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Red Sox Dig Deeper Hole

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After a celebratory off-season Red Sox Nation has been stunned by a team that can’t seem to do much right. On Friday, in the Diamondbacks home opener, the Sox were embarrassed in a 15-8 pounding. Truth is, the final score doesn’t reflect Boston’s generally moribund performance. The Sox trailed 14-1 until Arizona reliever Matt Koch got tagged for seven runs in the eighth.

So deep was the trench that Manager Alex Cora turned to Eduardo Núñez to pitch late in the game. It was Núñez’ first career pitching appearance and the first for the Red Sox since Mitch Moreland worked an inning in 2017. This decade the Sox have used position players as pitchers eight times.

Porcello’s Interleague Win Streak Ends

Núñez might be forgiven for allowing an Alex Avila home run but what can be said of Friday starter Rick Porcello, who entered the game seeking redemption after his first tough start of the season. Red Sox Nation had reason to be hopeful as Boston has won an MLB-best 14 consecutive Interleague matchups with Porcello on the mound. Instead, the veteran did something he’s only done four times before (and never in a Red Sox uniform), giving up seven or more runs and 10 or more hits over just 4.2 or fewer innings of work.

Porcello, visibly angry with himself in the dugout after leaving the game, admitted growing anxiety when he met the media postgame. “Very frustrating. I’m not doing my job right now. I don’t take that lightly,” Porcello said. “This one’s on me…not throwing the ball the way I need to. Got to turn it around quick.”

Porcello’s two home runs allowed on Friday (and reliever Brian Johnson‘s mammoth grand slam given up to Ketel Marte) means Boston pitchers have allowed opponent round trippers in all nine games this season, the most in the majors for 2019 and the longest such streak to open a season in club history.

Red Sox pitchers have now allowed six or more runs to score in an MLB-high seven games this season, tying them with the 1928 Sox for the most such games in the first nine contests of any season since at least 1908. Just two major league teams have ever reached the playoffs with such an opening performance (1999 Rangers and 1995 Reds).

Historically Bad Start

Boston’s now seven losses over its first nine games are its most since the 1945 team went 1-8 to start the season. The last major league team to make the playoffs after starting the season with seven or more losses in their first nine games was the Rays, who led off the 2011 campaign 1-8. The last such team to win a World Series was the 1977 Yankees, who likewise started 2-7.

Nothing’s settled after nine games of a baseball season, of course. With the full schedule only about 5.6% complete the games played to date are the equivalent of about one game in the NFL season. But every game, those in April as much as those in August, means something, all the more so in a hotly contested division. For now, the 2019 Red Sox are still digging a big hole they’ll need to fill.

After such a charmed season in 2018—and with some many issues to address with this year’s club—Cora admitted the current situation is the biggest challenge he’s in his young managerial career. “But we’ll be OK. We’ll keep working. We understand we’re not playing good baseball…but we’ll be OK…We just have to figure out somehow, some way.”

A couple additional notes: The Red Sox placed Johnson and Brock Holt on the 10-day Injured List on Saturday with elbow inflammation and a scratched cornea, respectively. Tzu-Wei Lin and Marcus Walden were called up from Triple-A Pawtucket…Mookie Betts recorded a three-hit game on Friday. Betts led the club with 18 such games in 2018, tied for 3rd most in the major leagues…Moreland’s home run was the 149th of his career, his second of the season and 80th coming on the road.


Red Sox Even ALCS

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They may have lost Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, but Red Sox Nation could take comfort from a good, come-from-behind 7-5 win in Game 2 on Sunday.

Starter David Price, far from invisible, was good enough to keep the Sox in the game, getting out of a two-walk, first-inning jam to be rewarded with two Sox runs in the bottom of the frame. Price immediately surrendered the lead, though, in the second inning, allowing a single and two doubles. Worse, he allowed a two-run home run by Marwin Gonzalez in the top of the third inning that had the Sox down 4-2. Boston answered back in the bottom of the third with three of their own to take and hold what would be a one-run lead until the seventh.

Despite the slim lead, Price wouldn’t qualify for the lead, exiting the game just one out shy of the prerequisite five innings of work.

What followed was 4.1 innings of solid relief by the Sox bullpen starting with Matt Barnes, who got out of a jam Price left behind and then worked all of the sixth inning, too. Barnes was followed by scoreless innings of work from Ryan Brasier and fiery Rick Porcello, who exploded with emotion after mowing down the Astros 1-2-3.

In the 9th inning, once again, close Craig Kimbrel kept the Nation on the edge of its collective seat. With a seemingly comfortable 7-4 Boston lead, Kimbrel got two quick outs before allowing a George Springer double and a José Altuve single. According to MLB.com, in his postseason career, Kimbrel has never had an outing with zero baserunners allowed when he comes into the game with a lead.

With Houston’s top player, Alex Bregman, representing the tying run at the plate, Kimbrel induced a pop fly to Andrew Benintendi that ended the game.

Offensive Might

Whereas the Red Sox offense looked missing in action in Game 1 (it was just the sixth of 180 Boston postseason games since 1903 with three or fewer hits), things were more like the regular season in ALCS Game 2.

Boston pounded out nine hits on Sunday, including four doubles, none more clutch than Jackie Bradley‘s two out, bases clearing, three-RBI shot in the third. Bradley is now tied with Andrew Benintendi for the third-most RBI in 29 postseason games for Boston since 2010. Only David Ortiz (14) and Shane Victorino (12) have had more in that time.

Mookie Betts, who has had relatively little production in the postseason, walked and then scored a key insurance run in the seventh on a passed ball by Houston backstop Martín Maldonado. Next inning Betts stepped to the plate with two outs and two on and doubled to bring in another run. Betts is now 6-for-24 (.250) since the start of the ALDS with three doubles and three RBI.

Boston’s seven runs on Sunday night were their most in an ALCS since beating the Rays 8-7 in Game 5 of the 2008 series.

Sale Hospitalized

Mid-game came the troubling news that Red Sox ace Chris Sale was hospitalized at Mass General with a stomach illness. Sale was held overnight for observation. After Sunday’s game, manager Alex Cora said the issue arose after Sale’s work in Saturday’s game and that it hadn’t affected his performance.


2018 ALDS Tied A Game Apiece

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The Yankees tied up the American League Division Series with a 6-2 win at Fenway Park on Saturday night. The series now shifts for the next two games to New York.

Price: Shortest Postgame Start for Sox vs Yanks

Boston starter David Price lasted just 1.2 innings, allowing solo home runs from Aaron Judge and Gary Sánchez. It was the only start in 299 (including both regular and postseason games) that Price failed to record a single strikeout.

Price’s outing was the shortest for a Boston starter in a postseason start since Doug Fister‘s 1.1 IP against the Astos in last year’s ALDS Game 3 and the shortest postseason outing ever for a Boston starter against New York.

Gary Sánchez is now 7-for-14 (.500) lifetime against Price, with six of his seven hits leaving the park.

Price’s postseason woes have become near-legendary. He’s now 0-9 with a 6.03 ERA over his postseason career, the third highest ever among pitchers with 10 or more postseason starts, trailing only Jaret Wright (7.77) and Tim Wakefield (6.45).

And while Price was clearly not right last night, he left the game with the score 0-3 with more than seven innings to go.

Joe Kelly, looking sharper than he has for a bit, put out the fire Price started, giving the Sox 2.1 solid innings of work in all. After a solo home run from Xander Bogaerts, Ryan Brasier entered the game in the fifth inning and likewise looked more like his old self with three strikeouts over his relief inning.

Brandon Workman, on for the sixth, got a strikeout but then allowed back-to-back singles to the No. 8 and No. 9 Yankee batters. Manager Alex Cora dipped back into the pen for Eduardo Rodríguez, who settled things down with a pop out and strikeout.

Sox Offense Sputters

Price “needs to pitch better, and he knows it,” Cora said in an off-day interview, but at the same time, “I look up, it’s the sixth inning, and it’s 3-1…we were in the spot to win the game.”

But the Sox offense was on hiatus, going 1-2-3 in the second, fifth and sixth innings. Boston’s only other run in the game came in the seventh when Ian Kinsler doubled to drive in a Mitch Moreland.

Games are won on a combination of pitching, offense, and defense. But for the Sox on Saturday, already hampered by substandard pitching and offense, even the normally solid defense was problematic.

Judge, having already punished the Sox with a homer in the first, led off the seventh with an infield single after Rodríguez inexplicably failed to cover first on what looked to be a routine play. The miscue was costly when Judge became one of three to cross the plate on Sánchez’ second home run of the game.

At the time, Sox fans on Twitter wondered about whether an injury caused Rodríguez’ defensive blunder but on Sunday, the manager made his feelings plain. “I just talked to him and told him just be accountable, that’s it,” Cora told the press. “I guess he told you guys he slipped or something like that,” but Cora said that wasn’t the whole story. “I’m like, man, if you don’t break right away, just be accountable, that’s all we ask. And he’s like, ‘Yeah, my fault. I just didn’t break.'”

Sánchez’ 479-foot home run off Rodríguez was the second longest in the postseason since Major League Baseball’s Statcast started tracking in 2015.

Eovaldi For Game 3

With the series now tied at one game apiece, Manager Cora has selected Nathan Eovaldi for his starter in Game 3 on Monday. Eovaldi is 1-1 with a 1.93 ERA in 4 career starts vs New York. New York will counter with Luis Severino.

Eovaldi says he has confidence facing the Yankees, particularly given his recent success against them. “I’m trying to do the same thing that I have been doing, stay aggressive and try to get that first pitch strike out of the way,” Eovaldi said.

Cora had originally pencilled Rick Porcello for the Game 3 start but pushed him back to Game 4 after calling on Porcello for an inning of relief in the series opener. “Rick pitched that inning on Monday, so we felt like one more day is going to benefit him if we stay away from him. Nate hasn’t pitched in a while. He’s rested, had a good week, and we’re going with him,” Cora said on Sunday.

In 14 previous postseason series where they were tied 1-1, the Red Sox went on to win eight and lose six.

2018 is the 13th appearance for Boston in a Division Series but only the second time they’ve been tied at 1-1.


Red Sox Win Streak Ends at 10

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After a remarkable run of 10 straight wins, the Red Sox ran into troubles Friday night against the Blue Jays. In a highly uncharacteristic outing, Sox starter Rick Porcello lasted just 2.0 IP, coughing up his team’s lead twice in that short time.

Porcello allowed a season-high four walks on Friday. It marked just the seventh time of 298 career outings where he’s done that, and never in such a short time.

“I had a terrible night, that’s for sure,” Porcello told the media afterwards, saying there was nothing physically wrong, “I felt pretty good, honestly, all week I felt pretty good.”

On a night with seven Red Sox runs, including two triples in back-to-back plate appearances from Mookie Betts, Boston fell 13-7 to the 43-50 Jays.

In an odd twist of date, the Red Sox had not lost a Fenway game after scoring seven or more runs, including two triples, since the Fourth of July 2011 playing against, you guessed it, the Blue Jays.

Friday’s loss snapped Boston’s longest win streak since 11 in a row, September 15-25, 2016.

A few other notes from last night’s game:

  • Betts became the first for Red Sox with two triples in a game since Xander Bogaerts did it on May 17, 2017.
  • Betts is the first Red Sox hitter to triple in each of his first 2 at-bats of a game since David Ortiz on July 22, 2004 (Game 1) against the Orioles.
  • The last major leaguer to triple in each of the first two innings of a game was the Cubs’ Dexter Fowler on April 11, 2015.
  • Betts is hitting .409 with a .493 on-base percentage and a 1.301 OPS at home. All three marks are the best for any major leaguer with at least 100 plate appearances at home this season.
  • Porcello’s outing was the second-shortest for a Red Sox starter this season after 1.0 IP by David Price against the Yankees on April 11.
  • Despite the loss, the Red Sox amassed 12 hits on Friday. It was the club’s 46th game with 10 or more hits, the most such games in the majors.
  • Justin Smoak hit a home run against Porcello in the 3rd inning and then another, from the other side of the plate, against Boston reliever Robby Scott. It marked the 10th time in franchise history that a Toronto player homered from both sides of the plate in the same game. Smoak and Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar are the only Blue Jays with two such games.

Red Sox Overcome First Inning Hole, Again

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The Red Sox came away with a 10-7 win over the Blue Jays on Wednesday. In doing so, they avoided a sweep and lowered their magic number for a consecutive division crown to two.

Starting pitcher Rick Porcello once again put Boston into an immediate first-inning hole, allowing three quick runs before the Sox had even come to the plate. “Thank God our offense put up those runs,” Porcello said afterwards.

Porcello has now allowed a club-high 26 runs this season in the first frame. His 6.55 first-inning ERA is the club’s highest single-season mark by a pitcher with at least 30 starts since John Burkett‘s 10.12 ERA in 2003.

Porcello is averaging 0.78 runs per first innings pitched this season. Only Doug Fister (1.07) has a higher such ratio on the club. Porcello and Drew Pomeranz are among the 25 major league pitchers averaging the most first inning runs per innings pitched this season (minimum 30 starts).

For all its strengths, Red Sox pitching this season has now allowed exactly 100 first-inning runs, the 3rd-most in the American League. That ties this year’s crew with the 2003 club for the second-most such runs over the past 15 seasons.

2017 is just the 10th time in the last 50 Red Sox seasons that Boston has allowed 100 or more first-inning runs. The record is the forgettable 2012 season, when the Red Sox gave up 126 runs to first inning batters, the most runs allowed in any inning in that span of time.

Porcello’s Tough Season

Porcello, last year’s American League Cy Young Award winner, has struggled with his control throughout the season. He’s allowed the most runs in the American League in 2017 (125) and the most two-out runs (39) on the club, including two on Wednesday night.

With home runs by Jose Bautista and Darwin Barney, Porcello tied the Red Sox club record for most games in a single season with multiple home runs allowed (11). The others to do this were Tim Wakefield in 1996 and 2005 and Earl Wilson in 1964.

Porcello finishes the 2017 regular season 11-17 with a 4.65 ERA in 33 starts, setting new career highs for hits (236), runs (125), earned runs (105), and home runs (38) allowed. His 181 strikeouts were good for a career-best 8.0 SO per 9.0 innings pitched ratio.

Porcello gave the Red Sox 19 quality starts this season, in which he worked at least 6.0 IP and allowed three or fewer earned runs. He suffered a club-high nine losses in those starts. The righty worked two complete games, but had no shutouts.

For 2017 Porcello earned $20.1 million. His contract guarantees him $21.1 million for both the 2018 and 2019 seasons.