The two games on Saturday could not have been any different from a Red Sox standpoint. In the opener, Jake Bennett was brilliant, throwing six shutout innings while allowing only three hits and striking out seven Bombers. Tyron Guerrero and Garrett Whitlock each threw scoreless innings to maintain the Red Sox’ slim 2-0 lead, and after the offense stretched out the lead in the top of the ninth, Jovani Moran filled in for Chappy and slammed the door shut.
Offensively, the Sox got a big homer in the first inning from Abreu to set the tone for the game, and then some excellent baserunning and timely mistakes by the Yankees helped give Boston a two-run lead that the pitchers would not relinquish.
Finally, in the ninth inning, Boston took advantage of bullpen punching bag Ryan Yarbrough, whom Aaron Boone left out there for three innings to save the staff for the remainder of the series. Hits by Rutschman, Monasterio, Sogard, and Rafaela all helped turn a 2-0 nail-biter into a far more comfortable 6-0 victory.
Game two of the twin bill gave the impression that it might be another pitchers’ duel like the first two games of the series. Alec Gamboa managed to throw a scoreless first inning during a Bello Game, and when Nick Sogard homered the opposite way off Max Fried, it looked like perhaps this one would follow the same script as the first game.
Unfortunately, in the bottom of the third, instead of throwing a shutdown inning to keep the momentum going, Bullpen Bello reverted back to Starter Bello and appeared to hit one of those stretches where he simply couldn’t get it together.
A leadoff single by Caballero on a pretty good two-strike pitch, which he just reached out and slapped past a diving Nick Sogard, seemed to set Bello spinning. Caballero swiped second base, and Bello then walked Trent Grisham on five pitches. A flare single to right-center off the end of Ben Rice’s bat tied the game, and when the slow-bouncing ball clanged off the Gold Glove of Abreu, Grisham advanced to third.
Bello then drilled Ramos with a 1-2 pitch to load the bases with no outs. Luis García Jr. hit a grounder to Contreras at first, and he was able to get the runner going to second, but there was no chance for two, and the runner from third scored to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Jazz Chisholm then hit a sacrifice fly to center, and Boston was down 3-1.
It remained 3-1 into the sixth, when Bello relinquished another run and turned the game over to Raymond Burgos, who represented the human white flag for this game.
Burgos went the final 2.1 innings and allowed five runs on seven hits.
And that was all she wrote.
Just When I Start to Have Faith in a Guy
Yesterday at this time, I was singing the praises of Chad Tracy and how well he managed his bench and bullpen despite losing the first game on Friday night. In the first game of the doubleheader, there really wasn’t an awful lot for him to do, as the Yankees gave away a run and didn’t have much of a chance against Bennett.
In the second game, however, I found myself questioning a number of moves, or non-moves, that were made.
In the third inning, after Sogard homered, Wong singled off Fried, who, coming off the injury, didn’t look like his normal self. With Eli White up, Tracy allowed him to swing away instead of continuing to put pressure on Fried and the Yankees by playing some small ball.
Eli White has not exactly been knocking the cover off the ball lately, so the idea of having him lay one down and using his speed to put pressure on the Yankees defense seemed like an excellent option. White swung away, flew out, and failed to advance the runner.
The next batter, Jones, singled. Instead of having, at worst, runners on the corners with one out, Boston had runners at first and second with one out. Rafaela grounded into a fielder’s choice, Abreu popped out...No run.
In the sixth, the first two batters reached base on a hit-by-pitch and a walk. The Yankees were into their bullpen, and Durbin was up. No bunt.
He struck out.
Monasterio struck out.
Sogard flew out.
No run.
Despite some brief moments of power and contagious hitting, this team is still not a dominant offense. They must continuously do all of the little things well to be successful. Chad Tracy cannot forget that.
Hustle Beats Talent When Talent Never Hustles
On Sunday, the Red Sox are sending down Mickey Gasper and Anthony Seigler and bringing Trevor Story and Roman Anthony back from their rehab assignments. On the surface, this seems like a no-brainer move and something no one should waste a sentence on, let alone a paragraph or two.
But with the current constitution of the Boston Red Sox, that title quote seems to be the motto of the turnaround from June to July. Seigler and Gasper are the poster boys for hustle and doing everything you can with what you have to help the team win.
Anthony and Story are clearly talented baseball players. Yes, he is. You don’t play ten years in Major League Baseball and make multiple All-Star appearances without having more baseball ability than 99.9% of the entire global population!
Anyway...I understand that there is something to be said for the flow, vibe, and chemistry of a team. But you know when you don’t have to worry quite as much about chemistry?
When you actually have talent and that talent produces!
It is time for Anthony and Story to produce because, if they don’t, they will certainly be vilified for messing with the culture of a good thing.
Image courtesy of https://talksox.com/news-rumors/boston-red-sox/will-the-red-sox-let-wilyer-abreu-face-left-handed-pitching-r2283/