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Red Sox Stun Yankees, Win Series

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After a tough loss on Friday, the Red Sox still won two-of-three this weekend in New York. Boston starts the week 5½ games up in the American League East and has won 10 of 11 games.

Sunday’s 3-2 extra-inning Red Sox win was both thrilling and frustrating.

Despite another master class, starting ace Chris Sale (7.0 IP, 1R on 4H, with 2 walks and a dozen strikeouts) took another no-decision. Sale had held the Yankees to one run after Mookie Betts uncharacteristically flubbed a deep two-out fly ball, which scorers credited as the first-ever triple in the 200th career game for Austin Romine. The triple scored Chase Headley, who had singled earlier in the inning.

After Sale, Manager John Farrell looked to Matt Barnes to keep the game tied in the 8th, but Barnes was erratic. After a lead-off ground out, Barnes walked two and allowed a single to load the bases. A sacrifice fly by Todd Frazier scored the go-ahead run.

Rafael Devers’ Historical Homer

Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman came in for the 9th inning. After dispatching Hanley Ramirez, Sox rookie Rafael Devers belted a 103 MPH fastball 423 feet into the night. You could hear a pin drop. This Yankees’ fan’s reaction captures the moment from the stands:

Devers’ HR was first 9th inning, two-strike, game-tying home run for the Sox against the Yankees since Jason Varitek‘s on April 5, 2005. According to ESPN, it was the fastest pitch anyone has hit for a homer in the pitch-tracking era.

“That says a lot about the hitter,” Portland manager Carlos Febles told ESPN’s Scott Lauber. “You don’t see many power hitters hitting homers with two strikes.” Febles saw it himself. At Double-A this season. 14 of Devers’ 18 home runs came with two strikes against him.

For Chapman, it was just the second home run he has allowed in his career to a lefty batter in either a regular season or postseason game (also Luke Scott on June 26, 2011). It was the first-ever home run he has allowed at Yankee Stadium.

In August, Benintendi is Hotter Than July

An inning later, Chapman’s night came to an end when, with one out, he hit Jackie Bradley and walked Eduardo Nunez. Yankee reliever Tommy Kahnle fared no better, however. He walked Mookie Betts, setting the stage for the other Sox hero, baseball’s hottest hitter in the month of August, Andrew Benintendi.

Benintendi did just enough, a single that scored Bradley was all Craig Kimbrel needed to save the game in the bottom of the 10th.

For Sale, it was a third straight no-decision against the Yankees this season, despite registering 10 or more strikeouts in each of those games. Sale has recorded nine or more strikeouts in each of his 14 road starts this season, the longest such streak in baseball

since at least 1913.

Boston is now 11-3 in extra-innings this season, the best such mark in the Majors.

This morning, the Sox improved a notch to #4 in the weekly ESPN Power Ranking, after the Dodgers, Nationals, and Astros.


Red Sox Pitchers Going Deep Into Games

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So far this season, Red Sox starters have worked at least 5.0 innings in 99 starts or 86.8% of all games. That’s the highest such rate in the American League and the third-highest rate in the majors after the Giants (86.2) and Diamondbacks (90.3%).

To date, 163 Major League pitchers have made at least 10 starts, but only 13 of them have worked 5.0+ IP in all their starts. Not surprisingly, Chris Sale is one of that group. Sale was limited to just 5.0 IP twice, both representing his shortest outings of the season. Red Sox starter David Price has also lasted at least 5.0 IP in each of his 11 starts this season.

Last season, the Sox had just one such pitcher, Rick Porcello, who managed to get through at least 5.0 IP in every start. Indeed, of the 184 pitchers in 2016 with 10 or more starts, just three others in all of baseball managed the feat for every start (also Madison Bumgarner in 34 starts, Jake Arrieta in 31, and Kyle Hendricks in 30.

Baseball’s record for the most consecutive starts of at least 5.0 IP is owned by Curt Schilling, who managed it in 147 straight games from July 21, 2001-September 26, 2006. Only 20 of Schilling’s 436 career starts, and just two in a Red Sox uniform, lasted less than 5.0 innings.

This season, Sale has worked at least 7.0 IP in 17 games, the most such games in baseball. Over the past 30 seasons, Boston’s most such games is 30 by Roger Clemens in 1991. Clemens also owns the club’s second and third best records in that span of time with 28 and 26 such games in 1989 and 1992, respectively.

Rarely Going the Distance

MLB Complete Games, Last 30 SeasonsThis season the Red Sox have four complete games by three pitchers: Sale (1), Porcello (2), and Brian Johnson (1). No other MLB team has as many pitchers with complete games so far this season.

Only the Twins (6) and Indians (5) have had more complete games than the Red Sox. Pitchers for the Athletics, Braves, Orioles, Phillies, Rays, and White Sox have yet to toss a complete game this season.

The Sox have had at least three pitchers with a CG in each of the past six seasons. They had four such pitchers in the World Series Championship year of 2013 (Clay Buchholz, John Lackey, Jon Lester, and Jake Peavy).

To date, there have been just 44 complete games in all of baseball. If that pace continues, there will be 63 such games this season, a new all-time low. As shown in the graph here, the number of complete games has declined dramatically in the past 30 years and in every season since 2011.


Red Sox Roll Past Rays

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Last weekend’s four-game sweep of the down-on-their-luck White Sox was great, and all, but then the Red Sox also quickly dispatched the pesky Rays. The two-game mini-sweep this week gave Boston its eighth straight win, the longest active win streak in the Majors and the longest for Boston since winning 11 straight last September.

The Rays helped out with two errors in Wednesday’s 8-2 Red Sox victory. Boston pitchers, meanwhile, limited Tampa Bay to just two runs and six hits over the two-game set.

The slumping Rays have scored two or fewer runs now in five consecutive games, their longest such streak in a single season since May-June, 2014.

The Red Sox continue to get the job done without the benefit of a home run. Wednesday’s was Boston’s 20th homerless win of the season, the most such games in the majors.

Now a few notes of interest to Red Sox fans:

  • Major League Baseball suspended the dean of umpires, Joe West, for three games because of comments he made about Rangers third baseman and one-time Red Sox Adrián Beltré. As recounted on these pages recently, West offered up some amusing anecdotes in a USA Today article commemorating his 500th games as a Major League official. Count Beltré among those who found West’s comment amusing. The Commissioner’s Office, however, was, as they say, not amused. Once again, MLB overreacted.
  • Chris Sale is unquestionably the best pitcher fans have seen in a Red Sox uniform in some time, but is he Pedro great? Michael Salfino argues that Sale is not as good as The Great Martinez. Strikeout rates have been on the rise every year and so, Salfino says, a fairer view isn’t how many SO you tally, but how much better you’re doing when compared to the league-wide strikeout rate. In that regard, Pedro Martinez remains an undisputed champ.
  • Sports Illustrated analyzed health department records for nearly all the MLB venues and found the Mariners’ Safeco Field the leader for safe food. Fenway Park did well, coming in at No. 2 on the list. Of the 28 ballparks reviewed, Yankee Stadium checked in at a dismal No. 21 (citing infestations of flies and improper vermin-proofing), but the staggering overall loser was the Rays’ Tropicana Field, which is a shame, given that it’s otherwise such a nice place to take in a game (yes, that’s sarcasm). Violations included observations of live insects and incidents of black mold. A club press release promised “even greater oversight of the nightly concessions operations.”
  • Longtime Sox player and broadcaster Jerry Remy, recovering from cancer surgery in June, announced that he is now facing chemotherapy treatments. Remy had hoped to return to NESN this season, but WBZ reports that he will not be back in 2017. This is the fifth cancer relapse for Remy.

Red Sox Missing Doubles This Season

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For years, the Red Sox were known to be a doubles machine, routinely pounding out two-baggers as a major part of their offensive production. But as we head into the final 50 games of the 2017 campaign, the Sox have just 204 doubles, good enough for eighth most in the majors—and 19 of those have come recently, during an offensive spurt over the past six games.

At the current rate, the Red Sox will collect 295 doubles this season, their third fewest in any season since 2000.

Especially since the year 2000, the Red Sox have enjoyed prodigious doubles production. In fact, Boston has recorded the most doubles of any team in fully half of the seasons played since the year 2000. 

That’s not too terribly surprising. Fenway Park is, after all, known to a double park. More two-baggers (2,702) have been hit there since 2000 than in any other park. What is more, Fenway has hosted the most doubles in the majors in every decade since the 1960s: 1990s (3,223 doubles), 1980s (3,140), 1970s (2,925), and 1960s (2,746).

In 2017, just 205 doubles have been stroked at Fenway, 11th-most of the 30 MLB parks. 105 of those have been by the Sox, putting them on pace for 152 doubles, their fewest at home since swatting 149 doubles in the 1992 season.

A Season Without A Slam

A tail off in doubles is especially concerning to Red Sox Nation in light of the similar dearth in home runs. Again, even with a recent spurt of long balls (11 over the past five games), Boston is dead last in the American League with just 116 to date.

Last year the Sox had the most grand slams in the AL, but this year the team has none despite fully 102 opportunities with the bases loaded.

No Red Sox club since 1953 has gone a full season without at least one grand slam home run.


RIP One-Time Red Sox Don Baylor

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Don Baylor, a 19-year Major League veteran, American League All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger and later, a Manager of the Year died early Monday at 68. The cause was cancer.

Baylor started his big league career in 1970 with six seasons for the Orioles. After one season with the Athletics he played six years with the California Angels where, in 1979, he was both an All-Star and league MVP, slashing .296 AVG/.371 OBP/.530 SLG with 31 home run, 71 walks, 139 RBI, and 51 strikeouts.

Baylor with Red Sox

Known on the field for his might and off the field for his warmth, Baylor was a Red Sox for 268 games from 1986-87, the result of a rare trade with the Yankees for Mike Easler.

In his first season with the Sox, Baylor struck out a career-high 111 times but also belted 31 home runs (6th most in the AL) and knocked in 94 RBI. All the while, he functioned as the clubhouse Chief Justice, gleefully meting out fines—and even double fines, “if their name is Steve Lyons“—for player infractions.

Longtime Sox fans will, no doubt, recall Baylor’s dramatic 9th inning, two-run home run in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series, helping to make possible Boston’s march to the 1986 World Series.

Overall with the Red Sox, Baylor slashed .238/.348/.426 with 47 home runs and 151 RBI.

Baylor retired after the 1988 season with 338 career home runs, the 100th-most for all time. He was also hit-by-pitch 267 times, second-most after Craig Biggio since 1901.

Manager of the Year

After coaching hitting with the Brewers and Cardinals, Baylor became the first manager of the Colorado Rockies, 1993-99, and was National League Manager of the Year in 1995. Later, he managed the Cubs from 2000-02. He finished his managerial career at 627-689 (.476) but returned to Colorado as a hitting coach in 2009-10.

Along with Frank Robinson, Joe Torre and Kirk Gibson, Baylor was one of four in baseball history to earn both MVP and Manager of the Year awards, according to ESPN.

In 1986 with the Sox, Baylor told Sports Illustrated that he would like to be remembered “as a guy who played his hardest from day one to the end and was honest with every guy I played with.”

Baylor is survived by his wife Rebecca, son Don Jr., and two granddaughters.

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Sadly, Major League Baseball also mourns the passing today of Phillies great and three-time National League All-Star Darren Daulton, who died Sunday of brain cancer. Daulton was 55.