The Sox held on to sweep the Giants out of Massachusetts with a hard-fought 5-4 victory in a game that had everything! There was good pitching, bad pitching, great defense, not-so-great defense, power, clutch hitting, and, most importantly, a victory.
The main focus of Sunday’s game was the status of Jake Bennett, who took the mound coming off eight days of rest. As we all know, Bennett has been a crucial piece of the resurgence of the Sox this summer, and for a guy a few years removed from Tommy John surgery, it is important for the team to manage his innings and workload appropriately. His previous two starts were less than encouraging, and, to be honest, the start to Sunday’s game fell right into that same area of concern.
For the first time this season, Bennett relinquished a first-inning run, and on Sunday it was two! After retiring the first batter he faced, Bennett walked Devers and then gave up three straight singles that put the Giants up 2-0. The deficit would have been even greater had it not been for an amazing diving catch by Ceddanne Rafaela in center that ended the inning. Initially, it also looked like it might have ended Rafaela’s season, as he came up grimacing and grabbing at his wrist. Fortunately, the Sox dodged that bullet, and he would go on to have one of his best games of the year!
I don’t think that’s the kind of good-luck routine I would encourage him to adopt, however.
In the second, Bennett gave up another run when center fielder Jonah Cox smashed his second homer of the year on a middle-middle 92 MPH fastball. As the ball soared higher and higher over the Monster, I couldn’t get the video of the Chinese robot running smack-dab into the wall, that was trending all over social media this week, out of my head!
But alas, there was hope!
Bennett retired the next three batters in order, and then, after allowing a single in the fourth, he retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth while keeping his pitch count low enough that he was able to pitch the seventh as well.
As for the Sox offense, they were all over the Tugboat early and often. They had two hits in the first but squandered a chance to score thanks to another Abreu strikeout with two men on and no outs.
In the second, Sogard decided he liked his homer the other day so much that he would do it again! I guess he had his Happy Gilmore moment... “I should try to get the ball in one shot everytime!”
In the third inning, Rafaela collected his second hit of the game, an RBI single that scored Jahmai Jones, who had raised his average since joining the Sox to what seemed like 1.250 against lefties!
In the fourth, the Sox scored for the third straight inning and finally took the lead and control of the game. Sogard doubled to lead off the inning, and after two straight outs followed, it looked like the Giants had escaped when Connor Wong’s fly ball to left appeared to fall safely into the glove of the left fielder, who jumped against the Monster to make a very impressive catch.
But Chad Tracy challenged the play, and replay confirmed that Wong’s drive banked off the green a few inches above Bericoto’s outstretched glove, and the game was tied at three.
That knocked out the San Francisco starter and brought Mickey Gasper up to pinch-hit for the already 2-2 Jahmai Jones. So, of course, he doubled in a run with a ground ball down the line past first, and Rafaela backed it up with his third hit and second RBI of the game.
It looked like Bennett and the Sox were going to cruise from there, but in the seventh, the “Bad News Sox” of the early season decided to make a late-summer return to Fenway.
With one out, former Red Sox farmhand Christian Koss hit a chopper toward Monasterio at short, who fielded it cleanly but made a throw that one would expect to see on another channel on Sunday at the Little League World Series. Contreras wasn’t able to pick the throw off the bounce, and it skipped right into the runner, who accidentally punted the ball down the right-field line.
As Koss rounded second and headed for third, Abreu picked up the ball and unleashed a rocket toward Durbin! Unfortunately, that rocket must have been made by the ACME Corporation because it went way off course and probably would have drilled a fan in the stands had it not been for the nets around the park.
Koss scored, and Boston’s lead was cut to 5-4.
Thankfully, from there, Tracy was able to put the game in the hands of a well-rested Tyron Guerrero for the eighth and Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, who locked down the win for Bennett and the Sox.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
On Sunday, the Red Sox outfield was all three.
The good was entirely Rafaela! His outstanding catch to get Bennett out of trouble in the top of the first, along with his 3-4 day with two RBI, was a glimpse into the type of player ownership expected to see when they locked him up a few years ago. It is the player we believed was possible as long as the front office stayed out of his way and asked him to play ONLY center field for a season!
The bad...White and Duran combined to go 0-4 in left field.
And the ugly was Abreu, who went 0-4 again with another strikeout and the “50 Cent First Pitch” throw from right field.
Wilyer has been good this year, and the team is going to need him coming down the stretch and, hopefully, into the playoffs. I think a little time off his feet during this Miami series would do him, and ultimately the ball club, a lot of good.
Just Had to Knock the Rust Off
Jake Bennett had one of those comme ci, comme ça games. It started off like it was going to be an absolute disaster and then reverted to a “Maddux-like” work of art.
The question that still remains in the minds of the Red Sox and their fans is whether he was simply knocking off the rust and is going to be fine, or whether the later innings were just a mirage in what might be a continuing decline caused by extended innings and fatigue.
Let’s Go Fishing
The Red Sox are 71-59, six games behind the Rays for the division and three games behind the Yankees for the top Wild Card spot, as they set off on a seven-game road trip that has them visiting the Marlins in Miami before heading to the Evil Empire in the Bronx.
Their destiny is in their hands, but it is important that the Red Sox don’t fall into the trap of overlooking the Fish before the big matchup with the Yankees. Miami is 67-64 in a much better National League, and they are not the pushover they have been for what seems like a decade now. Chad Tracy has his top three starters lined up for this series, and it is extremely important that they remain focused on the goal and not look too far ahead to the Yankees.
We all know what can happen to this team if they lose focus, and it wouldn’t take much of a push to knock them off this balance beam.
Image Courtesy of https://sports.yahoo.com/videos/ceddanne-rafaelas-diving-catch-195209973.html