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In this season so far it has taken the Red Sox multiple games to accumulate seven runs. That they did so late in a game down by four runs is remarkable. But which Red Sox team will prevail in the coming months? The team that struggles to string together hits or the squad that explodes for a touchdown in a single frame? Rusney Castillo kicked off the eighth with a four-bagger into the Monster seats. It was his first home run in 2015. At least the local nine wouldn’t be shut out at Fenway. Your browser does not support iframes. Bob Melvin pulled Kendall Graveman in favor of Evan Scribner. Scribner relinquished a string of three singles, failing to get an out. The Red Sox winnowed the lead to two runs and had three outs to work with. Drew Pomeranz secured an out but it was a sacrifice fly off David Ortiz’s bat that narrowed the gap to a single run. Melvin reached into his bullpen again and summoned Tyler Clippard. Mike Napoli worked the count full but struck out swinging. Pablo Sandoval’s respite seemed to help him. The third baseman kept the rally alive with a liner to left....
Rusney Castillo was pivotal to this game. Defensively he robbed Aaron Hicks of a home run in the top of the eighth inning. In the seventh with two outs Xander Bogaerts ricocheted the ball high off the wall below the flagpole in center field, just missing a home run. Sandy Leon worked a five-pitch walk off Mike Pelfrey. Castillo followed with a gutshot single that plated the only run of the game. Your browser does not support iframes. Clay Buchholz continued his post-haircut excellence. The slim starter went eight innings giving up just three hits and two walks while striking out eight. Your browser does not support iframes. In sync with Buchholz’s jersey number Koji Uehara took over in the ninth to tally his 11th save. Uehara allowed a walk to Trevor Plouffe with two out but induced a fly ball to center for the final out. Game 52: June 2, 2015 Minnesota Twins30-20 0 L: Mike Pelfrey (4-2) No extra base hits Boston Red Sox23-29 1 W: Clay Buchholz (3-6)S: Koji Uehara (11) 2B: Mike Napoli (6), Xander Bogaerts (6)...
Rick Porcello was pitching fairly well up until Albert Pujols took him long in the fourth inning. After the circuit clout Porcello loaded the bases by surrendering two singles and walking seven-hole hitter Chris Iannetta. The Red Sox starter got out of the jam when Blake Swihart caught Matt Joyce off third base to end the inning. The Red Sox took the lead in the bottom of the fourth only to have Porcello get into even more trouble in the fifth inning. Johnny Giavotella and Erick Aybar worked walks. Mike Trout’s ball deflected off Brock Holt to Xander Bogaerts, plating both baserunners for the lead. Bogaerts butchered the throw and Trout advanced to second base. The fun for the Angels didn’t stop there. Trout dashed to third base with Kole Calhoun batting. His slide was an amazing display of dexterity. He avoided Holt’s tag and just as his hand lost contact with the base his foot touched. John Tumpane called him out and Trout informed Mike Scioscia that they should challenge the call. The replay displayed Trout’s perfect coordination. Rusney Castillo had a rough outing in his first major league game in 2015. In the fifth he failed to hold...
Once again the Red Sox routed the opposition. Masahiro Tanaka wasn’t sharp in his second start since his return and the local nine took advantage of that. It feels like the rookies are auditioning for starting roles and veterans are making sure they keep theirs in the waning days of the season. Joe Kelly put the finishing touches on his strong case to be a relied-upon starter in 2015. He had the longest outing of career and notched his sixth win of the season with a strong line, keeping in mind he had a huge lead to work with: 7⅓ innings, 9 hits, 4 earned runs, 2 walks, and 3 strikeouts. The second inning featured 14 plate appearances by Red Sox batters. There were three walks, six singles, and a double. After Boston scored five earnd runs Allen Craig reached on Eury Perez’s misplay and Daniel Nava scored. Tanaka’s stat line was spared the three runs after Perez’s error, but surely the young Yankees center fielder was spoken to by Joe Girardi. Derek Jeter’s sterling presence inspired the Yankees infield even though he didn’t play short. In the fourth inning New York turned a heads-up inning-ending double play. Garin Cecchini...
While Derek Jeter was putting the finishing touches on his historic run at shortstop in the Bronx the Red Sox youth movement started what will hopefully be voluminous feats of their own in Boston. Christian Vazquez was a triple short of hitting for the cycle. He went 4-for-4 in the nine hole. In the second inning he knocked the ball off one of the signs above the Green Monster for his first homer in the bigs. With so little to celebrate this season it was wonderful to see such genuine joy in the dugout. Rusney Castillo also had a spectacular offensive evening. The center fielder batted seventh and went 2-for-4. In the third inning with two men on and one out he powered the ball into the first row of the Monster seats. His other hit was a near-homer in the seventh inning. This season Boston has played 19 rookies. The last time the Red Sox came close to that number was 1952, which featured 18 newcomers. That team finished sixth in the American League with a losing record of 76-78. I found 11 of the players on the wonderful site Baseball Almanac. Hal Bevan Milt Bolling Ralph Brickner Dick...
The title is a variation of the Hawai‘i Creole English (HCE) phrase “garan ball-barans.” It combines a shortened version of the word “guaranteed” followed by an HCE pronunciation of the term “ball bearings.” Kirby Yates, who came to the Tampa Bay Rays by way of Kauai, would understand. Garin Cecchini had a spectacular night. He clouted his first major league home run in the second inning. The leadoff home run landed in the visitors’ bullpen. The third baseman got the time-honored silent treatment when he returned to the dugout. On the defensive side Cecchini needs some polish, but he turned in a trio of gems last night. He ended the first inning with a diving stop of Logan Forsythe’s grounder. His throw to Allen Craig was high but the first baseman managed to come down with it. Your browser does not support iframes. Cecchini was key to stopping a potential rally in the eighth inning with a pair of fine plays. He snared Wil Myers’s liner with Evan Longoria at second base, a catch that probably saved a run. Later in the eighth he captured another of Forsythe’s sharply rapped grounders. This time his throw to first, manned by Ryan...
Last night David Ortiz surpassed all other Red Sox players for total seasons with 30 or more home runs and 100 or more runs batted in. He clouted a solo homer in the fourth inning to knot the game at 1-1 and added another line to his entry in the annals of Red Sox history. Ortiz has accomplished this feat eight times, one more season than Ted Williams. When Ortiz and Manny Ramirez paired up for their historic era I thought Ramirez was the one who would be honored in Cooperstown. Voters would find it difficult to overlook Ramirez’s 50- and 100-game suspensions in 2009 and 2011 respectively. But they may forgive Ortiz’s appearance on the 2003 survey list that contained names that were never supposed to be revealed. MLB and the players union subsequently stated that these results were not be construed as definitive for use of performance enhancing substances. Not one to rest on his laurels, Ortiz blasted a two-run homer in the 10th inning to pull Boston ahead 5-3. Your browser does not support iframes. Rusney Castillo collected another infield hit. He beat out Ryan Flaherty’s throw to first base in the fourth frame. He has power...
Yesterday was Roberto Clemente Day, a day to celebrate not only a great baseball player but a self-sacrificing humanitarian. Pittsburgh beat writers would spell out his Spanish accent when quoting him, but Clemente rose above such petty bigotry. He lost his life when a plane delivering aid to Nicaraguan earthquake victims crashed. Clemente said, “Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on Earth.” I know Clemente wasn’t part of the “We Are Family” team, but I thought his achievements should be celebrated. Rusney Castillo made his major league debut in center field. He had four at bats: a ground out to Russell Martin in the second, a single in the fourth with two down and a man on, a fly ball out to center to lead off the seventh, and another ground out to start off the ninth. It wasn’t an electrifying premiere, but he has been bouncing around from team to team while trying to adjust to a whole new world. It will take time for him to learns the ins and outs of the show. Castillo displayed fielding prowess in the fifth inning....
The Red Sox built an early lead by scoring in each one of the first three innings. Brandon Workman had a disastrous fourth inning that saw the Mariners bat around and score seven runs. After Seattle pulled ahead Boston loaded the bases in the bottom half of the frame but didn’t capitalize on the opportunity. Brandon Workman was optioned to Pawtucket today and Heath Hembree took his place on the roster. He has lost all of his eight starts since June 27. He is the pitching equivalent of Jackie Bradley, Jr.; a young talent that just can’t consistently be successful in the majors. This youth displayed his skills in the first inning. His reaction to interfering with a ball in play was similar to Red Sox fans’ reactions to this homestand as a whole: head in hands in disbelief. Your browser does not support iframes. From the “there’s a first time for everything” department comes David Ross’s first ejection ever. Ross took issue with first base umpire Vic Carapazza’s ruling that he went around when he tried to check swing in the eighth inning. He thought he was awarded first base on a walk but then Carapazza gestured at him...
Sure, the Red Sox were swept by the Angels and are suffering through a five-game losing streak. They were nearly no-hit by Matt Shoemaker but for Will Middlebrooks’s double to the left field corner in the seventh inning, Boston’s only hit of the game. In the sixth inning Mike Scioscia was ejected after he complained about Albert Pujols getting tossed. Home plate umpire Andy Fletcher has rabbit ears almost as keen as Robert Griffin III’s to have been able to hear Pujols’s grousing. This Fletcher is not to be confused with Depeche Mode’s keyboardist and founding member of the same name. The umpire Fletcher certainly enjoyed the silence after ridding of Scioscia. Yoenis Cespedes made a patented assist in the first inning to end the frame and stop a run from scoring. The Angels played against Oakland a lot, right? They should be aware of Cespedes’s cannon, shouldn’t they? Your browser does not support iframes. Cespedes left the game in the third inning because of a medical emergency with one of his family members. Best wishes to Cespedes’s mother. Other than Middlebrooks’s hit, Scioscia’s ejection, and Cespedes’s assist the only other on-field excitement for the Red Sox was Mookie Betts’s...
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Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library’s Sports Temples of Boston.