Happy Marathon Monday! Quite an exciting day in the Boston Sports world. With the running underway, the Sox just threw out their first pitch in the 11 am Series Closer with the O’s.
Blue Jays Series
This past Tuesday, the Sox opened it up play at Fenway against the Jays. After the rings were distributed and the boys were back from their cloud they came out swinging . Tallying a run in the first two innings to get out to an early lead that ultimately would be diminished. Chris Sale came out firing. He shushed the critics for the first few innings throwing a steady 93 MPH 4 Seam Fastball, but the wheels eventually came off the bus. The Jays reached on a few gap shots and tallied two in the 3rd. The Sox lead was gone, but we got out of the inning in decent shape. In the fourth however things got ugly. Then a few more hits led to men on base and Sale could not seem to get outs. On a huge mess up Sale threw from the windup with a guy on third, who in an almost unattested attempt, stole home. He got out of the inning but the Sox production was too little too late. The Jays got the first one.
After an off day, the Sox felt that they had something to prove to the home crowd for game two. Nathan Eovaldi pitched the first five, allowing five earned runs on six hits. The Sox put up four runs through Aaron Sanchez’s five innings but still sat a run behind. That changed in the 7th with Mitch Moreland’s game-tying solo shot to the bullpen. The Jays took the lead back in the 8th inning with a solo shot of their own, and sent the Sox into desperation mode. With no production in the bottom of the 8th, the game went to the bottom of the 9th with the Sox down one run. Mookie reached on a walk. Moreland had one of the best at bats I’ve ever witnessed, battling off pitches left and right, that could’ve surely been strikeouts. He put one deep into center to give Mookie the chance to score all the way from first and tied the ballgame with a stand-up double. Nunez was brought in to pinch run for Moreland, and after an intentional walk to J.D. Martinez, Rafael Devers hit a chopper that took a phenomenal hop over the shallow infielders to walk it off for the Red Sox at home!
Series Winner: Tie (1-1) This will be an exciting match up to watch throughout the season.
Sox Takeaways: Sale started off throwing strong, but after getting flustered in the 3rd seemed to have lost his mojo. Hopefully this is just early season jitters, which I suspect it to be, but he cannot make this a habit. Moreland is single-handedly carrying the team right now with his production, so once more bats come alive we are going to be in great shape.
Orioles Series
The Sox took their first home win and kept the ball rolling in the the series opener with the O’s. Last seasons, worst team in baseball, against the best, the O’s put up a promising fight. The Sox however just piled on the runs and kept the O’s bats as quiet as possible. Erod struck out 8 through 6 2/3 for a promising start. The O’s pulled together four runs late but it was not enough. The Sox took the first one 6-4.
Game two was another hiccup to the season. Rick Porcello was on the mound. He let up six hits through four, one of which being Chris Davis breaking his hitless streak ending it at 0-54. The O’s production was in full swing and the Sox had very little. 9-5 the O’s took game two.
Game three Sunday was a great representation of what the Red Sox are capable of. Price was on the mound and threw seven strikeout through seven innings, while allowing only three hits, and no runs. An absolutely incredible performance for Price, and a great step for the Sox rotation. Benintendi left the game after fouling one off his foot, but production elsewhere in the lineup allowed for a 4-0 victory for the Red Sox.
Game four, a rare 11:05 start was anything but an ordinary start. With Benintendi out the Sox lineup was switched around quite a bit. Hector Velasquez got the nod again as the starter, following his starting debut victory last week. Pearce in left and Vasquez at Second. Vasquez got to show off his talent early, by snapping one to Xander Bogaerts to turn two. The Sox finally broke their hitless streak in the 5th on Bogaerts single. Devers followed with a single that advanced Xander to third. A grounder to third pushed in the run making it 4-1, and after a hard slide from Devers in an attempt to break the double play up, the Orioles head coach was ejected. After an uneventful few innings, Chris Davis broke his drought of homeruns, sending a two run shot out to right field to increase their lead to 6-1. And the bleeding persisted from there. The O’s tacked on two more to close it out. A tough way to end the home stand, but an interesting transition into a road trip to NY.
Series Winner: Tie (2-2) The Red Sox easily could have swept the series, but there was too many missed opportunities.
Sox Takeaways: They need to regroup for NY. They came out hot in game one lost their edge in game 2, game 3 was essentially flawless and today as we saw, was horrible.
What to look for: This upcoming series against the Yankees is really going to set the tone for the rest of the season in my eyes. We need to come out and make a statement right off the bat. Sale is throwing tomorrow and he needs to do exactly what we know he can. Enough of the BS, enough of the critics. Go out there, play baseball and play like defending Champions. This is going to be no easy feat going into New York for this series, but we know the capabilities there. Shake out the jitters, forget about the past and succeed in the future. 6-11 is not an ideal record, but that’s why there are 162 games in a season. Sale is going to wake up tomorrow and show the world and all the haters what he’s got.
Until next week, Go Sox!
-Dan O
