For the second night in a row, a high-profile player showed Red Sox Nation just what he is capable of doing when all is right. Like Adley Rutschman on Thursday, Ranger Suárez took the mound on Friday night and delivered the type of performance that we thought we would see just about every fifth day all season long.
Unfortunately, injuries and inconsistent performance have reduced Craig Breslow’s top offseason free-agent acquisition to a five-inning, hope-and-pray, back-end-of-the-rotation guy, as opposed to the top-end guy he was billed as.
On Friday night in Baltimore, Ranger flipped a switch and hopefully gave Chad Tracy and Andrew Bailey a peek behind the curtain at what is to come down the stretch.
Suárez was brilliant, completing seven innings and scattering five hits and one walk while allowing no runs. He toed the slab in the bottom of the first up 1-0, thanks to what seemed like the nightly home run by Mickey Gasper, and appeared determined that it would be all he needed.
He retired the Orioles in order in the first with precision and aggression in the strike zone and never wavered from that approach for the entirety of the outing. In two of his seven innings, he allowed two Orioles to reach base, but unlike in his previous starts, they came with one or more outs already in the inning, and it never seemed like there was much of a threat of Baltimore scoring.
Ranger pitched with complete control and confidence, which has been sorely lacking since his return from the IL at the end of July. This performance marked the first time he completed six innings, let alone seven, since the end of June and was as important to the bullpen as it was to Ranger’s own psyche.
Let’s hope this is a harbinger of things to come and not a one-night-only performance.
Besides the solo shot from Gasper in the first inning, the Red Sox offense did not show any carryover from the night before. They managed only five hits in total, and although they walked four times and were gifted two runners by Orioles errors, the team was 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and did not demonstrate any inclination to play the brand of aggressive baseball that has made them successful.
Mickey Gasper had two hits, and all three members of the bottom of the order also contributed a hit, but the rest of the lineup went hitless. They combined to strike out eleven times and leave ten men on base.
Not a recipe for success unless you plan on receiving dominant starts like the one you saw on Friday, and since this is the Red Sox we are talking about, the chances of that happening even once more in the regular season are rather remote!
After Ranger was lifted following a perfect seventh inning, Chad Tracy turned to his dynamic duo of Garrett Whitlock for the eighth and Aroldis Chapman for the ninth. And just like Thursday night, the pair was successful in locking down the win, thankfully with a lot less stress.
Whitlock gave up a leadoff hit but got the next batter to fly out to center and then ended his inning after just three batters by inducing a 6-4-3 double play from Luis Robert Jr.
In the ninth, Chapman retired all three batters he faced. This time, Alonso grounded out to Story at short, Gunnar Henderson struck out, and Encarnacion-Strand, who homered off Chapman the night before, lined out to Story.
Let’s Get It On!
Following the double play that ended the bottom of the eighth inning, a little dustup occurred at second base that brought members of both benches and bullpens scurrying onto the field.
It appears that it was all over the fact that Orioles right fielder Blaze Alexander didn’t like the way either Sogard or Story stared at him after his slide into second base on the play. From the angles available on the NESN broadcast, it didn’t appear that Alexander did anything all that egregious going into the base. He might have extended his arm slightly to make contact with Sogard’s leg as he came through with his throw, but the contact, if there was any, didn’t look that bad, and it clearly didn’t impact the throw or prevent them from completing the play.
It could simply be something about Camden Yards and the memory of what Manny Machado did to Dustin Pedroia back in 2017. Pedroia was never the same after that, and much of Red Sox Nation still has PTSD from the incident. (Here is the video)
Whatever the reason, it was nice to see the Red Sox showing some fight and unity, no matter what the cause was. And to be honest, I think the best part of the entire situation was watching the Oriole bullpen catchers race each other through the outfield.
It felt like I was watching some staged WWE match where a few guys were coming from backstage with nothing but bad intentions!
Sleep Tight, My Dear
The Rest and Recover Red Sox might actually be able to survive these final few weeks of the season despite all of the handwringing and strife from the fanbase and media.
Since the disaster in the Bronx last weekend and the Red Sox’ new strategy of giving much-needed rest to some integral members of the roster, they haven’t lost a single game in the standings.
Following the 16-1 drubbing on August 30, the Sox held a five-game lead on Cleveland for the second wild card, and Baltimore was the next closest team out of a spot at six games back.
Since then, the Sox have been embarrassed at home by the Mariners, who subsequently traveled home to the Great Northwest, only to drop the first two games of their series against the Athletics! The Sox then traveled south to play the O’s, who were “the biggest” threat to their wild-card hopes last week, only to drop them eight games behind going into Saturday’s contest.
Long story short, the American League really does stink, and as often as I disagree with Craig Breslow and the Red Sox front office, this plan to rest up and put your best foot forward in the Wild Card Series isn’t such a bad idea!
That being said, I have a few nominations for the next long September’s nap.
Caleb Durbin has begun to resemble the player who was bloodied and beaten down by the Driveline Philosophy back in April and May. The amount of physical and emotional energy he expended helping to lead the charge during the summer run has clearly taken its toll on his diminutive Division III body, and it would behoove Chad Tracy to get his sparkplug some time off to recharge.
I also think Aroldis Chapman would benefit from an aborted launch and maybe four or five days off without firing. I don’t think he needs a full IL stay, but he has been using his split-finger and slider far more often in his outings, and those are his secondary pitches for a reason.
It would be a shame if the time comes when we really need him and he doesn’t feel like he has enough rocket fuel in the tank to deliver the 100+ MPH heater, turns to the splitter instead, and that costs us a game in October.
Just Like We Drew It Up
The win on Friday night was straight from the spreadsheets that Craig Breslow and his analytics department printed up in the offseason.
Play close games where our starting pitching is excellent and gives us length, and the stellar back end of the bullpen locks down the lead. Defensively, we play soundly and do not give up any extra outs, while we do just enough offensively to support the pitching.
Congratulations, Craig. Your plan is sound. At least for one night in Baltimore.
It looked and felt like a playoff game. The only concern I have is that when you are actually playing those types of games, it won’t be against pitchers who enter with a 5-14 record, and the opponent won’t be the last-place team in the division with a lineup that ranks in the bottom third in most predominant offensive categories.
Don’t get me wrong, the win was important for this team in many ways, and that should not be overlooked. However, we can’t get overly giddy about back-to-back wins against the last-place team simply because we hit a bunch of home runs in the first game and displayed dominant pitching in the second.
For now, though, two wins are two wins. Just don’t go laminating those spreadsheets quite yet, Craig.
Images Courtesy of https://apnews.com/article/red-sox-orioles-benches-clear-b29e90b2530ff404179b3f917243513d and https://tenor.com/search/lets-get-it-on-gifs