Herrera* is leading off for the Phillies. He started the series with a poor on-base percentage of .295. I thought that perhaps he was super-fast, which is not such a great reason to bat him #1, but, hey, it's the Phillies. Nope. Herrera has stolen four bases in eight attempts, which is bad enough that he really should stop trying.

*: I swear I heard Joe Castiglione refer to Herrera as "Asdrubal Cabrera" during one of his at-bats tonight.

NESN's Worthless Column Of Graphics: I counted 16 appearances tonight, 12 of which were in the first five innings. The last one, when Pedroia was batting in the bottom of the tenth, highlighted the three "next up" hitters (including Pedroia, who was already batting) and their career batting averages in extra innings. So someone at NESN believed that those numbers - achieved against different pitchers, against different teams, in different parks, in different seasons, and at different times of the day/night - were relevant. (In Pedroia's case, it included games from as long ago as September 2006, nearly 11 years ago. Memo to NESN: Those statistics are totally irrelevant.)

Ben Lively / David Price

Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Benintendi, LF
Ramirez, DH
Bradley, CF
Rutledge, 3B
Vazquez, C

Price makes his 2017 Fenway Park debut tonight. He is trying to bounce back from a bad outing against the Yankees last Thursday (six runs in five innings).

Lively, a 25-year-old right-hander, has made two major league starts, both earlier this month. He has allowed four runs in 14 innings.

G63: Red Sox 6, Phillies 5 (11)

Phillies - 400 010 000 00 - 5 14  2
Red Sox  - 012 100 010 01 - 6 15  2

Dustin Pedroia's opposite-field single scored even Marrero with the winning run on a hot night (93 degrees) at Fenway. Pablo Sandoval began the rally with an 0-2 single off Casey Fien, who was beginning his third inning of relief. Marrero pinch-ran and was bunted to second by Sandy Leon. After Mookie Betts was given an intentional walk, Pedroia, also down in the count 0-2, came through, giving the Red Sox only their second walkoff win of the season. (I was more than a little worried when I saw Fernando Abad warming up to pitch the 12th inning. Perhaps Pedroia was similarly concerned and figured the time to win was now.)

As happy as the Red Sox were at the end of the game, that's how dismal the beginning felt, as Rick Porcello (6-10-5-1-4, 115) allowed four runs. (In his 13 previous starts this season, he had allowed a total of four runs.) After Odubel Herrera singled and Daniel Nava doubled, it looked like Porcello might escape unscathed. Aaron Altherr struck out and Herrera was tagged out at the plate on Howie Kendrick's grounder to first. But Porcello struggled to get the third out. After Kendrick stole second without a throw, Tommy Joseph singled in two runs, Andres Blanco doubled in one, and Maikel Franco singled in another one. The three run-scoring hits came on three consecutive pitches.

In their half of the first, the Red Sox squandered a scoring opportunity. Betts doubled to leadoff and then stayed at second as the next three batters were retired on a fly to right, a strikeout, and a groundout to shortstop.

Boston began their comeback in the second inning when Andrew Benintendi homered to center. Betts began the third with a ground rule double. He stole third and scored on Pedroia's groundout. After Xander Bogaerts fanned, Mitch Moreland singled and scored on Benintendi's single to center. Jackie Bradley opened the fourth by reaching on Kendrick's error. He went to third on Leon's one-out single and scored on Betts's double into the left field corner. (It was the first three-double game of Betts's career. He added a single in the seventh, giving him the third 4-hit game of his career.)

After Boston had tied the game at 4-4, it took the Phillies only four pitches to regain the lead. Altherr doubled and scored on Kendrick's single. Betts saved another run from scoring with a running catch towards the right field corner. Kendrick stole second and after Blanco walked, the two baserunners pulled a double steal. With runners at second and third and one out, Porcello wriggled out of trouble, as Bogaerts gloved Franco's liner and then grabbed Andrew Knapp's grounder and threw him out.

Hanley Ramirez tied the game at 5-5 when he belted a long home run over everything in left with two down in the eighth.

After Craig Kimbrel pitched the ninth, Matt Barnes took the tenth. Joseph blooped a single into right and, after Blanco struck out, Franco doubled to right center, putting the potential go-ahead run at third (now pinch-runner Ty Kelly). Barnes showed pinpoint control facing Knapp, getting two called strikes on pitches at the top of the strike zone but a little off the plate. He then painted a 95-mph fastball on the outside black for a swinging strike three. He went 2-2 on Freddy Galvis before freezing him with a similar pitch on the outside black for a called strike three. Barnes gave up a leadoff single in the eleventh, but got Nava on a high fly to left and struck out both Altherr and Kendrick, the latter not coming close to a curveball in the dirt to end the inning.

NESN is still showing its newfangled on-screen graphics - and they are as worthless as ever, never having anything to do with what is going on in the game at that moment. In response to heavy criticism (I'm assuming), NESN has cut back drastically on the frequency of this nonsense. When NESN debuted the graphics, they were constantly on screen. Tonight, they were shown no more than once per half-inning. An approximate count of times I saw them was about 14-15. Of course, that is still 14-15 too many.

When will NESN realize that the ONLY reason we tune in is to SEE THE GAME? Everything else - on-screen clutter, cut-aways to the on-field reporter, booth guests, etc. - is simply shit we must tolerate, and would rather not see/hear at all. (Because it is NOT THE GAME!)

Jerad Eickhoff / Rick Porcello

Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Benintendi, LF
Ramirez, DH
Bradley, CF
Rutledge, 3B
Leon, C

Neither starter has been all that good lately:

Porcello's ERA, last six starts: 5.06
Eickhoff's ERA, last eight starts: 6.75

The Red Sox (34-28) are four games behind the Yankees, who are out west, playing the Angels.

Speaking of the Yankees, they have been scoring a shitton of runs - and no one can stop talking about Aaron Fucking Judge (who it's about time the league's pitchers got a book on). New York has scored at least eight runs in each of their last five games, an achievement they have done only one other time in the last 75 years: July 6-13, 1956.

The Yankees outscored the Red Sox and Orioles 55-9 during that five-game streak, becoming the fourth team since 1900 to score 55+ runs and allow fewer than 10 runs over a five-game span. The others: 1911 Pirates (55-9, July 26-29), 1937 Yankees (58-8, July 4-10) and 1939 Yankees* (56-8, August 25-28).

*: The 1939 Yankees also had a 59-16 streak from August 22-25. So, in a nine-game stretch - August 22-28, all wins - they outscored their opponents 104-24.

Elias notes that the Yankees scored six first-inning runs on Saturday and five on Sunday. It's the first time that they have scored at least five first-inning runs in back-to-back games since August 25, 1939 when they scored five runs in the first inning in both games of a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns.

And for the second game in a row, the 3-4-5-6 slots in the Yankees' batting order knocked in 12 runs. The Yankees are the second team since 1920 to have back-to-back games in which those four slots in the batting order combined for at least 12 RBIs. The Red Sox did it on June 7-8, 1950, when they beat the Browns 20-4 and 29-4.

Also: It is being reported that Washington's Max Scherzer reached 2,000 strikeouts faster than all but two major league pitchers. That's if you look at games played and innings pitched. But when you rank pitchers by batters faced, Scherzer has reach 2,000 faster than any pitcher ever.

Games
Randy Johnson     262
Clayton Kershaw   277
Max Scherzer      287
Nolan Ryan        287
Rogers Clemens    294
Pedro Martinez    300
  
Innings Pitched
Pedro Martinez   1,711.0
Randy Johnson    1,733.1
Max Scherzer     1,784.0
  
Batters Faced
Max Scherzer      7,277
Randy Johnson     7,284
Nolan Ryan        7,915
Roger Clemens     8,796
Steve Carlton    10,721

G62: Tigers 8, Red Sox 3

Tigers  - 300 050 000 - 8 14  0
Red Sox - 101 001 000 - 3 12  1

Drew Pomeranz (4.1-8-6-2-2, 93) faltered in the first inning, allowing a single and two-run homer to the first two Tigers batters. He ended up surrendering four hits, walking one, throwing a wild pitch, and allowing three runs. Pomeranz departed the game with the bases loaded in the fifth. Heath Hembree faced Justin Upton: ball, swinging strike, ball, swinging strike, BOOM - opposite-field grand slam off the Pesky Pole. Detroit's lead jumped from 3-2 to 7-2. And that was that.

ESPN Stats & Information: Pomeranz failed to pitch at least five innings for the fifth time this year. Pomeranz has allowed four first-inning home runs this season, after allowing only six in his first six seasons combined (2011-2016).

The Red Sox trailed by three before anyone picked up a bat, but they immediately went to work closing the gap. Dustin Pedroia doubled with one out in the bottom of the first. With two outs, Hanley Ramirez singled to left. Pedroia scored, but Ramirez thrown out at second base. The Red Sox challenged the call - and ESPN's replays appeared to show Ian Kinsler's swipe tag missing Ramirez's leg - but the inning-ending out was upheld.

In the third, singles by Jackie Bradley and Mookie Betts put runners at first and second. Pedroia doubled to deep center, scoring Bradley. The Red Sox squandered the rest of the inning, however, as Xander Bogaerts popped to third and, after an intentional walk to Ramirez, Mitch Moreland flied to center.

The Tigers loaded the bases with no one out in the fourth on singles by J.D. Martinez, Upton, and Mikie Mahtook. Pomeranz kept the score at 3-2, though, striking out James McCann and Jose Iglesias and getting Kinsler on a fly to left.

Pomeranz was not so lucky in the following inning. Nicholas Castellanos (who hit the homer in the first) reached on Bogaerts's throwing error. Miguel Cabrera singled. Victor Martinez forced Castellanos at third. J.D. Martinez walked, loading the bases. Farrell swapped Pomeranz for Hembree. After Upton's grand slam, Hembree got the second out, but then McCann doubled, Iglesias walked, and Kinsler singled, upping the score to 8-3.

Bradley doubled with two outs in the sixth and scored on Christian Vazquez's single.

After leaving two men on base in the seventh, the Red Sox ended the game with the bases loaded.

Betts, Pedroia, Ramirez, and Bradley each had two hits. Pedroia's hits were both doubles. Pedroia and Ramirez walked twice.

Daniel Norris / Drew Pomeranz

Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Ramirez, DH
Moreland, 1B
Young, LF
Rutledge, 3B
Bradley, CF
Vazquez, C

The Red Sox begin tonight's game 3½ GB the Yankees, who finished off a sweep of the Orioles today: 8-2, 16-3, 14-3. New York has outscored its opponents 55-9 over its last five games (which includes two games against Boston last week (8-0 and 9-1)).

Some Players Want Union To Push For Electronic Strike Zone

In an article about possible ways MLB will likely screw up baseball attempt to speed up games in the next few years, ESPN's Buster Olney writes this:

[A]s the union and MLB exchange ideas in the months ahead, some players privately hope that part of the solution is the advent of an electronic strike zone ...

[A]nd in recent weeks some have privately mentioned their hope that the union will push for an automated strike zone, with balls and strikes determined electronically. This would remove the constant debate over strike zone decisions, according to players.

Again:

"[S]ome players privately hope that part of the solution is the advent of an electronic strike zone ...
[I]n recent weeks some have privately mentioned their hope that the union will push for an automated strike zone, with balls and strikes determined electronically."

G61: Red Sox 11, Tigers 3

Tigers  - 000 021 000 -  3  9  0
Red Sox - 002 010 35x - 11 13  1

For the second straight game, the Boston bats did their damage in the later innings. Mitch Moreland's two-run double in the seventh snapped a 3-3 tie, and the Red Sox poured on the insurance runs from there.

Chris Sale: 7-9-3-0-7, 110. The Red Sox banged out 13 hits and drew nine walks (three of them were intentional).

Moreland finished the night with two hits, two runs scored, two walks, and three RBI. Xander Bogaerts had three hits (including two doubles), two runs scored, and one RBI. Dustin Pedroia had two hits and scored three runs. Andrew Benintendi drove in three runs. And Josh Rutledge was on base five times, with two singles and three walks; he drove in two runs and also stole a base.

Everyone in the starting lineup had at least one hit except for Mookie Betts, but he did his part, walking three times and scoring a run.

The Yankees routed the Orioles 16-3, so Boston is still 3 GB. Baltimore is 5.5 GB.

Justin Verlander / Chris Sale

Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Benintendi, LF
Ramirez, DH
Bradley, CF
Rutledge, 3B
Leon, C

Odd: Verlander and Sale each threw 39 pitches in the first inning of their last start.

From MLB.com's preview: "Verlander will continue to chase history as he's struck out at least one batter in 327 consecutive games. The streak, which started in 2007, is the longest among active pitchers and the eighth-longest since 1913."

Naturally, I wondered about the seven streaks that were longer than Verlander's 327. So it was off to Baseball Reference's super-awesome Play Index.

                   GMS    START                 END                  (STARTS-RELIEF)
Nolan Ryan         382    September 15, 1979    May 27, 1992              382-0
Randy Johnson      351    April 20, 1989        August 20, 2000           342-9
Javier Vazquez     349    May 16, 2000          September 10, 2010        345-4
Dwight Gooden      349    April 7, 1984         September 3, 1997         347-2
Josh Beckett       335    September 4, 2001     August 3, 2014            332-3
Curt Schilling     331    July 6, 1993          July 21, 2005             325-6
Pedro Martinez     329    August 24, 1996       September 30, 2009        327-2
Justin Verlander   327    May 4, 2007           June 4, 2017              327-0
David Cone         319    September 24, 1989    September 20, 2000        317-2
Tom Seaver         312    August 22, 1967       July 8, 1976              308-4

After the Top 10, the number of games drops. Ubaldo Jimenez is #11 with 285 games. (Link to BRef chart.)

Some other pitchers:

David Price and Clayton Kershaw are tied at #14 with 256 games.

Roger Clemens's streak was 201 games, tied for #34 with Steve Carlton.

Bob Gibson is #57 with 169 games.

Chris Sale is #65 with 161 games.

In addition to his streak of 351 games (#2), Randy Johnson also has a streak of 137 games (2000-2005) that ranks #97.

G60: Red Sox 5, Tigers 3

Tigers  - 200 100 000 - 3 11  2
Red Sox - 000 200 03x - 5 11  0

Jackie Bradley's long two-run homer in the eighth inning snapped a 3-3 tie and gave the Red Sox a come-from-behind victory in the first game of a short, five-game homestand.

Brian Johnson (4.1-8-3-1-2, 105) and the Red Sox fell behind almost immediately. Johnson's fourth pitch of the night was hit for a home run by the Tigers' #2 batter, Nicholas Castellanos. Three consecutive singles later in the inning gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead. Mike Mahtook led off the fourth with a solo shot.

The Red Sox began their comeback in the bottom of the fourth when Mitch Moreland (3-for-4) homered. Andrew Benintendi singled and Hanley Ramirez drew a walk. Bradley singled, scoring Benintendi with the second run, but Ramirez was thrown out at third base. That baserunning blunder seemed to short-circuit the rally. Although Sandy Leon walked, Pablo Sandoval grounded into an inning-ending double play. (Actually, of the five pitches Detroit starter Jordan Zimmermann (6-6-2-3-3, 94) threw to Leon, four of them were in the strike zone. But home plate umpire Chad Fairchild saw the count as 4-1 rather than 1-4.)

Fairchild also made what will end up being one of the worst ball-strike calls of the year, in the first inning (see #4):

The Tigers tried increasing their slim lead in the fifth, but Heath Hembree pitched out of trouble. Victor Martinez reached on a one-out infield single, Johnson's last batter. J.D. Martinez greeted Hembree with a double and Detroit had runners at second and third. But Hembree put a "0" on the scoreboard, getting two outs from two batters with two pitches, as Justin Upton flied to right and Mahtook grounded to shortstop.

Moreland doubled to start the home half of the sixth, and was on third with one out, but could not score.

Alex Wilson (who pitched for Boston in 2013-14) was on the mound for Detroit in the eighth. Xander Bogaerts singled and went to second when Wilson made an error on a pickoff attempt. Moreland followed by hitting Wilson's next pitch for a single, and Bogaerts scored the tying run. Wilson retired Benintendi and Ramirez on outfield flies, but Bradley crushed a 1-1 pitch to deep right-center. The home run was measured at 457 feet, the longest of Bradley's career.

Then it was up to Craig Kimbrel. He sat Ian Kinsler down with a called third strike, battled Castellanos for 10 pitches before getting him to pop to first, and struck out Miguel Cabrera swinging.

The Yankees beat the Orioles 8-2, so the Red Sox remain 3 GB.

NESN continued its use of the left-hand column of pointless information (despite nothing but scorchingly negative comments from fans online), but while I was watching the game, it seemed like it appeared less often. That's better than a continuous presence, but it remains a horrendous intrusion and must be completely eradicated.

Someone posted "DO and Eck both doubling down on calling tonight's SP Brian 'Compete Game' Johnson", so I looked at some facts: Johnson's shutout of Seattle on May 27 was the first nine-inning CG of his professional career. Only three of his 93 minor league starts were complete games - and each of those was only seven innings (two in 2014 and one in 2015). So that nickname is a little premature.

Finally, this exchange from the SoSH game thread:

joe dokes: "In case anyone was wondering, there's no amount of alcohol that will make Dave O'Brien tolerable."

Fragile Freddie: "I have been testing this theory since April 5, 2016 and so far you are correct."

Jordan Zimmermann / Brian Johnson

Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Benintendi, LF
Ramirez, DH
Bradley, CF
Leon, C
Sandoval, 3B

Dustin Pedroia, who sprained his left wrist on May 28, returns to the lineup tonight.

Brian Johnson gets the ball for his third start of the year, filling in for the injured Eduardo Rodriguez. In his last start, Johnson pitched a complete-game, five-hit shutout against Seattle. ... Jordan Zimmermann allowed one run in six innings against the Red Sox on April 8, but has pitched poorly since then (6.47 ERA in 10 starts).

NESN Previews New On-Screen Look For Rest Of Season

(Posted last night by SoSH's nazz45.)

Also: My post from last night was picked up by Universal Hub ("Somebody At NESN Got Paid To Inflict Stupid Idea On Viewers").

An article on CBS Boston ("NESN's Intrusive New Sidebar Had Fans On Twitter Fuming") included a lot of great tweets.

WCVB's story ("New Feature During NESN Red Sox Broadcast Has Fans Ranting On Social Media") had more of the same.

Draining A Little More Out Of The Pool: NESN Sinks To A New Low

My list of complaints about NESN's Red Sox broadcasts should be well-known to readers of this blog. (If not, click the nesn tag.)

You probably share at least some of them. Missed pitches during every single game, consistently shoddy camera work, mediocre-to-poor announcers that often will not shut up about absolute nonsense (both game-related and not) while ignoring chances to provide genuine insight, a flood of advertising during the game, guests in the booth promoting other NESN shows ... (And holy shit, remember this?)

In short, NESN has trouble (and has always had trouble, at least since 2003, when I began watching games via MLBTV) performing the most basic tasks involved in broadcasting a baseball game.

On Thursday night, NESN did something that I immediately thought had to be the worst thing the network had ever done during a Red Sox game.*

Starting in the top of the first inning and continuing through almost every half-inning until the final pitch, NESN inserted a column of information on the left-hand side of the screen. This visual distraction served no real purpose, because nothing that was shown added anything meaningful to a fan's enjoyment of the game in progress. NESN ran information that the two announcers were regularly giving anyway (batters due up, upcoming Red Sox games) or was showing non-baseball news: NFL headlines or - and this was the absolute worst - very short recaps of political news.

And as far as I could tell, Dave O'Brien and Jerry Remy never - not even once - made reference to this eyesore that fans were forced to endure.

* My partner Laura quickly reminded me about having Remy and Don Orsillo talk at length during home games about the on-going filming of NESN's dating show in Fenway Park. She pointed out that not only was this stupidity wholly unrelated to the game, it was a sexist attempt to get additional female viewers. (I wondered how many women NESN believed would tune into a three-hour game to see five minutes of forced banter about a show that could be watched at some later date without the distraction of a baseball game.)

Here are some screenshots:

That Michael Pineda information was actually worth sharing. I suppose that's why O'Brien and Remy discussed it a few times during the game, rendering this graphic redundant.

NESN repeated this Yankees graphic in the bottom of the fourth. By that time, Aaron Judge had singled and struck out, so his home slugging stat was no longer accurate. (And David Price is a lefty, so why bother telling us what Gary Sanchez slugs against righties?)

This graphic contains a very large (and obvious) mistake. The Angels are not 6-4 in their last 10 games, they are 4-6.

Oakland also has 105 doubles and is tied with Cleveland for third place in the AL. But they are not included. (I see the little "T-3", but no mention of the A's.)

Bonus commercial emerging from the score bug!

This is a great example of how behind the times NESN is. Telling us a reliever's W-L record (one of which is 0-0)? And why is games played important? NESN showed us AL WHIP Leaders earlier, so why not give the WHIP and K/BB ratios of these relievers?

This is what totally set me off. News headlines? Are you fucking kidding me?

Comey was scheduled to testify? For god's sake, it's after 9:00 PM, why not tell us about the testimony he gave about 12 hours ago (if you really have to tell us something)? Nope, just provide a fact that everyone who gives a shit already knew several days ago. Also, that uncapitalized "had" in the second note bothered me.

What non-baseball stuff will NESN inflict on us tomorrow night? Updates on various Kardashians/Jenners? Summer fashion tips? Top-grossing movies from last week?

What, you weren't begging to know when the last Red Sox pinch-hit grand slam was? ... And there is plenty of empty space to include each player's first name.

NESN Director: "The Red Sox are losing 7-1 in the eighth inning. What important information should we pass along to the fans? Oh, I know! Some stats about our closer - who has about as much chance of pitching in this game as I do."

"Red Sox are 24-1 When [Kimbrel] Pitches" Man, I love this! Well, then, they should let him pitch to one batter every game, right? They'd finish like 157-5! Why doesn't that idiot Farrell do this?

Besides what is shown in the screencaps, here is a partial list of some of the other information NESN shared:

Red Sox Due Up
Yankees Due Up
Injury Latest
AL Runs Leaders (only the top three each time because NESN showed a picture of each player)
AL WHIP Leaders
Red Sox Road Ahead*
AL Triples Leaders
AL Stolen Base Leaders
AL Wins Leaders
AL East Standings
AL Strikeout Leaders
AL Opp. Avg. Leaders
New England Patriots Schedule (first four weeks)
NFL/Patriots News
Red Sox Record On Get Away Days

* Red Sox Road Ahead was shown in the bottom of the third and the bottom of the fourth (when the Yankees, not the Red Sox, were batting). This was in addition to the regular spot about "the road ahead" that Dave O'Brien does during every game at least once, if not twice. I think the graphic was shown a couple more times after the fourth.

NESN also resurrected the lame "Stay At The Park" feature. "See what goes on between innings." And then the commercial takes up 85-90% of the screen. ... So what cool behind-the-scenes stuff do we see? Players on one team standing in the dugout. Players on the other team standing in the field. The pitcher on the mound is throwing warm-up pitches. WOW!

What are the most important things to do when broadcasting a baseball game?

1. Show every pitch.

2. When the ball is hit, show where it goes.

3. When the ball is thrown, show where it goes.

4. When a player catches the ball, show that.

5. When there is a close play at a base, show that.

Re #5, here is an example of what NOT to do: If a baserunner is on third and the batter lines a probable double into the gap, do not cut away from a possible close play at second to show the runner stepping on home plate. The announcer can say that runner has scored (most fans will know he has scored anyway). (NESN has done this more times that I can count - and has missed bangbang plays at second base because of it.)

NESN has shown - night after night after season after season - that it cannot properly broadcast a baseball game. The network often comes back from commercials too late and misses one or two pitches. Its cameramen cannot judge the depth of many fly balls and we are sometimes are shown the bleachers when an outfielder is making a catch in front of the warning track. To compensate, NESN now often tracks fly balls with such a wide shot of the outfield (so they don't focus on the wrong outfielder) that the players look like ants and the ball is very hard to see. (I have a 44-inch TV, by the way.) NESN routinely is caught napping on pickoff attempts to first.

As I said in an email to NESN, sent during the game: "NESN should work on trying to show every pitch of the game - which it consistently fails to do, even tonight - before adding any bells and whistles." Mastering the basics should be the first step. And NESN remains a long way from graduating from that class.

I urge everyone who was bothered by this annoying addition to let NESN know: Click sports@nesn.com.

G59: Yankees 9, Red Sox 1

Red Sox - 000 100 000 - 1  4  0
Yankees - 013 021 02x - 9 13  1

By the eighth inning of this game, I was considering switching to YES so I didn't have to hear so much Yankee gushing. In all three games of this series, NESN's play-by-play man Dave O'Brien acted like he was promised an extra $50 each time he mentioned how amazing Aaron Judge is. (And he decided to be very greedy.)

OB saved some praise for Michael Pineda (7-4-1-2-8, 110) - and at least those accolades were justified. Pineda shut down the Red Sox's bats as effectively as CC Sabathia did on Wednesday. Boston had four hits: two infield hits, one bunt single, and one hard grounder that caromed off the second base bag.

Xander Bogaerts scored the only Red Sox run. He reached first on a throwing error by third baseman Chase Headley, went to second on Mitch Moreland's bunt single, took third when Hanley Ramirez hit into a double play, and scored on a passed ball. Not exactly a shining example of a team "manufacturing" a run.

David Price had a very bad night (5-8-6-4-4, 107). He walked two men in the first, allowed two singles and another walk in the second, and was pounded for four runs in the third (on four hits and a walk). Price threw 35 pitches in the third, running his total to 75 at that point. The big blow was a three-run home run by Gary Sanchez, who also took Price deep in the fifth for two more runs.

David Price / Michael Pineda

Betts, RF
Benintendi, LF
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Ramirez, DH
Bradley, CF
Rutledge, 2B
Sandoval, 3B
Vazquez, C

Price pitched very well in his last start, going seven innings and allowing only three hits and one run to the Orioles. In his two starts since returning to the rotation, Price has allowed four runs (but only five hits) in 12 innings.

Pineda's last start - against the Blue Jays in Toronto - was poor, as he gave up 10 hits and walked three, allowing five runs in five innings.

Several Boston batters have hit Pineda well:

Mitch Moreland: 12 PA, 1.599 OPS (though most of the damage was done in 2011)
Jackie Bradley: 17 PA, 1.112 OPS
Mookie Betts:   21 PA, 1.033 OPS
Sandy Leon:      6 PA, 1.167 OPS

Didi Gregorius went 7-for-10 against Price last season.

David Price's Relationship With The Boston Media Is Not Good

David Price told Globe columnist Dan Shaugnessy yesterday that he will be talking to the media only on days he pitches.

I don't talk to the media every day like I did last year and I guess I get blown up for that. But I was honest with everything they asked me last year and I get blown up for that. So they did this to themselves. Talk to me on the day I pitch and that's it. There are no more personal interviews. There are no more asking me questions on a personal level. That's done.

Hours later, after the Red Sox had been routed by the Yankees, Price had a confrontation with Evan Drellich of Comcast SportsNet New England. As Drellich stated, on Boston Sports Tonight:

After the game, Price wasn't happy. He was directly unhappy with me. We had a conversation about it. I prefer not to detail it because I think the conversation was meant to be mostly private. But it was loud enough that most of the reporters overheard it and it will probably be talked about to some extent. My takeaway is that, from both the story and from the conversation I had with him, is he's unhappy with how he's been treated in Boston.

The Herald's Steve Buckley also had an exchange with Price after the game:

Where to begin? Following the Sox' 8-0 loss to the Yankees, as the media was entering a long hallway that leads to the clubhouse, Price asked to speak with former Herald scribe Evan Drellich ...

"Sure," said Drellich, who fell behind as the rest of the group entered manager John Farrell's office. Price already was speaking loudly to Drellich when we entered the office. Kevin Gregg, the Sox media relations director, shooed everyone out of the hallway and into the office then closed the door. We still could hear Price yelling. ...

My hope was to wait to speak with Price and see if this [his decision to restrict media access] indeed was the case. ...

Price informed me that yes, from now on, he'd only talk on days he pitches. He followed with this: "Write whatever the (expletive) you want. Just write it. Whatever the (expletive) you want."

Soon Drellich was back in the room, and he and Price went at it again. When Drellich said something about Price's professionalism, [Rick] Porcello, standing nearby, asked about Drellich's professionalism. ...

The last words I heard from David Price last night were "(Expletive) them! (Expletive) them all. All of them."

Christopher Smith of Masslive.com added some background:

Drellich tweeted several comments about Price during the game, including a quote from Shaughnessy's story and what MLB's Collective Bargaining Agreement recommends to players about speaking with the media.

Was Price looking on Twitter within five minutes after Wednesday's game ended to see what was written about him?

It seems like that is quite possible. Drellich didn't tag Price's Twitter handle in any of the tweets.

He's too sensitive. That's why things haven't gone well for him in Boston. Price pays too much attention and cares way too much about what media members and fans on Twitter think about him. ...

Drew Pomeranz didn't take it personally when several columns were written about how the Red Sox should have rescinded his trade from the Padres.

Rick Porcello didn't snap at the media when his contract was criticized during his disappointing 2015 season. ...

If he truly is done with the media, then just be done. And that means be done reading and listening to everything. Just pitch.

As it turns out, all of this has been reported on the day Price is pitching. So he should be available for questions. Depending on Price's performance against the Yankees, this could get very interesting.

Strike 2: Remy Is Sorry ... That People Felt His Comments Were Offensive

NESN's broadcast of Wednesday's Red Sox-Yankees game began with a second apology from Red Sox analyst Jerry Remy, regarding comments he made the previous night about foreign-born players needing translators. (Remy had first apologized for his comments via Twitter.)

Last night, during the course of the Red Sox-Yankees game, I made some comments that offended a number of people in our audience. I'd like to apologize to my colleagues at NESN, to the Boston Red Sox, but, most importantly, to the fans who were offended by my comments. I sincerely hope you accept my apologies. Thank you very much.

That's a big swing and a miss - for strike two.

Let's look at the core of Remy's two statements:

First: "I sincerely apologize to those who were offended by my comments ..."

Second: "I made some comments that offended a number of people ... I'd like to apologize ... to [those people] who were offended by my comments."

Remy has yet to acknowledge that his comments, which offended a lot of people, were actually offensive. The only descriptions he offers of what he said on the air are "my comments" or "some comments". Remy does not retract anything he said, and he doesn't offer any clarification of his words. All he does is admit that during Tuesday's broadcast, he made "some comments".

Remy notes that "a number of people" found those comments offensive. He doesn't agree or disagree with that characterization; he gives no opinion on whether his words were offensive or not. (As he remarked during the broadcast, "That's just me".)

But Remy wants us to know that he's "sincerely" sorry that those offended people felt the way they did. Now, obviously, Remy has no control over anyone's feelings, so offering his apologies, however sincere they may be, for a listener's emotions doesn't make any sense.

Please note that Remy doesn't say he is sorry for offending these people - that would mean admitting that his comments were offensive, which, it seems clear at this point, he is refusing to do - only that he is sorry they were offended, which, again, is something he cannot control. Remy didn't fall back on the old "if some people were offended" line, but he hasn't strayed too far from it.

Now that Remy has issued two statements, I'm sure that this matter is over and will fade away as the season progresses. (The count on him will remain at 0-2.) But the headlines I have seen today and will see tomorrow - that Remy apologized for his comments - are not entirely accurate.

I am not a mind reader, but after looking closely at what Remy actually said in these two statements, my impression is that he doesn't believe he said anything wrong (or offensive) and is annoyed that people took exception to his words and that he had to say he was sorry when he was not sorry. I have been watching Jerry Remy on my TV screen almost 162 times per year for the last 15 years (that's nearly 2,500 games), and he often talks about himself and his personality, so when I describe him as having a hard, determined look on his face, speaking tersely and looking like he's being forced at gunpoint to deliver the 17-second apology linked above, it's not coming from a place of total ignorance.

G58: Yankees 8, Red Sox 0

Red Sox - 000 000 000 - 0  5  2
Yankees - 001 400 12x - 8 12  0

CC Sabathia (8-5-0-0-5, 95) dominated the Red Sox with ease, allowing one hit in each of the first five innings and then retiring the last 12 batters he faced. Chris Carter drove in four runs, three of them coming on a long home run to left in the fourth inning.

Rick Porcello (6.1-8-6-2-5, 103) set down the first six batters on only 16 pitches before hitting two innings of rough road. Didi Gregorius homered to start the bottom of the third. Porcello gave up singles to Chase Headley and Carter, and a throwing error by third baseman Deven Marrero (on a play that should have had Carter tagged out between first and second) put runners at second and third with no outs. Porcello struck out Brett Gardner and got Aaron Hicks to pop to short, but fell behind Aaron Judge 3-0 before giving him first base. The Yankees left the bases loaded when Matt Holliday flied to right.

Porcello laboured through eight batters and 32 pitches in the fourth. Starlin Castro tripled to center and Gary Sanchez singled him in. Gregorius flied to left, but Headley singled and Carter hit a big shot to left that seemed to travel much more than the announced distance of 404 feet. Porcello walked a man later in the inning, but did not allow any more runs.

Gardner led off the seventh by reaching on a fielding error by Josh Rutledge at second. Gardner stole second and, after Blaine Boyer had taken over on the mound, scored on Holliday's single. Two more runs scored in the eighth as the bottom of the order again did most of the work. (Headley and Carter, the #8 and #9 hitters, were on base six out of eight plate appearances, collecting five hits and scoring three runs. The top four batters, including Hall of Famer Aaron Judge (he was voted in this afternoon, maybe you missed it), went 2-for-17.)

The Red Sox offense was nearly non-existent. Rutledge doubled with two outs in the second and watched as Jackie Bradley struck out. Rutledge tripled to lead off the fifth and was left at third. That's bad, but those were also the only times a Boston baserunner advanced past first base. Sabathia was economical with his pitches too, never throwing more than 15 in an inning: 10-15-12 14-11-8 11-14. He certainly could have finished the game, but that task was given to Jonathan Holder, who got three easy groundouts.

Also: Mookie Betts made a leaping catch at the right field wall, robbing Carter of a second home run, to end the sixth inning. However, when viewers saw the replay, they saw that the ball had actually very obviously hit off a fan's hands before falling into Betts's glove. (It was hard to tell whether the fan reached over the wall into the field of play or whether everything happened beyond the fence.) MLBTV did not cut the commercial break short, so I'm not sure how the discussion started, but the umpires discussed the play while Yankees manager Joe Girardi stood on the field nearby. In the end, the umpires decided to not review the play or to alter the original call.

Rick Porcello / CC Sabathia

Betts, RF
Young, LF
Bogaerts, SS
Ramirez, DH
Travis, 1B
Leon, C
Rutledge, 2B
Bradley, CF
Marrero, 3B

Remy Issues A Non-Apology Apology For Offensive Comments

UPDATE below.

NESN's Jerry Remy has not done the right thing and acknowledged that his comments last night about foreign-born players needing to "learn baseball language" and not rely on translators were wrong.

(Since no language called "baseball" actually exists, we can presume that Remy meant English.)

Remy issued the standard apology-that's-not-really-an-apology: "I'm sorry if anyone was offended blah blah blah ..."

I sincerely apologize to those who were offended by my comments during the telecast last night.

— Jerry Remy (RemDawg) (@Jerry_Remy) June 7, 2017

This is disappointing. I had assumed that there was someone at NESN who would be smart enough to tell Remy how to properly word his apology.

UPDATE: NESN has also issued a statement:

Relative to last night's NESN telecast from New York, NESN does not agree with any such views expressed by Jerry Remy, and we know from talking to Jerry that he regrets making them. The network sincerely apologizes to anyone who was offended by Jerry's comments.

NESN knows that Remy regrets making the comments? Funny, he didn't say he regretted them in his tweeted apology. (I guess that admission was for NESN's ears only.)

Remy: Translators Should Not Be Allowed For Mound Conferences

Jerry Remy has come under fire for making an inappropriate (and possibly racist) comment during NESN's broadcast of Tuesday's Red Sox-Yankees game.

In the fourth inning, New York starter Masahiro Tanaka (who was born in Japan) had given up back-to-back home runs, and Boston led 4-1. Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild and Shingo Horie (a translator for Tanaka) went to the mound for a quick conversation.

From the NESN broadcast:

Jerry Remy: And it looks like they are taking the trainer and the pitching coach out to take a look at Tanaka. ...

Dave O'Brien: It was a relatively quick conversation. Larry Rothchild along with the translator.

Remy: Oh, that's what it was. The translator. I had that wrong. I thought it was the trainer going out there, but I forgot with Tanaka they take out a translator. I don't think that should be legal.

O'Brien: Seriously?

Remy: I really don't.

O'Brien: ... What is it you don't like about that?

Remy: [two seconds of silence] Umm. [three more seconds of silence] Learn baseball language. You know, it's pretty simple. I mean, you break it down pretty easy between pitching coach and pitcher after a long period of time.

O'Brien: [seven seconds of silence] I would say that probably, you know, they're concerned about nuance being lost in some of these conversations, wanting to get it right, one hundred percent, although it was a very quick conversation, as we noted. ...

Remy: I'm probably in a minority on that, you know, my feeling, I just don't think, I don't think it's necessary. I don't know. That's just me.

O'Brien: I know John Farrell has made an effort to learn some Japanese.

Remy: Right.

O'Brien: And a lot of pitching coaches have done that. John was a pitching coach back when Daisuke [Matsuzaka] was a member of the staff. The Red Sox did a lot of things, actually, to bend over backwards for him.

("Bend over backwards"??)

News of Remy's comments was quickly up on the New York Post and New York Daily News websites. The Post asked: "Did Red Sox commentator Jerry Remy really just say that in 2017?" ... The Daily News was not overly impressed with O'Brien's response, stating that O'Brien "slightly challenged the thought".

MLB has permitted translators to join mound conferences since 2013.

An ESPN report stated that after the game, Remy had nothing more to say. "I've got no comment on that. Really." He may find himself being forced to say something tomorrow.