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Red Sox Shutout Orioles

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In what’s already been a miserable start to the season for the Baltimore Orioles, Sunday’s Red Sox win had to be one of the toughest for their fans to bear.

It’s not easy to do what the Orioles managed to do. Through nine innings, Baltimore belted 13 hits but scored no runs as the Red Sox shutout the birds, 5-0. It was Boston’s third shutout victory of the season (also against the Rays on March 30 and the Angels on April 18).

In Orioles club history they had never before had 12 or more hits in a nine inning game and came away losers. Once, in a marathon 15-inning affair at Cleveland on May 14, 1961, Baltimore had managed 13 hits but lost 0-1 to the Tribe in Game 1 of a doubleheader.

Indeed, before Sunday, no major league team had been held scoreless on 12 or more hits in almost a decade, the last being the Dodgers against the Phillies in a 5-0 shutout on August 25, 2008.

In the long history of Fenway Park, which opened in 1912, Sunday’s was just the third time that fans witnessed 13 or more hits but not a single run scored. The other two instances were by the Sox themselves over 100 years ago: a 0-0 tie, despite 14 Boston hits, against the St. Louis Browns on July 14, 1916 and a 0-1 loss to the Washington Senators despite 15 hometown hits on July 3, 1913.

12 Singles, 1 Double, 0 Runs

The Orioles’ offensive output was notable, too, in that 12 of their 13 hits were singles, a streak broken by Jace Peterson‘s double to lead off the top of the ninth inning. Never before at Fenway Park has a team failed to score despite 13 hits and one or fewer extra-base hits. The last major league team to do that anywhere was the Rockies, facing the Nationals, in a 8-0 loss on August 13, 2005. Colorado similarly had 13 hits in that game and one double.

Eduardo Rodríguez, who gave up nine of the Orioles hits, became the first Red Sox starter since Paul Bird on September 22, 2009 to limit that many hits to just singles. E-Rod is the first Boston starter since Mike Boddicker to do all of that without allowing any runs (July 25, 1989), and the first since Bruce Hurst to likewise allow no walks (September 8, 1986).

Sunday’s win included more home runs from Boston’s newest slugger, J.D. Martinez. The two roundtrippers, his 14th and 15th of the season, ties him with Mookie Betts for the major league lead. It’s the first time in franchise history two Red Sox have hit 15 or more homers through the club’s first 50 games of a season.


Knee Surgery For Pedroia

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Add Dustin Pedroia to the growing list of Red Sox who have gone under the knife already this offseason.

In a brief statement today, the Red Sox said Pedroia underwent a successful cartilage restoration procedure on his left knee. The procedure was performed by Dr. Riley Williams III at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

The Sox said Pedroia’s recovery timeline is seven months, meaning he won’t make his return until late May 2018, at the earliest. It will be Pedroia’s first time off the Opening Day Roster in the last 11 of his 12 big league seasons (2007-17).

Pedroia’s streak of 11 Opening Day starts was eighth longest in Red Sox club history since 1913. Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski had the most such starts (22, 1961-1980, 1982-83), followed by Dwight Evans (17), and Hall of Famer Jim Rice (14).

Pedroia’s sidelining means an added dimension of offseason maneuvering for Red Sox baseball president Dave Dombrowski.

More Surgeries, More Recoveries

Since this season ended, three other Red Sox have undergone surgical procedures: Eduardo Rodríguez (reconstruction of the patellofemoral ligament in his right knee) and Robby Scott (left elbow arthroscopy and debridement), and Hanley Ramírez (left shoulder arthroscopy and debridement).

Ramírez and Scott should be ready for Spring Training. Rodríguez’ recovery will keep him idle until at least April.

All four procedures have come subsequent to Dombrowski’s October 11 press conference announcing the firing of former manager John Farrell. At that time, Dombrowksi told the press he was unaware of any players who needed surgery.


Red Sox Come-From-Behind to Sweep Cardinals

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Four games against the Cardinals and four Red Sox wins.

It wasn’t the World Series this time, it was the four games of the 2017 season set, which the Red Sox closed on Wednesday with yet another walk-off win. For Boston, it was the ninth walk-off win of the season, six more than they had all of last season. The Sox are now tied with the Dodgers and Athletics for the most walk-off wins this season.

Boston’s nine walk-off victories in 2017 are the most in a single season since recording nine in 2014. It’s the club’s 10th season with nine or more walk-off wins since 1992.

Over the last 105 seasons, the Boston franchise record for walk-off wins is 12 in 1961.

Rocky Rodríguez

Tuesday’s Red Sox win was a 10-4 blow out, but Wednesday’s game didn’t have the feel of a Boston win.

Sox starter Eduardo Rodríguez, so good so often this season, stumbled in an interminably long second inning, allowing four Cardinals go-ahead runs. After a lead-off double by Yadier Molina, Rodríguez walked Jedd Gyorko. A Kolten Wong single, a double by Luke Voit, a Christian Vazquez passed ball and then another single by Matt Carpenter put Boston in an early 4-0 hole.

Rodríguez would, in fact, settle in, ultimately allowing no further damage. But his 45 pitches in the second inning meant a short night. He departed after 5.1 IP (98 pitches). The Boston bullpen did it’s job, with scoreless innings logged by Matt Barnes, Addison Reed and Craig Kimbrel.

The Sox got to St. Louis starter Lance Lynn in the bottom of the third, scoring twice on an error and a Mookie Betts sacrifice fly, but from there, nothing.

But in the bottom of the ninth, Red Sox magic, once again.

Walking It Off

Xander Bogaerts led off the 9th with a home run against Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal, just the third he’s allowed in 47.2 IP this season.

Now a one-run game, Manager Mike Matheny went through two more relievers, but ultimately Mookie would come to the plate with two outs and runners at first and second. Betts worked the count full then doubled to deep left, the biggest of his three hits of the game. Jackie Bradley sprinted from first, diving into home as Cardinals catcher Molina botched the relay throw.

For the second time this season the Sox thrilled us with a two-out, two-strike walk off hit, the other coming off the bat of Mitch Moreland on August 4.

It was the club’s first two-out, full-count walk-off hit since Mike Napoli‘s home run on July 21, 2013 against the Yankees.

With a Yankees win earlier in the evening and a looming series with the Bombers this weekend, Wednesday’s win was especially important to Boston.

The Red Sox have now won eight of their last nine home games and are 26-12 (.684) at Fenway since May 23.


E-Rod To Shutdown 3-4 Weeks

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Eduardo Rodríguez will avoid surgery for his latest knee injury, at least for now, but will also need to rest three to four weeks. That’s the decision arrived at after a second opinion by Dr. James Andrews, according to CSNNE. There’s still swelling in the knee but, fortunately, no ligament damage. Any eventual surgery would bring with it a five to six month recovery.

Rodríguez had not been planned for the three game set at New York that opens Tuesday. Those games are already scheduled for Drew Pomeranz, Rick Porcello, and David Price.

The likely replacement for E-Rod will be Brian Johnson, who will face the Tigers this weekend in Boston. Johnson was nearly impeccable in his last start against the Seattle Mariners on May 27th throwing a complete game shutout.

Losing Rodríguez for any length of time is troubling, of course. The hope is that rest can forestall surgery and that he can recover to help the Sox in the second half.

A few thoughts now on another Red Sox pitcher, Chris Sale, who is enjoying a remarkable first season with the team:

  • Pedro Martinez‘ name is revered and for good reason, but it keeps coming up in conversations involving Sale, whose gritty performance on Sunday featured nine strikeouts and just one walk. The game was Sale’s sixth straight road game with nine plus strikeouts. Since 1913 only Hall of Famers Martinez & Randy Johnson have before opened a season with such a string of consecutive road starts (6 each). 
  • Though Sale didn’t reach ten strikeouts on Sunday, he’s got the rest of the season to match Martinez and Roger Clemens as the only Sox pitchers with that many punchouts in nine or more starts in a single season. Pedro did that four times (1999-2002), Clemens did it twice (1987-88). The three are already the only Sox pitchers to collect ten plus strikeouts in eight or more starts prior to the All-Star break.
  • Sale entered this new week leading all of baseball with 119 strikeouts. He and the Nationals Max Scherzer (100) are the only pitchers in the major leagues with more than 100 so far this season. Sale is averaging 12.75 strikeouts per 9.0 IP this season, the best such ratio in the majors. The Sox’ record for most strikeouts in a season is Martinez’ 313 in 1999.
  • Sale has now gone 12 straight games with at least six strikeouts and three or fewer walks. That’s the longest such streak for a Boston pitcher since Martinez also had 12 in a row such games in 2002. The next longest such streak for Boson is also the MLB record. It too is held by Martinez and is much longer: 34 straight games from April 4, 2000 to April 25, 2001. 

Now, some other news items of note for Red Sox fans:

  • For most of us running 26 miles is hard enough to imagine, but imagine running a marathon inside Fenway Park. The club says that’s exactly what will happen on Friday, September 15 when 50 qualified runners will have to make 112 laps around the warning path to cover all 26.2 miles necessary. Not surprisingly, this will be the first marathon held inside a major league ballpark.
  • This was interesting and I meant to pass it along earlier. Back in May the Chicago Tribune wrote to say that the Cubs could learn a lot from the Red Sox when it came to a post-world championship relationship with their fans. “No sports ecosystem better understands storytelling than the Red Sox ecosystem,” the Tribune said, and we all know from experience that they were right. 
  • Here’s something no clean-cut green monster would try. The Mets were apologizing to fans after a rude hand gesture by Mr. Met following a 7-1 loss last week. Only in New York. Surely you’d never catch Wally doing something like that, though no one can really be sure about Tessie

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.