After a week off for some live baseball at Fenway, it’s time to get back to business with another edition of baseball news and notes, especially for Red Sox fans.
- A solid April and May felt good, but the Red Sox stumbled through June at 10-16, dropping games they really, truly should have won. Meanwhile, the Orioles kept the pressure on, going 19-9 for the fourth best monthly mark in baseball. Now the calendar turns to July. Since 2000, the Sox have batted .272 as a team in July, scoring 2,141 runs with a .343 on-base percentage, a .445 slugging percentage and a .789 OPS (all the second best marks of any team in the majors in that time). Boston’s 1,513 July walks since 2000 are the most of any major league club.
- Saturday’s embarrassing Red Sox loss to the Angels set all kinds of historic records, none of them very pleasant to recount. The 2-21 loss marked just the 14th time Boston has allowed more than 20 opponent runs in franchise history. The Angels’ C.J. Cron became the first player in Fenway Park history to go 6-for-6 with two home runs. Catcher Carlos Perez also collected five hits Saturday making him and Cron the first Angels teammates with 5+ hits in a game since Randy Velarde and Mo Vaughn in 1999. Los Angeles had not scored that many runs since putting up 21 against the Royals back on August 25, 2004.
- Saturday’s thumping tied with a 1969 loss to the Athletics for the 5th most runs allowed by the Red Sox at Fenway (21) since 1913. The only other times the Sox have allowed more opponent runs in a home loss were:
- May 1, 1929 (6-24 loss to the Philadelphia Athletics)
- September 28, 1923 (4-24 loss to the Yankees)
- June 19, 2000 (1-22 loss to the Yankees), and
- May 31, 1970 (13-22 loss to the White Sox).
- The end of play on Sunday was Boston’s 81st game of the 2016 campaign, marking the official end of the first half. Through those first 81, Boston is 44-37 for a .543 win percentage, their best since a .593 win percentage in 2013. The Sox were 37-44 after 81 games in both 2014 and 2015. In 104 seasons of franchise history since 1913, the 2016 crew has 197 doubles. Only the 2003 Red Sox had more (223). This year’s Red Sox have 834 total hits through 81 games, good for 6th most over that same time, which is also their most since the 2003 team (879).
- This year’s Red Sox could become the 25th team ever, and the first since the 2003 Braves, to have four players drive in 100 or more runs in the season. David Ortiz (66 RBIs), Mookie Betts (55), Xander Bogaerts (51), and Jackie Bradley (51) could each drive in 100 or more if they continue at their current pace. Boston has twice before made this exclusive list in 1940 and again in 1977. For Atlanta in 2003 the feat was achieved by Andruw Jones (116 RBIs), Chipper Jones (106), Javy Lopez (109) and Gary Sheffield (132). Only one major league team in history, the 1936 Yankees, ever had five players drive in 100+ RBIs in a season: Bill Dickey (107), Joe DiMaggio (125), Lou Gehrig (152), Tony Lazzeri (109) and George Selkirk (107).
- 20 home runs, 20 doubles, and 6 triples, all before the All-Star Break. In baseball history, only 10 players have managed that combination (and eight of them are in the Baseball Hall of Fame). The most recent was the Rockies Carlos Gonzalez in 2013 (25 HR, 22 doubles, 6 triples). Before Gonzalez you have to go all the way back to Duke Snider of the 1954 Brooklyn Dodgers. Mookie Betts (17 HR, 21 doubles, 4 triples) is close to the mark this season, as are the Reds Jay Bruce (17 HR, 19 doubles, 6 triples) and Josh Donaldson of the Blue Jays (20 HR, 18 doubles, 5 triples).
- Pirates skipper Clint Hurdle achieved his 1,000 managerial win recently. He’s now one of six active managers with at least 1,000 wins including one-time Sox manager Terry Francona (1,336), Bruce Bochy (1,753), Dusty Baker (1,720), Mike Scioscia (1,449), and Buck Showalter (1,387).
- What a run by Diamondbacks pitcher Brad Zeigler, who collected 43 straight saves from May 29, 2015 to June 20, 2016. The streak ended last Thursday but goes in the books as the longest in franchise history and 8th longest in baseball history. Eric Gagne, pitching for the Dodgers in 2002-04 holds baseball’s record for consecutive saves, a remarkable 84 games. The second longest save streak was 54 games by Tom Gordon, pitching for the Red Sox from 1998-99. The next longest Boston save streak is Koji Uehara‘s31 games in 2013-14.
- There’s nothing like being at the ballpark. RSNStats was live and on location at Fenway last week for a couple games and managed to capture a few good shots. You can see them on the RSNStats Instagram page.