For just the second time this season, your Boston Red Sox have won the first game of a series. Yes, you read that correctly: for just the second time this season, your Boston Red Sox have won the first game of a series. One might say that this is the Red Sox’ biggest series versus the Tampa Bay Rays since 2013. A wise person would say that (me). They’ve started said big series off with a bang against probably the current hottest team in Major League Baseball.
Eduardo Rodriguez took the mound this evening for Boston after coming off of a hot last start against the Baltimore Orioles and, for the most part, put up a solid showing against a hot Tampa offense. Rodriguez struggled right off the bat in the first inning, walking the first batter he faced, letting up a hit with no outs and throwing 26 pitches in the process. After giving up the hit he got three straight batters out, but that first inning by E-Rod sure felt like something awful was being foreshadowed. That intuition came somewhat to fruition. In the second inning, Rodriguez gave up a solo home run to second baseman Brandon Lowe and then gave up a triple in the third inning to right fielder Avisail Garcia to make it 2-0 Devil Rays (they are the Devil Rays and I don’t care what you think/say) by the end of the third inning. Not great! To make matters worse, Jackie Bradley, Jr. attempted to make a diving catch on that hit by Garcia and was off by quite the wide margin. Bradley’s effort was applaudable and needed, but this sight only added insult to injury at that moment in time:
Meanwhile, Red Sox’ bats were no-hit by Tampa Bay pitchers up until there was one out in the fifth inning and boy did that STINK. Tampa opted to go with the opener/bullpen game today and in total threw six pitchers out there and frankly, all of them stunk out loud.
Through 4.1 innings, Tampa’s pitchers had zero velocity and were throwing meatballs for the most part, essentially asking Boston to publicly beat them up, but the Red Sox collectively declined. And it was embarrassing. BUT, have no fear: Devers is here! On a NON-SCHOOL NIGHT! The thirteen-year-old Red Sox third baseman launched an absolute rocket of an RBI double into the right-center gap to score JD Martinez and make it 2-1 and from this point on, Boston’s bats were hot, hot, hot. Christian Vazquez decided to join in on the fun in one helluva fifth inning, too, and launch one of his signature Moon Bombs™ into the empty Tropicana seats to take the lead and make it a 3-2 ballgame with zero regard for human life. With that two-run bomb, Vazquez has already hit a total of four home runs this season – it’s only April 19th. To put that into perspective, he hit only three home runs in all of 2018 and is one home run away from tying his career-high. Vazqy is a goddamn animal and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Rafael Devers is one roller coaster of a teenage boy and that scientific fact was on display this evening. In the bottom of the fifth, Devers made a sensational grab to assist in turning a much-needed double play to end the inning, flashing some mad leather in the midst of it. Just check this out:
pic.twitter.com/TPROOx9LkO
— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) April 20, 2019
This further made me want to rip the craniums off of the heads of those self-proclaimed “Red Sox” fans who wish to have Devers forcibly stripped away from third base in order to cater to Michael Chavis. To that, I say ARE YOU CRAZY, YOU SICK TOADS?! How DARE they, those imbeciles. Devers is long-proven better than Chavis, obviously. Why take him away from the position he’s been playing all of his life, and a position he is desperately trying to play more consistently at? He’s had a bumpy season thus far in the hot corner and benching him/playing him elsewhere in the infield can only stir up a heap of trouble that Boston simply does not need right now when they’re already six games under .500 to begin this young season.
Not much longer after Devers’ masterful grab and toss at third base, he commits an extremely costly error in the sixth inning which promptly caused a meltdown through the rest of the inning. Devers fudged a routine double play, letting the ball roll between his legs and rushing the play, committing his sixth total error of the season, the most by any third baseman in the league up to this point. In the moments after Devers’ seemingly costly flub, it quickly turned costly as Rodriguez gave up a 2-RBI double to tie the game at four in the sixth. E-Rod finished his night with a line of 5.1 innings pitched, 7 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 walk and 6 strikeouts, looking much worse on paper than it actually was mostly thanks to Devers’ ever-inconsistent hot corner defense at the end of his outing.
For both the player’s sake and the entire team’s sake, Devers desperately needs to play at least somewhat consistent defense. I feel like the defensive story of his young career is this: he makes an above-average amount of flashy, highlight reel-worthy plays when they don’t necessarily matter, but he screws up the routine plays when they do necessarily matter. At this point, it’s getting old. He’s been in the majors for long enough and has had consistent playing time in the majors for long enough to the point where these silly, costly mistakes should be a rare occurrence. To this point, they are a somewhat common occurrence and that simply needs to change, again, for his and the organization’s sake. My point in regards to him and Chavis still stands: Devers deserves to stay at third in order to continue to grow as a third baseman, but I just pray that he does continue to grow as a third baseman and that these mistakes on routine ground balls become a thing of the past and not a commonality.
Before the mess that Devers created in the bottom of the sixth, Boston’s bats did some much-needed damage in the top of the sixth. For the first time in eight games, Mookie Betts hit his first extra-base hit, a streak that he only managed once all of last season. Betts recorded a double and was soon driven in by Martinez shortly after reaching base to tack another run on the board and make it 4-2. I must take a second to discuss the power that JD has shown this season. We all know that this man’s strength is quite literally off the charts but man, he has mashed some balls, most of them for outs, in the Lord’s year of 2019. He is, more than usual, upping the exit velocity on many of his hits even if they don’t get him on base. I know that in due time these balls will start leaving the park but man, it really is something else, having the privilege of watching that man hit baseballs while donning a Boston Red Sox uniform. Mmmmf.
Brandon Workman replaced Rodriguez in the sixth inning and only had to throw two pitches before he forced a double play ball and got out of the inning, saving E-Rod from any more damage that would have gone directly to his pitching line. The top of the seventh inning was another magical inning for Boston’s bats. I truly felt like Mookie’s double was going to flip some sort of switch inside of him, whether the switch was to be flipped tonight or tomorrow. Turns out that switch flipped just a few moments later. Betts totally crushed a solo home run into the stands to re-take the lead and make it 5-4, coming in absolutely clutch for really the first time this season. This was just his third dong of the season but this was the first one that felt purely, utterly Mookie. If that makes any sense. Just watch his swing and maybe you’ll understand what I mean:
THAT is purely, utterly Mookie. That sweet, sweet swing is unlike anything else. Just by watching that clip you can tell how much he was feeling it, feeling himself, probably for the first time this season. God, I love it.
Just moments after Mookie’s dong, Mitch Moreland sent a ball into the stands, too, marking the first time this season that the Red Sox have hit back-to-back home runs. It took twenty games but they did it. Mitchell Quad Sacks mashed his sixth homer of the season to make it 6-4 in the seventh inning and man, did it feel good. Boston’s bats have reclaimed their bullshit and are officially back on it, hopefully for good. Don’t you dare lose that bullshit, fellas, you take control of it like you mean it.
Betts’ home run recorded a 103 mile-per-hour exit velocity and Moreland’s recorded 101, absolutely destroying Tampa’s Diego Castillo who couldn’t even record an out before manager Kevin Cash rushed his ass directly off the mound after singlehandedly letting the game get away from the entire team. The poor guy gave it his best but he did not succeed.
The Red Sox had the game all the way until the end and Ryan “Head Tilts McGee” Brasier recorded the save, giving the Red Sox their SEVENTH (7th) win of the year. Wooo baby, do not let them Sox get hot. Boston remains last in the American League East with a 7-13 record but I will gladly take that win any day of the week.
This series is more or less a make-or-break series for Boston. If they had gotten swept or if they lose this series to the number one team in their division right now, they will have one hell of a difficult time trying to climb back up the standings for the foreseeable future. It’s going to be hard enough as it is with a .350 winning percentage but this could be a start. If the Red Sox win this series, they would get their first series win of 2019 – only Boston and the godawful, tanking Miami Marlins are the only teams in baseball without a series win so far. They’re late bloomers, what can I say. Seriously though, all I’m asking is for the Red Sox to pull this out of their ass and go back home with their first series win. That would be massive and I’m cautiously optimistic that they might be able to manage it. Keyword: might. Let’s go Sox.
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