Well, that game stunk out loud. What a waste of a beautiful, sunny 75 degree New England day. I stayed cooped up inside and watched the Red Sox get shellacked by a tanking team during the peak sun hours of the nicest day in God knows how long. Sad!
Frederick Alfred Porcello did not, in fact, build off of Eduardo Rodriguez’s phenomenal winning start from last night this afternoon. He did just about the polar opposite. In just 4 innings pitched, 90 pitches thrown and just 48 for strikes Porcello gave up 3 earned runs, 6 hits and 5 walks and only recorded 2 strikeouts. He had absolutely no command of any of his pitches this afternoon, especially his offspeed stuff, which explains the number of free bases he allowed in this outing. Here’s a wild Porcello walks stat: Porcello has walked 3+ batters in all three of his starts this season, marking the second time in his career that he has walked at least three batters in three straight games (4 on March 31, 3 on April 5, 5 on April 13). The first time came back in 2010 when he was just 21 years old. In just 11.1 innings pitched this season he has allowed 12 walks. He has never walked more than 12 batters in /one month/ with the Red Sox. Y I K E S!
Really, the only stat you need to know from this game is that Chris Davis ended his 0-54 hitless streak this afternoon. He recorded three hits, two of which were double, and 4 RBI. I mean, what the fuck, honestly. Of all of the negative things that have taken place so far this season, I think that one stings the most. Davis’ first hit to officially break his streak came in the first inning with the bases loaded, scoring two runs, his first hit since September 14 of last year. Again: what the fuck, honestly. So many people called it on Twitter. We all had a sneaking suspicion that Davis would find a way to get a hit at some point in this series, and what better than doing so off of a Red Sox starter. Porcello didn’t give up a home run, so I guess that’s good…right?
The only positive, I guess, from Porcello’s outing this afternoon was that he left seven men stranded and only gave up three runs, one of which Heath Hembree allowed home in relief. He is awfully lucky that only three scored off of him. It felt like he should have been absolutely beaten to death seeing how many men he allowed to reach base either via walks or actual hits. At the end of the day, he did keep the Red Sox in the game through the entirety of his outing even if he only did pitch 4+ innings. In the second inning, Porcello got himself out of a bases-loaded jam to keep the score 2-0 The bullpen is what eliminated the Sox from even remotely having a chance.
As I mentioned, Hembree relieved Porcello in the fifth inning with two on and no outs. In a matter of seconds, Hembree allowed a hit and a run to score, giving Porcello his third earned run of the game. Let me tell you, I am quite sick of Hembree being employed by my favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Stockings. He did get himself out of the jam after allowing the run to score, but I still detest this man. This guy has been with the Red Sox since 2014 and has been a negative the entire time. I understood John Farrell’s love for him, because John Farrell was not a good manager and in no way could manage a major league bullpen. As for Alex Cora, he has no reason to put Heath Hembree of all people in so many high-leverage situations. He has been wildly inconsistent for years and has never shown genuine signs of improvement over an acceptable span of time. I would understand going to him if the rest of the bullpen sucked but honestly, at this point, Hembree is one of the worse options Cora has to choose from this arsenal, especially based on each individual reliever’s performances this season.
I was quick to rave about Colten Brewer but he quickly made me rescind my positivity towards him this afternoon. Brewer replaced Hembree for the sixth inning and failed to record an out. Not great! Brewer came in with down by just a run, 3-2, and managed to allow FOUR RUNS without recording a single out. Four. It went from 4-2, to 5-2, then I left the room for a couple of minutes to check on my cat and returned to a score of 7-2. A synopsis of how one of the four runs were scored in the sixth inning: Xander Bogaerts and Dustin Pedroia let a ball roll directly through them, then JD Martinez threw to the wrong base and then neither Bogaerts or Pedroia cut the ball off which allowed a run to score. Less than ideal. The 2019 Red Sox’ favorite hobby is doing the small things as poorly as they possibly can. Bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off (it’s not).
The little things have truly slaughtered the Red Sox this year. Walks have been Boston pitchers’ kryptonite – in this game alone, they combined to allow nine runs on 13 hits and 8 walks. We all know how their starters alone have allowed upwards of 20 home runs this season. Boston’s defense has had little to be desired, too. Mookie Betts’ defense, in particular, has severely steeply declined from last season. His communication, mainly with Jackie Bradley Jr., has been notably poor, something very much out of the norm for Betts. In this game, he dropped a ball that he jumped for but probably should have held on to based on his defensive skill and talent. The infield defense as a whole has struggled, routinely letting dribblers and ground balls slip right past and/or through them, making poor decisions in regards to throwing to one base versus the other, generally tripping over their own feet when it comes to rather simple baseball plays. The seventh inning of this game displayed these particular infield fiascos. Steve Pearce, the birthday boy, let a grounder roll right through him which allowed a run to score, making it 8-3 at the time. Not soon after in that same inning, Rafael Devers bobbled a similar ground ball and hesitated to throw to home plate when he should have and instead threw to second base, also allowing a run to score to make it 9-3. Essentially a microcosm of the Red Sox this year, collectively.
Christian Vazquez was Boston’s lone offensive star this afternoon despite batting ninth, recording two hits and four RBI. Vazquez launched a no-doubter home run over the Green Monster in the third inning to tie the game up at 2. Every home run he has hit in his Major League Baseball career (11) has been a hard-hit no-doubter. There’s no need to fact-check this, it’s simply a scientific fact. I also like to think that Vazquez was simply rubbing his stellar health in the face of fellow AL East catcher Gary Sanchez with this performance, who was placed on the 10-day IL with a calf strain. Later on in the seventh inning, Vazquez scraped a double off the wall to score two and finally bring the score to the final of 9-5.
The only other true offensive Red Sox notes from this game I can provide are as followed. The Red Sox were one-hit by Orioles starter Andrew Cashner through five innings, a pitcher who notably sucks. Like, sucks a lot. To further put things in perspective, the Red Sox were out-hit by Chris Davis 2-1 until the sixth inning. That’s honestly it. This was just an all-around sucky game, especially from Boston’s bats, once more. Sigh.
This game overall depicted the 2019 Red Sox in a nutshell. The starting pitching blew, the bullpen was spotty at best and further put the team in a hole, the defense was generally awful both infield and outfield and the majority of the lineup was cold. The team seemed out of it right off the bat at 1:05 PM. I expected a bit more out of them considering the win they put together just last night. Here’s to a pleasant Sunday afternoon of Red Sox baseball.
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