You Will Remember This Game
Some games stick with you. Not with me, I have a terrible memory, but with you. Through 162 mostly forgettable interspersed wins and losses, some games will stand out in your memory and last night’s will be one of them. The Red Sox come-from-behind series-winning 8-7 road win over the Toronto Blue Jays in their funhouse mirror of a ballpark in Dunedin, Florida will be mined for highlights by whomever makes the Red Sox 2021 season DVD. Heck, I might even remember this game.
But before getting into it, if you don’t already, hey, subscribe to this newsletter! It’s free, it’s about the Red Sox, and I write it, so two out of three ain’t bad, right?
Don’t Call It A Comeback Because They Already Had A Lead But Still That Offense Goes And Goes And Goes
This Red Sox offense doesn’t stop. Oh sure, it slows down when the back part rolls around, but then they get back to the top of the lineup and it fires up again, good as new. The first inning came and went for the Red Sox, a speedy one-two-three by lefty mediocrity Steven Matz and for a second I was miffed but then I was like, oh whatever, they’ll get him next time. And guess what? They did. Here’s how the second inning went:
Strikeout
Groundout (Devers; you’ll see why in a second)
Single
Single
Homerun
Double
Single
Single
Single
Walk
Strikeout (Devers again)
Seven straight hits, all with two out, scored five runs and turned a 2-0 deficit into a 5-2 lead. Sure, that lead would be given away by the same team that acquired it, and almost as quickly, but that second inning was in and of itself quite something.
The Red Sox don’t have the best offense in baseball anymore. Instead they are fourth (by FanGraphs measurements) on the season and fifth in May (though that doesn’t count Thursday’s eight runs). So yeah, tough times. The amazing thing about the hitting is that, as I wrote about yesterday, it really has been mostly just four dudes doing the damage. Bobby Dalbec seems like the next candidate join the party though. He had two hits, a hard single off Vlad Guerrero’s glove and a homer off the right field foul pole. In short, things seem to be coming around for the young first baseman.
That’s a pretty strong two weeks. I won’t say the Red Sox were expecting a slash line like that for the season, but the occasional two week hot streak sure makes the medicine go down more smoothly. Even with yesterday’s hits Dalbec’s OPS is still below .700 and his on-base percentage is well below 30 percent, so there is still work to be done. But, with signs of improvement, and with the middle of the order holding down the fort while the rookie learns, the team can afford to wait a bit longer.
I’m less sanguine on the rest of the lineup, the Hunter Renfroes, Kike Hernandezs and Michael Chavis/Marwin Gonzalez/whomever-else-is-manning-this-lineup-spots, but with the exception of Hernandez who provides not just defensive versatility but actual defensive value at the numerous positions he plays, these guys are mostly just guys. It’s not hard to squint into the distance though and see a Red Sox team with some combination of Jarren Duran and Triston Casas filling out the lineup with maybe a trade deadline piece or, if we’re talking about next season, a free agent signing. That’d be cooking with fire.
Nick Pivetta
Nick Pivetta has gone from under-rated to over-rated. He was a canny acquisition and with some work he’s been able to turn his potential into on-field results. Those results have been extremely impressive though, perhaps more impressive than they really should be. The boxscore numbers mask some deficiencies, namely Pivetta’s copious walks allowed, and his extremely low home run rate, something he’s never accomplished before and something the rest of his batted ball data doesn’t support.
So I have concerns. Last start though Pivetta was legitimately extremely good. He got strikeouts, he limited hard contact, he pitched to the corners and he didn’t walk anyone. I think he might have been at least as good during Thursday’s game, but the stats won’t show it. Pivetta was victimized by some porous infield defense behind him and some extremely strange conditions in the minor league ball park the Jays are using as a temporary home.
Pivetta started the first inning with a strikeout. The next two batters doubled. Looks bad, right? The first double was by Bo Bichette who reached out and flicked a low and away slider off his front foot. The ball looked like a pop-up off the bat but the gale that was blowing out to right field caught it and flung it off the wall. The second double was hit well by Vlad Guerrero but was catchable in front of the wall except at that time of day the sun makes seeing a batted ball let alone catching one an impossibility. Left fielder Alex Verdugo had no idea where the ball was off the bat until it hit off the outfield wall. There’s your two doubles. At Fenway that’s a one-two-three inning.
There was more, as the Red Sox managed to shift themselves out of several outs. This was a continuation of Tuesday’s game in which just about every Blue Jay’s batted ball made it through the infield unscathed. I wouldn’t presume to tell the Red Sox where or how to shift, but do politely suggest they double check their numbers because, sure this can happen, I guess, but it’s really not supposed to. In the fifth inning the Blue Jays scored two runs on a walk, a Rafael Devers error, and two singles. Both singles were routine ground balls to positions typically occupied by fielders, but which were vacant due to shifting.
The point: tough to blame Pivetta for getting three double play balls in an inning and having them go down as two singles and a runs-scoring error. All that drove up his pitch count though as well as saddled him with runs his pitching wouldn’t normally have caused.
Infield Defense
The Red Sox committed three errors yesterday and rather than go through all three, I’ll just say something you already likely know, namely that this is a continuing issue. Not so much the actual errors (though those aren’t great) but the team’s lack of range and general fielding competence is and will continue to cost them runs until they’re able to fix it. Thing is, I’m not sure there’s really a way to fix it. This isn’t a little league team. These are pro ballplayers who are at the very edge of their abilities. A couple extra hours of practice and a good pre-game speech aren’t going to get it done. Other than becoming exasperated with Devers’ mistakes and moving him to first or DH, something I’m not in favor of now but am becoming more and more in favor of as time goes on, there’s not much this 2021 squad can do to improve their defense. Check those shifting numbers though. That stuff has to stop.
JD Martinez!
For as well as Pivetta pitched and the great run of seven straight two-out hits and the rally-starting singles by Dalbec and Michael Chavis in the ninth, none of it means squat if J.D. doesn’t do the thing. He got a hanging slider from Jays reliever Rafael Dolis right in the middle of the zone and he launched it.
You can do everything right and set yourself up, but if the big man doesn’t come through when it matters, nothing gets accomplished. Last night the big man came through! Martinez’s homer put the Sox up, gave Matt Barnes a chance to slam the door shut on the Jays’ fingers (he did!) and ultimately gave the Red Sox a series win on the road against a surging divisional opponent.
That’s the good stuff right there.
The View
The Rays are surging, though it helps they’re playing the helpless Orioles, and the Yankees don’t give up runs anymore, but none of that matters because the view from up here is spectacular.
Have a great weekend, everybody.