If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries. [What is this?]
David Ortiz pulled an “…And Justice for All” in the seventh inning. He fell behind 1-2 with two out but got a single up the middle. Despite the hit Ortiz protested against home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman’s two called strikes by flipping his bat in front of home plate and making a dismissive gesture towards Dreckman from first base. After Dreckman ejected Ortiz the designated hitter mimed throwing the official out of the game. And the Academy Award goes to… David Ortiz for best show of righteous indignation. Your browser does not support iframes. “You call two bad pitches on a guy that throws 100, what do you want me to do?” asked Ortiz. “It was pretty obvious that those two pitches were pretty bad. Not only that, I look at you, you look at me, and I tell you the guy doesn’t need help and you keep giving me signals. I finally give up on you and you throw me out of the game for that? I don’t know.” What I don’t know is why Rick Porcello $82.5 million dollar man turned into a pumpkin. The starter imploded in the fifth inning after his team had scored two runs...
Raise your hand if you miss Jonny Gomes. His reckless play in the outfield, solid production at the dish, and dynamic clubhouse presence seems to be something lacking in the 2015 Red Sox. I won’t ever forget how he draped the Boston Strong jersey on the 2013 World Series trophy at the Boston Marathon finish line when the duck boat rolling rally paused. When Gomes and Jon Lester were traded to Oakland in 2014 two players that exemplified the heart and soul of the team left the Hub. Yoenis Cespedes came to the Red Sox only to be traded for Rick Porcello. Procello lasted six and one-third innings with six hits, four earned runs, one walk, and five strikeouts. Most troubling was that the ground ball pitcher had three ground outs and five fly ball outs. Gomes went 0-for-3 with a walk. He struck out twice and flied out to right, so the fence defensive formation never came into play. In the fourth Gomes made one of his signature “more dramatic than it needed to be” catches. Best of all it was on Dustin Pedroia, who was clearly amused that his former teammate made such a spectacular play. Maybe if...
Rick Porcello recovered from his two recent wretched outings to turn in eight solid innings. His line of five hits, two earned runs, no walks, and five strikeouts would normally be enough for the win, but the Red Sox didn’t carry forward their offensive momentum from the day game into the second leg of the double header. The Twins got to Porcello in the second inning. Chris Hermann doubled off the Green Monster to plate Eddie Rosario. Hermann then scored on Danny Santana’s sacrifice fly. There wasn’t much to enjoy in this game from a Red Sox fan’s perspective, but this little tyke had some fun. The child is about two feet tall, representing the two hits the Red Sox tallied. Your browser does not support iframes. But even that kid wasn’t as happy as Don Orsillo was when he got a lamp from Jerry Remy. Your browser does not support iframes. Game 54: June 3, 2015 Minnesota Twins31-21 2 W: Trevor May (4-3)H: Blaine Boyer (11)S: Glen Perkins (20) 2B: Brian Dozier (17), Chris Hermann (2) Boston Red Sox24-30 0 L: Rick Porcello (4-5) 2B: Dustin Pedroia (9)...
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...
The actual Boston Royal Giants and Seattle Steelheads never faced each other but the present-day Red Sox and Mariners recreated a tableau of Negro League glory Saturday evening. Pablo Sandoval and David Ortiz represented the sluggers of the bygone era well with solo circuit clouts in the second and third innings respectively. Even more amazing is that they hit their homers off Felix Hernandez, who went into this game with a 1.85 ERA and ended at 2.30. I liked that the teams went the extra mile and had Negro League-specific batting helmets. Dustin Pedroia went 2-for-5 with two runners in scoring position left on base. But he and the rest of the infielders played solidly behind ground ball pitcher Rick Porcello. The only way the Red Sox starter was in the same league as Hernandez was their lucrative contracts. Hernandez lasted six innings with seven hits, four earned runs, four walks, and five strikeouts. At the beginning of his final frame he seemed to tweak his left ankle. The visitors took advantage of Hernandez’s injury and tacked on two insurance runs. Brad Miller was responsible for both of the Mariners’ runs with his solo homers in the first and fifth...
Drew Smyly held the Red Sox hitless until the sixth inning. Kevin Kiermaier came up huge in the fourth inning by chasing down David Ortiz’s deep fly ball to the triangle. A litany of other fielders have taken on the treacherous triangle to come up lame: Johnny Damon, Coco Crisp, and Torii Hunter. Kiermaier navigated the area flawlessly and robbed the Red Sox designated hitter of extra bases. Rick Porcello pitched well against Smyly, going seven innings with eight hits, six strikeouts, no walks, and most importantly no runs. Porcello was aided by crisp defense, a must for a ground ball pitcher. In the fourth inning Evan Longoria wandered too far off second base. Logan Forsythe lined out to Mookie Betts and the center fielder fired to Xander Bogaerts for an unusual 8-6 double play. Betts scored the only runs of the game. He launched two leadoff home runs in the sixth and eighth innings. Déjà Mookie. The center fielder assumed Hanley Ramirez’s mantle as the offensive force on the team, breaking his team’s four-game skid. Game 27: May 5, 2015 Tampa Bay Rays14-13 0 L: Drew Smyly (0-1) No extra base hits Boston Red Sox13-14 2 L: Clay Buchholz...
Rick Porcello pitched his best game in a Red Sox uniform so far: 7 innings, 2 hits, 1 earned run, 2 walks, and 6 strikeouts. The only extra base hit he gave up, a double off Kevin Pillar’s bat in the second inning, was converted into a the only run the Blue Jays scored. Porcello wasn’t on the 2006 Tigers team whose pitchers failed to field on the grandest of stages, the World Series. But perhaps he is somewhat touched by the legacy of Detroit pitchers’ poor fielding. Porcello failed to touch the bag to complete Mike Napoli’s assist in the second. This allowed Pillar to reach third base. It seemed that Porcello was on his way to another poor outing. He hit Dalton Pompey with a pitch to load the bases. Then Josh Thole laced the ball to center, which plate Pillar. Thole swiped third base with Ryan Goins at the plate, but even then Porcello did not lose focus. Goins sent the ball up the middle for Dustin Pedroia to gobble up. Pedroia dashed to second to start the double play and fired to Napoli to end the inning. Koji Uehara returned to 2013 form last night. He...
Freddy Galvis was well-disguised but couldn’t steal a hit off the Red Sox pitching staff. Indeed his Boston counterpart Xander Bogaerts made a diving grab of his swiftly dropping batted ball for the fifth inning’s first out. Pablo Sandoval was similarly garbed. Who knew MLB-branded balaclavas were a thing? Sandoval notched his first hit in a Red Sox uniform with two outs in the fourth inning. Not only did he get his first hit but he also broke up Aaron Harang’s perfect game. Sandoval committed his first error of the season in the bottom of the seventh. He threw errantly to Mike Napoli after fielding Ben Revere’s grounder. Revere advanced all the way to third and tagged up on Chase Utley’s sacrifice fly to right field. The Phillies padded their lead to 4-0. Sandoval was part of a rally in the eighth. Daniel Nava was plated by Xander Bogaerts’s single. Ken Giles secured the next two outs but then walked Dustin Pedroia and Sandoval in succession to cut the home team’s lead to two runs. With the bases loaded Hanley Ramirez was poised to give his team the lead with another grand slam. It could have been Jonathan Papelbon’s stuff...
In the last game of the 2014 season Derek Jeter played shortstop for the New York Yankees for the final time. In the third inning he faced off against Clay Buchholz with one out and Ichiro Suzuki at third base. He watched two fastballs over the plate, a strike and a ball respectively. Jeter fouled off a cutter but then tapped the ball towards third base for an infield single. And mercifully that was the last cheap hit and run batted in we will ever see off Jeter’s bat. Jeter, not Joe Girardi, decided when he would leave the field. Jeter’s retirement was just the start of the changes to these lineups. Ben Cherington had Red Sox fans celebrating Thanksgiving early when he announced that he had signed Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez on November 25, 2014. With the addition of a pair of powerful bats Yoenis Cespedes became a fungible asset. The signings didn’t impress Jon Lester enough to lure him back to the Red Sox. On December 10 Lester announced he signed with the Chicago Cubs. The Red Sox began cobbling back together a starting rotation the next day by signing back Justin Masterson and trading Cespedes, Alex...
Game 112: August 11, 2009 Tigers5L: Chris Lambert (0-1)59-53, 2 game losing streak Red Sox7W: Junichi Tazawa (1-1)H: Fernando Cabrera (1)H: Takashi Saito (2)64-48, 2 game winning streak Highlights: Tazawa made his Fenway debut and after a rough first inning settled into a solid five-inning outing with 1 earned run, 2 base on balls, and 6 strike outs. Despite his skillful start Tazawa wasn’t the headlining act of last night’s show. When Miguel Cabrera got hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out I thought the damage would have been worse if the Tigers first baseman got the chance to swing the bat.Then Nick Green failed to turn the double play on Carlos Guillen’s grounder with the ducks on the pond. A high throw pulled Dustin Pedroia off the second base bag and allowed Placido Polanco to cross the plate. The inning continued with Magglio Ordonez driving in a run on a fielder’s choice, a walk by Alex Avila, and Cabrera scoring on Brandon Inge’s liner to left.Hit by pitch or three-run home run, by the middle of the inning the results were the same.After Pedroia grounded into a double play in the bottom of the second...
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries. [What is this?]
Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library’s Sports Temples of Boston.