Hey there, my beloved reader! As you may or may not have seen, I’m going to be doing recaps/reactions/whatever-you’d-like-to-call-its now that the long-awaited 11-game west coast road trip to kick off the 2019 Boston Red Stockings regular season has come to a close. I can’t lie, I haven’t watched the majority of these eleven games. Yes, please feel free to boo me. I deserve it. ALTHOUGH, as a senior in high school who stayed home for a total of seven days in my first semester, I cannot afford to be slacking right now during the home stretch. So, naturally, I’ve been a bad Red Sox fan who has slept through all of the late starts so far this season. Considering how there won’t be another 10:00 PM start until late August, I can finally return to being the obnoxious fan that I have always been PLUS an entire reaction/recap blog to go along with everything else I have to offer!
Disclaimer, who’s to say that school won’t prevent me from doing these on a daily (game-ly?) basis, so I will not be promising to formulate one of these after every single Sox game. Apologies in advance for that, if anyone even gives half of a hoot. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this new content I’ll be sharing with you in hopes of gaining even more of a resume before I even enter college as a communications major in hopes of becoming a baseball beat writer (not-so-subtle flex but ok)!
Folks, we as a fanbase can EXHALE at last. The painful, horrendous, essentially embarrassing eleven-game west coast road trip has ENDED. Rejoice. Celebrate. At last, your Boston Red Sox are hopping on the plane and heading 2,680 miles east back home to Boston with a…3-8 record. Less than ideal, if you ask me! Hear me out, though. This final game of the trip was extremely encouraging. THEY WON! For the first time this season, the Red Sox led in the ninth inning AND they won (!!!!!!). This was far and away the team’s best collective pitching performance this season, all thanks to none other than Hector “Neck Tats” Velazquez, who wasn’t even supposed to start today, provided Boston with a quality start, went just three innings, but three very efficient and encouraging innings. Despite going just three innings (three strikeouts, one hit, no walks), he became the first Sox starter this season to put up a scoreless showing. It only took eleven games and it came during a scheduled bullpen day and the sixth pitcher only went three innings, but WOOOOOOH MAMA did it feel good to see a Red Sox pitcher hit his spots, have velocity, use all of his pitches properly and successfully and GIVE UP NO RUNS!!!! Just how Alex Cora and Dana LeVangie drew it up.
Arizona starter Merrill Kelly held the Sox’ bats in check for over seven innings until none other than Mitch Moreland, AKA Mitchell Quad Sacks, AKA steak and puhtaydas, took that man deep for a solo shot, finally putting either team on the board after two-thirds of a game with zero offense. Kelly (now I’m thinking about none other than our dear Joseph Kelly and I’m sad) pitched an outstanding eight innings, giving up just that one run along with four hits and recorded a whopping nine strikeouts. The only other truly notable offensive moment from this game, besides the Sox loading up the bases in the ninth inning and doing nothing about it, was Andrew Benintendi extending his hitting streak to six. Boston’s now leadoff hitter has more or less carried the team’s lowly offense this season with the help of JD Martinez and Moreland, even while dealing with a surely sore left knee that he hit a ball off of on March 30.
Isn’t it funny how Boston’s bullpen has been the brightest star thus far this season when it was, on paper, the biggest question mark going into spring training and to start the season? With another outstanding showing, their bullpen kept the team’s first shutout of the year intact, four different relievers getting the job done in spectacular fashion. Brandon Workman took over for Velazquez in the fourth inning and pitched a clean sheet. Marcus Walden, or as I like to call him, Marcus Weapon, pitched two innings after that, giving the Sox their first scare of the day when he quickly gave up a leadoff double and put two runners on the corners in the fifth inning. Bogaerts was responsible for the biggest, most important play of the game, gunning down the man running home to keep the score 0-0 with an equally beautiful and patient. Matt Barnes pitched the seventh and eighth, throwing another clean sheet, and the village psychopath, Ryan Brasier, closed out the win, but not without giving us one more scare for good measure. Brasier struck out the first man he faced but let up a double to David Peralta, mistakably grooving a fastball to the heavy hitter. Nonetheless, Mr. Neck Tilt got the job done and the Red Sox are boarding the plane on a high note.
To say the least, this entire game was, for lack of a better term, interesting. I mean, just as we all expected, Hector Velazquez became the first starter this season to pitch a scoreless start and Workman, Walden, Barnes and Brasier banded together to complete the shutout. Of course the best collective pitching performance by this ballclub so far came on a bullpen day. This performance was simply a reminder that the starters’ downright embarrassing start to this season has nothing to do with the catchers. Christian Vazquez has been fine. So has Blake Swihart. It all comes down to a matter of the starters simply hitting their spots, something they have not been able to do so far. Not to mention, Swihart called an excellent game this afternoon. He got utterly beat up behind the plate but he was the main reason this team won today. He deserves so much more praise than he has received and receives in the present day.
Another reason why this game was so interesting was how Cora managed it overall. I found it particularly noteworthy how he opted to bat both Walden AND Barnes when Mookie Betts was available off the bench on a scheduled rest day. I was admittedly concerned when I saw that Walden was stepping up to the plate to lead off in the sixth inning and even more so when Barnes hit in the eighth, too. To top it all off, Cora put Betts in as a defensive replacement for Martinez in right field in the bottom of the ninth. After all of the heat that Cora has taken by both the media and the fans to begin the season, he rightfully shoved this 1-0 win in our faces with these decisions throughout the game. This is why I love MY manager, Jose Alexander Cora (no, his first name is NOT Alex. I’m dumbfounded right now).
A 3-8 start to the season is not what anyone expected. It’s not the ideal position to be in, by any means. Regardless, in times like these, we must seek out the positives and think logically. Remember: Boston’s 2019 season began with an ELEVEN-GAME ROAD TRIP. This has never happened before in franchise history. These guys haven’t slept in their own beds in months. They haven’t played with their children or talked to their significant others in their own home in months. I forgive them for this putrid start, as homer-ish as it sounds. I’m a homer and I’m proud, but I like to think I’m logical, too. Now, if this poor play continues, I will not be as forgiving. For the time being, I am, and you should be, too. Having off days on Monday and Wednesday this coming week will do these guys wonders and I’d be willing to guarantee that. I fully expect the entirety of this team to perform lightyears better than they have these past eleven games and for example, I fully expect to see Chris Sale’s velocity heightened on Tuesday’s home opener against Toronto. Don’t be quick to forget that Cora strategically planned out his team’s slow start to the 2018 season, too, and we all know how that worked out. I don’t think they’ll run away with every single thing this season like they did last year, but I’m extremely confident in saying that they will be fine. It’s one thing to be critical of the team and it’s an entirely different thing to completely give up on the team after eleven games when said team has yet to play a home game. Rant OVER. 11-game road trip OVER. The season finally begins on Tuesday. Let’s get it.
P.S. This Arizona series reminded me that Major League Baseball cannot convert to having a universal DH fast enough. Seeing two pitchers bat for the first time in their professional career today was not needed. I don’t know how NL fans do it.
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