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Red Sox are 2016 AL East Champs

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A shocking, come-from-behind win made the Boston Red Sox your 2016 American League East Champions on Wednesday.

Too bad the shocking win was by the Orioles, and not the Sox, who were themselves stunned by a walk-off grand slam off the bat of retiring Yankees’ slugger Mark Teixeira.

What a bizarre sight it was. With a 3-0 lead after a sterling, one-hit, 6.0 inning outing from Clay Buchholz and hitless innings by Brad Ziegler and Koji Uehara, the Sox handed the ball to closer Craig Kimbrel in the bottom of the 9th and watched him systematically give up a single and three straight walks (with a wild pitch thrown in for good measure).

About this time came word from Toronto that Orioles pinch-hitter Hyun Soo Kim hit a two-run home run off Jays closer Roberto Osuna and that Baltimore had won the game. Toronto’s loss meant the Red Sox were the division champs.

Meanwhile, back in the Bronx, with one New York run already walked in, the bases still loaded, and still no one out, Kimbrel looked surprised that John Farrell called on Joe Kelly, who managed a strikeout and foul out before the Teixeira bomb.

While the Yankees celebrated a meaningless walk-off win, the stunned Sox returned dejectedly to the dug out before disappearing into the club house for a raucous celebration.

When you win in this tough division after two straight seasons in the cellar, there is going to a party, and a well-deserved one at that. Some NESN viewers found the Sox’ (literal) “locker room language” objectionable after the network bizarrely chose to live broadcast the champagne-drenched festivities. Bad language in the locker room? Who could possibly have expected that?

In the four games ahead, the Sox still have plenty of reasons to win as it will determine who they face in the American League Division Series that starts next Thursday.


Rodríguez One Last Time

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It’s not every time that you know exactly when you’ll see the last of a player. Often they are injured suddenly or retire in the off-season. We expect to know when we’ll last see David Ortiz at the plate, and it seems fairly certain now that we know when we’ll see the end of Alex Rodríguez.

By now, no doubt, you’ve heard the news that Rodríguez, a 14-time All-Star and 3-time MVP who is now suffering through a miserable 2016 (.204 AVG/.252 OBP/.356 SLG in 62 games), will be released by the Yankees following Friday’s game to become a special advisor and instructor for the club. Why the Yankees, with the rosters expanding in September, wouldn’t want their new instructor traveling with the youngsters for the remainder of the season is a mystery only the Steinbrenner’s may understand. Perhaps, at the end of the day, it’s simply retribution for the shoddy way A-Rod treated his baseball family in the wake of his PED disgrace.

A-Rod against the Sox

Rodríguez’ career includes 263 games against the Red Sox, 1,154 total plate appearances (his very most against any club) and a slash line of .285 AVG/.378 OBP/.516 SLG. Against Boston he has a career 46 doubles, 3 triples (all at Fenway), 59 home runs, 169 RBI, 133 walks, and 222 strikeouts.

Since his debut in 1994, no major leaguer has more home runs or RBIs against the Red Sox than A-Rod. Moreover, no MLB player in that timeframe has more of either of those (22 home runs and 66 RBIs) coming with two outs.

For his career at Fenway Park, Rodríguez has appeared in 131 games with 576 plate appearances and a slash line of .287 AVG/.366 OBP/.514 SLG with a career 22 doubles, 29 home runs, 88 RBI, 55 walks, and 113 strikeouts. His total at-bats, hits, and runs scored at Fenway are his most at any non-home ballpark.

Among all Yankees vs the Red Sox since 1913, A-Rod ranks 5th in stolen bases (48, needs seven to tie Derek Jeter at No. 4), 6th in home runs (59, needs two to tie Harmon Killebrew at No. 5), and 8th in runs scored (195, needs 16 to tie Mickey Mantle at No. 7).

Down on strikes

Rodríguez’ very first major league series was at Fenway Park on July 8–10, 1994. He went 2-for–11 with four strikeouts. Since that time, no MLB player has been a greater victim of Red Sox strikeouts (222), including 76 inning-ending strikeouts, which is also the most in that time.

In fact, A-Rod is just a strikeout away from tying Reggie Jackson for the second most Red Sox strikeouts of any player, on any team, since 1913. With eight more he’ll have 230 to tie Mantle at No. 1 on that ignominious list.

What might have been

I remember well his courtship with Boston back in 2003 when the new Sox ownership thought Rodríguez just the ticket to the World Series. The photogenic young ball player arranging a tour at Harvard as Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy christened him “a class act…comfortable with his star status, mingles easily with fans and media, and is eager to learn,” while Rodríguez declared himself willing to take less salary for the chance to play for a contender. Joon Lee recounts the negotiation meeting between A-Rod and former Sox GM Theo Epstein. “It was hard to relate [to Rodriguez],” Epstein said. “I’m the same age as this guy and he’s like another species. This guy’s got it all together.”

Why a player with such natural gifts would taint himself is hard to comprehend.

When the Players Union objected to any deal that included a reduced salary and Rodríguez slipped from the Red Sox grasp, it seemed a very bad thing.

At Sports Illustrated, Jay Jaffe considers what might have been had Epstein pulled off the complicated deal that, in part, would have sent Manny Ramirez and very young Jon Lester, along with cash, to the Rangers in return for Rodríguez. The deal that never happened is also chronicled in ESPN’s 30-for–30 series.

First and last time at Fenway

Rodríguez is undoubtedly a smart guy. He’s likely also a reflective one.

As he walks into Fenway this week he will, no doubt, recall his very first major league at-bat on that day back in 1994, just days before his 19th birthday. It was here, with the Mariners, that it all started for A-Rod. And it’s here, nearly 2,800 games and 22 years later, that it all draws to a close.


Your 1st Place Red Sox

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Sunday’s exciting Red Sox 8-7 win over the Yankees combined with the Orioles loss to the White Sox put Boston in sole possession of 1st place in the American League East. In handing New York their fifth straight loss, the Sox improved to five games over .500 for the first time since 2013.

Offensive Might

The Sox woke up to Monday’s off day leading the AL in average runs scored per game (5.36), total runs scored (134), hits (252), triples (9), RBI (127), batting average (.285), on-base percentage (.347), total bases (400), and OPS (.799).

The Sox lead all teams in doubles (67) and (are you sitting down?) stolen bases (22). Along with the 2013 World Championship team, the 2016 crew are just the second Red Sox team in the last 20 years to steal as many as 22 bases in their first 25 games.

Early and Often

The hit parade continued Sunday with 14 Boston hits. To date, the Red Sox have had 10 or more hits in 15 games this season, more than any other major league team.

Moreover, Red Sox runs have come quickly so far this season, forestalling the maddening prospect, played out so frequently in 2015, of having to come from behind early in the game. With 30 each, the Red Sox and Nationals are tied for the major league lead in first inning runs. No other team in baseball has more than 21. The Sox lead MLB with 63 runs over the first three innings of the game.

Shaky Pitching

On the season, Red Sox pitchers own a 4.26 ERA collectively, third highest in the American League after the Astros (4.80) and Yankees (4.79). But there’s reason for hope. Team ERA looks more reasonable when viewed over the past 14 days, shrinking to 3.82, or 8th lowest in the AL.

Overall, Boston pitching has struck out 236 opponents, the second most in any first month of Red Sox play since at least 1913. Only the 2013 club had more SO (255).

Still, David Price has yet to fully find his groove, and is tied for having allowed the most earned runs (25) in baseball. Compounding matters, Clay Buchholz appears third on that same list for the AL having allowed 20 earned runs already this season.

Price, who hit three batters in all of 2015, has plunked four already this season, tied for second most among AL hurlers.

Meanwhile, Steven Wright, who likely wouldn’t have had a starters role with the Sox had it not been for the unfortunate injury to Eduardo Rodriguez, continues to impress with a 1.37 ERA after 4 starts this season, the second lowest in the AL. New closer Craig Kimbrel is tied for the AL lead in saves (8).

Talking About Hanley

You may have thought we would be talking a lot about Hanley Ramirez by this point in the season—and we are, but for all the right reasons.

Reborn as the Sox first baseman, Ramirez appears fired up, having fun, and most importantly, producing on the field.

Ramirez has driven in nine runs over his last 10 games, including a game tying two run single with the bases loaded Sunday before being thrown out at third to end the inning. Ramirez remains one of four error-free AL first basemen.


Sunday Morning Odds ‘n Ends

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Random thoughts from the Red Sox week that just finished:

  1. The Yankees are in last place and while that’s unlikely to last, the Sox are capitalizing on New York’s slow start, taking the first two games of this weekend’s series. Saturday night’s shut out win over New York was historical for a number of reasons.
    • Regardless of Sunday’s outcome, Saturday’s win ended a string of 6 straight series win at Fenway for the Bombers over the Sox dating back to 2014.
    • Saturday’s game featured two triples by Jackie Bradley, Jr., making the Red Sox the first team since the 1962 Cardinals to have two different players with two triples in a game before the end of April, according to Elias. Mookie Betts also had two triples on April 22.
    • Saturday’s shutout of the Yankees was the first by the Red sox since June 2, 2013 at Yankee Stadium and the first at Fenway in over five years (May 14, 2011).
    • The 8-0 win was the widest margin of victory by the Red Sox in a shutout of the Yankees since an 11-0 win on September 6, 2003 in the Bronx. The Sox hadn’t shutout the Yanks in Boston by that margin since a 10-0 win at Fenway on August 2, 1973.
  2. It’s impossible not to be impressed with the way David Ortiz is going in this, his final MLB season. Last Wednesday, April 27, Papi became just the 11th player in baseball history (and first Red Sox player ever) to collect three doubles in a game at age 40 or older. Before Ortiz, the last MLB player to accomplish that feat was the Giants’ Omar Vizquel on August 1, 2007.
  3. Sox pitcher Steven Wright is in some elite company. Wright started this season working at least 6.0 innings in four starts without allowing more than two earned runs. The only other Red Sox pitchers to do that in the past 20 seasons are Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, and Clay Buchholz. If you count his work in the 2015 season, Wright has pitched at least 5.0 innings and allowed two runs-or-fewer in each of his last seven starts, the longest active streak in the Majors.
  4. Happily, Hanley Ramirez has settled in nicely at first base, error-free in 150 total chances going into Saturday’s game. Ramirez does, however, lead the club in strikeouts with at least one SO in 17 games of the first 24 games of the season, the most since Mike Napoli collected 19 such games in that span of time during the 2014 campaign. In 2014 Napoli tied the team record for strikeouts over the first 24 Red Sox games (21, also Dick Stuart in 1963).
  5. Cardinals rookie shortstop Aledmys Diaz enters May with a .423 batting average after 71 at-bats. Earlier in the week Elias reported said Diaz was the first rookie in Major League Baseball’s modern era (post 1900) to post a .500 batting average after 50-or-more career at-bats.
  6. Though largely reduced over the past couple seasons, doubles have long been a major part of the Red Sox offensive toolbox. In fact, no club has led MLB for doubles in a season more frequently than the Sox, who’ve topped baseball’s Doubles List for 45 non-consecutive seasons starting in 1912 and ending in 2013. In 2016, doubles appear to be back in style for Boston, which starts the month of May with 66, the most in the majors and the club’s most in a first month since 2003 (71). The Red Sox have five players with six or more doubles thus far (Xander Bogaerts, Bradley, Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, and Travis Shaw). No other club has more than four such players.
  7. The Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen produced three home runs in one game last Tuesday for the second time in his career. He joins Hall of Famers Ralph Kiner (who had four such games), Willie Stargell (4), and Roberto Clemente (2) as the only players in Pittsburgh history with multiple three-HR games. In Red Sox history since 1913, Hall of Famer Ted Williams had three career games with three HRs each. Mo Vaughn, Nomar Garciaparra, and Hall of Famer Jim Rice each had two such games. Dustin Pedroia is one of 17 Sox players with one such game.
  8. Good starts: No American League club has more first inning runs than the Red Sox (29). The nearest AL competitor has just 17. In all of baseball, only the Nationals have more first-inning runs (30) than the Sox. There’s still a long way to go, but for all of 2015, the Sox had the fourth fewest such runs in the AL.
  9. We keep hearing that this Red Sox lineup will hit home runs when the weather warms. We’ll see. Their 19 in the first month is the club’s fewest over a first month of play since the 1974 team also had 19. Interestingly, the Sox’ 21 stolen bases are the club’s second most ever for the first month of a campaign. Only the 2013 team had more (22).

One & Done: Yankees Finished

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When all was said and done, after  a full slate of 162 games, the Yankees wound up playing one more than the Red Sox.

Tuesday’s 3-0 shutout, Wild Card victory by the Astros stung for New York fans, who soundly booed their team, after watching decent pitching but a nearly silent Yankee offense. All during the regular season, the Yankees were shutout just twice at home.

With just three hits, the Yankees were shutout in a postseason elimination game for only the 5th time since 1903. Remarkably, all five of those games have come at home in New York. In 379 postseason Yankees games since 1903, Tuesday’s was just the 15th with three or fewer Bombers’ hits.

New York had averaged 4.72 runs per game in the 2015 regular season, second only to the Blue Jays’ 5.50 mark, the best record in baseball. But of late, Yankee runs have been hard to come by. Over their last 12 games of the season the Yankees were 4-8, averaging just 3.0 runs per game.

The Astros face off against the Royals in the American League Division Series starting Thursday.