No game defines a season. In a group of 162 though, an occasional game will stand out. Yesterday’s matchup against the Mets and their whatever-is-better-than-an-ace, Jacob deGrom, was one of those games.
It’s not that Nick Pivetta threw a no-hitter, or Rafael Devers hit for the cycle, or really, anyone did anything outstanding. What really stood out is that nothing really stood out. No perfection was necessary, no enduring feat was required to overcome this supreme obstacle, just overall team-level competence. The fact that the Red Sox could meet that challenge in the least notable way is, in itself, extremely notable.
The total effect was of a very good baseball team playing very good baseball. Everything needed to win a game against the best pitcher in baseball was done. When the ninth inning ended, Boston was ahead 1-0, I was standing on my couch, my hands red from clapping and my throat horse from yelling, and my cats were hiding under the couch because, as was obvious to any cat in the room, I am a maniac.
That’s not to say there weren’t outstanding plays made, fantastic pitches thrown, or terrific at-bats executed. There were all of those things. Nick Pivetta started and was… good. Pivetta always seems to me like he’s about to fall completely apart, even when the count is 0-and-2, there are two outs, and nobody is on base. And then when you wipe the flop sweat from your brow and look at his line at the end of the night, you see that actually, dude was pretty good.
Pivetta threw 55 strikes in his 93 pitches, about the bare minimum to be considered good. He did walk three and hit a batter, but he also struck out seven while giving up just one hit. He was effective, and the Red Sox defense supported him, something that hasn’t always been the case this season. Part of his effectiveness was also, it should be noted, the Mets hitters, who appeared to miss maybe more than a few hittable pitches. Francisco Lindor in particular looks out of sorts, and Michael Conforto and Dominic Smith struck out thrice each. But part of pitching well is getting out whomever is standing in the batters box, struggling hitters included, and Pivetta did that, so credit to him, whether or not he turns me into a sweaty mess.
Back to the pitching in a moment, but the Red Sox scored the only run of the game on back-to-back doubles off of deGrom by Xander Bogaerts and Christian Vazquez in the second inning. Bogaerts’ was crushed, but it looked to be catchable up against the wall had left fielder Dom Smith not glided back on the ball. But he did, so the ball hit up against the wall instead of landing in a glove, and X made it to second unscathed. Then up stepped a struggling Vazquez. Over the last 10 games, Vazquez has hit .143 with an OPS that starts with a 0.3. The man was facing the best pitcher in baseball and of course got down in the count 0-2 by fouling off two 99 mph fastballs at the top of the strike zone.
The second one was a foul tip, so deGrom must have figured he’d climb the ladder a bit, buzz one by Vazquez and move on to the next guy. This was an entirely reasonable thought, so he did. The next pitch was a 100.3 mph fastball up by Vazquez’s chest. deGrom was right that Vazquez would swung, but he was wrong that Vazquez would miss. Against all odds, against all logic, against everything we’ve seen and know to be true, somehow, some way, some something, Vazquez crushed it.
It flew into the right-center field gap, Bogaerts scored, and that was the only time anyone touched home plate all day long.
But seriously, how did Vazquez hit that pitch? 100 mph at the letters? Wow.
Back to pitching. The bullpen came in after five innings for Pivetta. Garrett Whitlock threw two innings and was spectacular. He allowed two baserunners in the sixth on a walk and a single. Single is generous, considering the hit was a weak roller to second base, but because of the shift second baseman Marwin Gonzalez was on the left side of the infield and so the weak roller just kept on weak rolling, gently through the infield, softly as you please. Whitlock then got Dom Smith on a swinging bunt to end the inning. That was one of only two times the Mets ever had more than one runner on base in an inning.
In fact, the last three innings of Mets “hitting” went like this: fly out, strike out, strike out, strike out, line out, fly out, strike out, strike out, strike out. That’s some relief pitching right there!
Whitlock, Adam Ottavino, and Matt Barnes threw four scoreless innings, striking out eight, and walking one. The only hit was the one accidental weak roller past second base by Pete Alonso.
You may have noticed the “line out” listed above, and that was off the bat of Lindor. It was scalded and heading over Marwin’s head when this happened.
The end result was, at least on the pitching side, something just short of domination. On the hitting side, something just beyond enough. Combine the two and you get a series sweep.
The View
Sadly the Yankees aren’t in last place anymore, so we’ll have to settle for enjoying their losing record.
The Future, Conan?
I can honestly say I wasn’t thinking about a sweep when this abbreviated series began. Any time Jacob deGrom is on the bump that’s not a game you expect to win. And with Garrett Richards struggling so badly coming into his start on Tuesday, that was hard to see going well either. But Richards and Pivetta both pitched really well, and the offense did just enough to get by. It was, as they say, a team win. Those are the fun ones.
The Sox open a four game set in Texas against the Rangers today. I’ll have more on that as the series goes on, and the Sox Outsider Podcast will have an episode up later today previewing the series, so look for that wherever you get your podcasts.
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