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Sale’s “Blueprint” For Success

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After dropping the first game of the series with the Rays, the Red Sox bounced back Saturday to even things up with 6-3 win.

Saturday’s game, originally scheduled for 7:10 PM, got underway early instead to beat the rain that’s headed this way. The 1:10 PM start time, however, didn’t change Chris Sale‘s plan for dominating the game. Sale worked 7.0 strong innings, allowing just two hits (albeit home runs), walking two and striking out twelve. He has now gone to at least seven innings in all but one of his eight starts this season.

The home runs Sale allowed were the 116th and 117th of his career but just the 9th and 10th given up to lefty batters.

Most galling to Sale, it seemed, was Kevin Kiermaier‘s two-run, fifth inning blast that gave up Boston’s 2-1 lead and came on an 0-2 count. “It’s not what I’m looking for, especially against lefties,” Sale said after the game “One of them was 0-2, that’s about as bad as it gets.” Indeed, it was the first ever 0-2 home run allowed to a lefty in Sale’s career. He hadn’t allowed an 0-2 home run to any batter since Mike Aviles managed one on September 7, 2015 with the Indians.

Sox Come Right Back

But Boston’s offense got back into gear today, immediately erasing the deficit in the bottom of that same inning. As importantly, the offense came from the bottom of the order starting with a Sandy León walk and three straight doubles by Jackie Bradley, Deven Marrero, and Mookie Betts. Xander Bogaerts then drove in Betts, who had already homered in the 3rd inning of the game. By the end of the fifth it was a 6-3 Red Sox lead.

Sale went back to the mound for a couple innings, finishing the day with 7.0 IP of work and 12 strikeouts, including at least one for every Rays starter. Joe Kelly, working in relief, supplied another solid inning. Kelly has not allowed an earned run over his last 16.2 innings (15 games) at Fenway dating to last September 13. Craig Kimbrel closed things down with his 11th save of the season. Both added two more strikeouts to the team tally.

In all, it would be the third Red Sox game this season with 15+ opponent strikeouts. Only the Mets have more such games (4).

Afterwards, Manager John Farrell said Sale is consistent: “[Today was] almost a carbon copy of each of the six previous starts, with the exception of a couple pitches that leave the ballpark.” Farrell said Sale’s blueprint for success is simple, “A lot swing and miss, competitive, quick pace, deep into games, it’s a blueprint of the other six starts.”

Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley’s 2-for-3 day with a walk and a double had to feel good. Bradley was just 3-for-27 (.111) in May before today and had been left out of three games in favor of the hot-hitting Chris Young.  “I thought one of the more encouraging swings of the day,” Farrell said post-game, “was the double the [Bradley] hit down the left field line…Hopefully, as he gains a little personal momentum, it changes the dynamic of the bottom third of the order.”

Andrew Benintenti, 0-for-3 today with a walk, is now hitless in his last 15 at-bats. His AVG is still at .302 after reaching .339 on the just-completed road trip where we was 10-for-28 (.357) with three doubles and seven runs batted in.


Rodríguez, Kimbrel, Betts Key to Red Sox Win

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It looked for a bit as though it wasn’t meant to be, but the Red Sox managed to squeak out a win over the Brewers on Thursday afternoon, 4-1. 

The win was significant in that it keeps Boston above .500 (they’re now 18-16) and avoided the club’s first three-game sweep in Milwaukee in over 30 years (April 6-9, 1987).

The Red Sox have traditionally played well in Interleague games. They haven’t lost three straight against the National League since dropping six consecutive Interleague contests in 2002 (against the Braves and Dodgers).

Winning Thursday also kept Boston’s road trip from being a losing affair. The Sox head back home to Fenway Park at 3-3 after the visit to the Twins and Brewers. 

Boston gained a half-game on the Orioles, who were rained out on Thursday, and gained a full game on New York, who fell to the Astros 3-2. The Sox now trail the Orioles by 4½ games and are in third place in the American League East behind the surprisingly resilient Yankees.

 

A Win In Three Acts

Thursday’s was really a game in three acts.

Act I began with starter Eduardo Rodríguez, who was robbed from a win, yet again, by another lackluster offensive performance. E-Rod went 6.0 IP allowing just one hit, a meaningless first-inning double, through 5.0 innings. When he was lifted, Rodríguez had thrown just 87 pitches, walked none, and struck out five. He allowed one earned run coming on two hits in the 6th, one by Manny Piña and the other a run-scoring, game-tying double by Jonathan Villar.

Again and again, Rodríguez faced the minimum number of men in the inning. Three up, three down in the second, third, fourth, and fifth innings.

Through it all the Sox mustered one meager run when Mookie Betts doubled to start the game and came around the score on a Milwaukee error.

Late Life

In the eighth inning, after the promising start, the Sox offense just looked terrible.

Dustin Pedroia led off the inning with a double. Xander Bogaerts then singled and stole second. Andrew Benintendi, now 0-for-his-last-9, popped out, but Mitch Moreland walked to load the bases. Under pressure, though, Brewers reliever Corey Knebel delivered with back-to-back strikeouts of Jackie Bradley and Josh Rutledge and the Sox’ most promising opportunity went by the board.

The bottom of the eighth was the start of Act II.

With the game still tied and after Matt Barnes had allowed a one out Milwaukee walk and a single in the ninth, Manager John Farrell turned to Craig Kimbrel. And once again, Kimbrel delivered, striking out the powerful Brewers home run leader, Eric Thames, and then similarly striking out Keon Broxton.

The stars of Act III were Betts and Kimbrel. Thanks to another Brewers error, the Sox got the number eight and number nine hitters on base in front on Betts, who pounded a no-doubt, 401-foot home run to left center field. It was Mookie’s first ninth inning, tie-breaking home run since he did the same against the Mariners last August 1st. That solo shot also broke a 1-1 tie.

Betts’ six-game road trip ends with him 11-for-26 for a club-best .423 AVG with five walks, five doubles, three home runs, and nine RBI over the stretch.

When Kimbrel came on to finish the game in the bottom of the ninth, he was amped up and indomitable. Three batters, nine pitches, all strikes.

“He throws two-thirds of an inning, comes out and strikes out the side in nine pitches,” Farrell said after the game. “Those are really uncommon things that play out. He’s in a great spot, doing a great job.”

The Red Sox face the 17-20 Rays at home this weekend before heading out again to visit St. Louis and Oakland.


Red Sox Offense Running Cold

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Much has already been said and written about the dearth of Red Sox home runs this season. Entering Tuesday’s action the Sox have stroked just 27 home runs, despite hitting 10 over their previous four games. Boston’s eight home runs on Saturday and Sunday were their most in back-to-back games since last July 20-21 when they also hit eight facing the Twins and Giants.

And yet despite the recent explosion in power, the Sox’ 27 are the fewest HRs in the American League and the second fewest in all of baseball after the Giants (21). For the past 17 seasons (2000-2016), the Sox have averaged nearly 34 home runs over their first 31 games with a club high of 42 in that time for both the 2002 and 2010 seasons, but not anywhere near that this year.

Boston’s near outage in dingers has impacted runs scored so far. The Sox’ 138 runs scored as of the start of this week is the club’s fourth fewest since 2000. 

Sox Behind Club Averages Since 2000

But it’s not just home runs. As the table shown here illustrates, despite a solid batting average and except for a few aberrant games, the 2017 Red Sox are tracking below club averages for most offensive categories since 2000. Even counting Mitch Moreland‘s MLB-leading doubles count, Boston’s doubles through the first 31 games of the season is under 60 for just the fourth time since 2000.

When they have come, Red Sox home runs have been slanted to solo shots. Nearly 60% of the club’s 27 roundtrippers this season have come with the bases empty. Contrast that to the Yankees who have belted 48 home runs through Sunday’s action with an MLB-best 65% of them coming with at least one man on the base. 

Red Sox offense showed a strong uptick in the just-completed series against the Twins and, despite the loss to the Brewers on Tuesday, the club managed to tally seven runs on 12 hits. You might reasonably expect a win with that kind of production but on Tuesday it wasn’t enough, as Drew Pomeranz coughed up five first-inning runs and relievers Heath Hembree and Ben Taylor allowed five more over just 1.1 innings of combined relief work. 


Sale Tops MLB in K’s and More

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With 10 more strikeouts on Sunday, Red Sox starter Chris Sale now has 73 this season. That’s 13 more than this year’s second place pitcher for strikeouts, the Mets Jacob deGrom (60). Sale is averaging 12.72 strikeouts per 9.0 innings pitched, the best ratio among all Major League hurlers (minimum 35.0 IP). 

Sale’s 2.3 Wins About Replacement (WAR) rating is tops among baseball pitchers and fourth best among all players. He’s allowing just 5.226 hits per 9.0 IP (2nd best in MLB to Ervin Santana) while his 6.636 strikeout-to-walk ratio is fourth best overall. Sale’s 1.43 FIP is the best in baseball. As Fangraphs.com explains, FIP or Fielding Independent Pitching measures pitcher performance while stripping out the role of defense and luck, making it a more stable indicator pitcher performance than a runs-allowed based statistics that are highly dependent on the quality of defense, for example. 

Sale’s Strikeout Streak

Sunday’s was Sale’s seventh straight start with 10 or more strikeouts this season making him one of just five MLB pitchers since 1913 to ring up such a streak in a single season. The others are elite company, indeed: Hall of Famers Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, and Nolan Ryan, and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw.

Comparisons with Pedro have been frequent this season as Sale has been dominant in practically every Sox outing. As it turns out, Sale and Martinez already share the MLB record for most games in a single season with 10+ strikeouts (eight games each). Pedro’s streak came August 19 to September 27, 1999. Sales’ was from May 23 to June 30, 2015.

The Great Martinez does all past MLB pitchers one better, however. Pedro’s string of games with 10+ strikeouts can be as many as ten straight if you count across seasonal barriers. That happened when Martinez’ streak that began that August in 1999 continued into his first two starts of 2000, when he collected 11 and 12 strikeouts on April 4 and April 9, 2000, respectively.


Red Sox In Offensive Explosion

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Despite what looked a decent enough lead, there seemed little doubt that momentum had shifted and that the Red Sox were heading for a defeat shortly after the Twins’ half of the 8th inning opened on Sunday. 

That pivotal 8th inning began with Boston up 7-4 but the bullpen pair of Matt Barnes and Robby Scott couldn’t hold on. Minnesota scored twice and then, with just a one-run lead, just one man out, a runner on third and Joe Mauer stepping to the plate, Manager John Farrell wisely went to Craig Kimbrel for what, at the time, would be his first career five-out close. Kimbrel worked Mauer to a full count before punching him out with a called strike that just grazed the outer edge of the zone. Kimbrel then dispatched Max Kepler on three straight pitches to end the threat.

At this point, a one-run lead was hardly comfortable. Little did we know the Sox’ offensive powder keg was about to explode.

The day had started with a Chris Sale outing that wasn’t nearly as crisp as his others this season. Sales worked 6.0 IP and ultimately came away a win that included another 10 strikeouts. But he walked three and allowed four earned runs over 108 pitches. Indeed, Sale’s 4.37 ERA over 25 career appearances is his highest mark against all American League opponents. Still, when he left the game, Boston led Minnesota 6-4. 

Sox Keep The Line Moving

Now, after scuffling in the bottom of the eight, some insurance in the top of the ninth was in order. The inning opened with a Mookie Betts ground out on a close but unchallenged play. But then Dustin Pedroia, who had homered earlier in the game, drew a walk. Xander Bogaerts, hitless to that point in the game, extended his hitting streak to 11-games with a double. Andrew Benintendi was intentionally walked to load the bases, but there would be no double play. Instead, Hanley Ramírez, who had walked three times earlier in the game, hit a solid single for that coveted insurance RBI. Bases re-loaded, Mitch Moreland stroked yet another of his signature doubles, his MLB-best 15th of the season, and Boston was now comfortably in front 10-6. But the Red Sox were just beginning.

Chris Young belted a second double of the game, two more score. The Twins tried a new pitcher. Sandy León responded with his second home run of the game, his very first multi-HR game and his third roundtripper in the past two games. By now, it was 14-6. Deven Marrero grounded out so that sent Betts back to the plate for a second time in the inning. This time he smoked a double to center field. Pedroia reached on sloppy Twins fielding. Chase d’Arnaud, running for Pedey, then came around to score on a Bogaerts triple, his second extra-bit hit of the inning.

Minnesota manager Paul Molitor had, once again, seen enough. He called on one-time Red Sox reliever Craig Breslow who promptly walked Ramírez to load the bases then walked Moreland to score the Sox’ 17th run. A Young fly out finally ended the inning, 39 minutes and ten runs after it had begun. Gone was the notion of a close game and gone, too, was the need for three more outs from Kimbrel. Instead, Joe Kelly mopped up what was left of the game.

The 17 runs were the most scored by the Red Sox on the road against the Twins or their predecessors, the Washington Senators, since at least 1913. It was the most scored against the Twins since beating the club 17-7 at Fenway on May 20, 1986.

AL-Best For Scoring In A Single Inning

Sunday’s ten Red Sox runs in the 9th was was the biggest run scoring inning by any American League team this season but nowhere near the MLB record, which is 18 by the Cubs in the 7th inning of a game on September 6, 1883.

Since 1900, the record for the most runs scored in a single inning is held by the Red Sox, who amassed 17 runs in the 7th inning against the Tigers on June 18, 1953. Since 1900, the most runs ever scored in a 9th inning is 13 by the Angels over the Rangers on September 14, 1978, and by also by the Tigers on August 8, 2001, in a game that was also played against the Rangers.

On April 8, the Phillies scored 12 against the Nationals in the first inning, the most by any MLB team so far in 2017.