Jose Bautista’s Bat, Glove Bury Red Sox

Jose Bautista had one of the best games in his career on Saturday, as he delivered two home runs – career homers 200, and 201 – and cut down a runner at the plate, as the Toronto Blue Jays slugged their way to a 6-2 win over the Boston Red Sox, 6-2, at Fenway Park.

Felix Doubront pitched well for the Red Sox and pitched into the seventh inning, but was on the losing end of a 2-0 affair when he finally did depart.  He allowed an RBI single to Adam Lind in the first inning, but recovered nicely to pitch four scoreless frames until he met Bautista in the top of the sixth, when the veteran masher launched a 2-0 offering over the Monster and out of Fenway Park for his 200th career home run.

Doubront pays no mind to Jose Bautista, beginning his home-run trot on career dinger 200.

As well as Doubront was throwing, the Sox bats could do nothing against the Blue Jays rightie Esmil Rogers, who went six scoreless innings, limiting the Sox to just six hits and one walk. Boston was just 1-8 against Rogers with Runners in Scoring Position, with the one hit being a Dustin Pedroia single in the sixth after Shane Victorino’s lead-off double. The single was sharply hit enough that Bautista was able to come up with the ball in right fairly quickly, and deliver a strike to catcher J.P. Arencibia, who was blocking the plate fearlessly. Victorino was out by a couple steps, and Arencibia held on to the ball at home for the rally-killing out.

Asked later if the home runs or the assist was more important, Bautista didn’t hesitate, ‘‘It’s more difficult and more rare to throw people out on the bases,’’ he said. ‘‘Anytime I do that I enjoy it a lot more.’’

Darren Oliver relieved Rogers for the seventh, and the Sox were finally able to break through, although it came at a cost of more potential runs.  After back-to-back singles to leadoff the frame by Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Jose Iglesias – with Salty moving to third on Maicer Izturis’ throwing error – the Sox were cooking with runners on the corners with nobody out.  Jonathan Diaz, an eight year career minor leaguer making his MLB debut, then stepped to the plate as a squeeze play was called.  Diaz’s bunt appeared to be a good one, going to the right of the pitcher’s mound as the leftie Oliver fell to the left of the mound after his delivery.  Oliver, however, recovered quickly as the ball died before it could make it past the mound, and made a nice bare-hand throw to home to cut down Saltalamacchia at the plate.

Steve Delabar then relieved Oliver, but was met with consecutive singles by Jacoby Ellsbury and Victorino, with the latter scoring Iglesias and Diaz to tie the score 2-2.

Any jubilation at finally getting into the game would be short-lived as Junichi Tazawa immediately relinquished the stalemate following a leadoff single by Jose Reyes, and Bautista’s second homer of the afternoon, another no-doubter at 417 feet. It would prove to be the deciding tally as the Sox’ two runs would be all they could muster.

The Jays put the game away an inning later off Craig Breslow when Mike Napoli’s throwing error put Arencibia on second following an infield hit.  Two batters later, Jose Reyes delivered the two-out RBI single to make it 5-2 Blue Jays.  Another error, this one by Diaz, allowed the speedy Reyes to score from first, but the inning mercifully ended after Bautista was caught in a rundown. Neil Wagner needed just 12 pitches to retire the Sox in the ninth, as Ellsbury’s double-play grounder prompted the Blue Jays victory handshakes.

The Red Sox will go for the series win Sunday afternoon when Ryan Dempster looks to continue his streak of six straight quality starts. The Jays will counter with veteran Mark Buehrle, who has struggled badly in his first season north of the border.

 

Inside The Game

-Dustin Pedroia had his fifth multi-hit game in his last six, raising his average from .305 to .325.  Look for him to make his fourth trip to the MLB All-Star Game.

-The Sox were without Stephen Drew, who is 6-15 over his last four games with two doubles and three triples. Drew’s sore hamstring will keep him out in the finale Sunday as well.

-Jose Iglesias went 1-4 to lower his average to a puny .414, if only sarcasm could be translated to the page.

-Jose Bautista slugged his 200th and 201st career home runs. Of them, 142 have come in his last four seasons after a somewhat disappointing first six seasons produced just 59 round-trippers.

 

Jay Coorey – Senior MLB Contributor – Title Town Sports

Saltalamacchia, Ortiz Power Sox To 10-5 Victory

Jarrod Saltalamacchia homered twice, and the Red Sox other bats followed suit as Boston dismantled the Los Angeles Angels 10-5 to finish off the series by taking two of three. Sox starter Ryan Dempster was shaky, but good enough to get his second straight victory to improve to 4-6.

L.A. got on the board first as Albert Pujols hit a solo homer into the right field bullpen. The 1-0 edge for the Angels lasted until the third before the Red Sox bats woke up against Angels right hander Joe Blanton and plated four runs. After Jacoby Ellsbury reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second, Daniel Nava lined a run scoring single to right to tie the score. After Dustin Pedroia singled, the red-hot David Ortiz stepped up and continued his assault, launching a three-run homer to right field to give Boston their first lead of the game – a lead that would hold firm in this one.

Ortiz has been doing a lot of admiring lately, here launching his 13th homer to give the Sox a 4-1 advantage.

Both teams would go back and forth for the next couple innings, and Boston held a slim 5-3 lead heading into the sixth inning. With Blanton still pitching, Saltalamacchia stepped up and hit his first home run of the afternoon into the batter’s eye. On the very next pitch, Mike Carp sent one to left center for his sixth homer, which chased Blanton from the game after 5+ innings and allowing seven runs.

Michael Kohn had finished the sixth inning with a scoreless effort before being relieved by Robert Coello for the seventh. Coello had been a surprise for the Angels until the wheels fell off Sunday. After getting Pedroia to fly out, Coello walked Ortiz and Mike Napoli back-to-back to set up a scoring opportunity for Saltalamacchia. Salty then got a hold of a pitch and drove it almost to the same spot as his previous homer for the three-run homer that put Boston on top 10-3.

Craig Breslow was able to come on for Ryan Dempster and pitch a scoreless inning, and the usually reliable Koji Uehara came out for the eighth. Usually accurate, Uehara seemed uncomfortable on the mound and upset with home plate umpire Marty Foster over some close pitches that were called balls. Mark Trumbo and Alberto Callaspo (with Callaspo reaching via the fielder’s choice) grounded out around a hit-by-pitch to Howie Kendrick, so Uehara was one out from getting out of the inning, but the Angels came to life with two down. Erick Ayber walked followed by Chris Iannetta who would work Koji on nine pitches for another walk. With the bases loaded, number nine hitter J.B. Shuck singled to center to score Ayber and Iannetta.

Thankfully for the Sox, the insurance from Salty’s homer would prove to be the difference maker, as Andrew Miller got the Sox out of the jam left behind by Uehara. Andrew Bailey came on for the ninth even without a save opportunity to shut the door on the Angels.

The Sox won their third straight series, and stayed 1 1/2 games in front of the Yankees in the AL East. A tough schedule looms for Boston as the Sox begin a seven game road trip in Tampa tonight with John Lackey opposing Alex Cobb. Boston will then head to Baltimore for four, then back to Fenway for another series with Tampa, followed by a four game series in Detroit.

Inside The Game

-Mike Napoli was the only Sox starter not to get a hit, going 0-4 with 4 strikeouts and a walk. He already has 89 Ks on the year and is on pace to shatter the club record (And MLB record)for whiffs in a season (His current pace would put him at 225!)

-With three more RBI (and 12 in his last six games), David Ortiz took over the team lead in RBI from Napoli with 48 in just 45 games played.

-Since his activation from the DL, Andrew Bailey has had just one save (in one chance), it helps that most of the Sox wins of late have been blowouts.

Red Sox Stomped, Drop to Third in AL East

Ryan Dempster has been impressive for the most part this season; Tuesday, he was anything but.  The Toronto Blue Jays tallied six earned off of Dempster, including three home runs, in the 12-4 rout of the Boston Red Sox on Sunday afternoon.  The loss capped a 2-5 homestand, and the Sox have dropped eight of ten to fall to third place in the American League East.

Boston never led in the game, and Toronto got a 2-0 lead in the second on a two-out, two-run single by Blue Jays shortstop Munenori Kawasaki.  After that point, Toronto bats started launching pitches out of Fenway Park that needed passports. Jose Bautista led off the third on a first-pitch shot to left, and he would add another two-run bomb off of Sox reliever Clayton Mortensen in the sixth.  Gaining an early five-run lead against the Sox allowed Toronto to play loose all day and make solid contact.

“You get three or four runs ahead,” Bautista said, “that’s when some guys come out and are able to take some big hacks and we get the types of results we got today.”

The most costly long-ball to the Red Sox was Emilio Bonifacio’s two-run homer into the bullpen in the fourth inning.  With Shane Victorino tracking the flight of the ball, and reaching to attempt a catch, he slammed into the wall pretty hard as he appeared not to realize how close he was.  He stayed on the ground a while, but chose to stay in the game.  While he was able to grind through the pain, he was pulled after the sixth and evaluated at a local hospital.

Shane Victorino tracks a shot by Emilio Bonifacio in the fourth and hits the wall. He would leave after the sixth

The closest Boston could get was to 5-1 when Mike Napoli connected on his seventh home run of the year in the fourth that hit atop the centerfield camera-well.  Boston strung together a run in the sixth and two more in the eighth, including Pedro Ciriaco’s first home run of the year, but the game was very out of hand by then.

As the Red Sox head into an off-day on Monday, and with injuries and inconsistencies mounting at an alarming rate, the Sox will look to make some much needed adjustments.  They will be heading on a very difficult nine-game road trip that will take them through Tampa Bay, Minnesota (with a recent sweep still very fresh in Sox fans’ memories), and Chicago.  Tuesday night should be a very tall task for the Sox bats as they face sensational lefty Matt Moore, who is 6-0 with a miniscule .176 opponent average.  After Sunday’s massacre, manager John Farrell sounded off on the recent struggles of a team that is all of a sudden behind Baltimore and New York, and losing ground to Tampa Bay.

“I think we’ve got a number of guys dealing with frustration right now,” Farrell said. “The key for us is maintaining our level of preparation and our work routine. Those are the two things that we can control. I know with the attitude of this group, we’re going to continue to work, but we’re getting tested right now. There’s no question about it.”

Inside the Game

-In the midst of a 1-17 spell, David Ortiz was given a day off against rookie right-hander Chad Jenkins

-Edwin Encarnacion hit his AL leading 11th home run (tied with Cleveland’s Mark Reynolds and Baltimore’s Chris Davis).

-Need to find what went wrong at home?  Boston bats hit just .190 with RISP, and the bullpen compiled an ugly 6.33 ERA.

-Dustin Pedroia had his fifth straight multi-hit game (11-21).

-Boston is now just 4-8 in May after an 18-8 April

-Rookie Jose De La Torre made his MLB debut, pitching an inning and allowed two runs on two hits

-Before the game, David Ross was placed on the 7-day concussion DL as a precaution, after his collision with Will Middlebrooks earlier this week.  Ryan Lavarnway was called up from Pawtucket.  Lavarnway was hitting .313 with two home runs, and an .883 OPS for the AAA affiliates.

Sox Battered Again as Webster and Doubront Cough Up 14

Ouch.  That was the only real word to describe the Boston Red Sox’ night at Fenway against the Minnesota Twins.  Rookie Allen Webster got lit up over just 1 1/3 innings, surrendering eight earned runs, and the Twins came away with the 15-8 drubbing over the Sox. This game was in stark contrast to his debut, in which he held the Royals to three runs (2 earned) over six sharp innings.

After striking out Jamey Carroll to begin the evening, everything fell apart for the young right-hander (acquired last August in the Dodgers mega-deal).  He walked back-to-back hitters before allowing a ground-rule double to Justin Morneau scored the first of many Twins runs.  Trevor Plouffe came through on a sac fly before a two-run home run by catcher Ryan Doumit, his second of the season (both in this series) capped the scoring, and a 4-0 lead before the Sox had even batted.

The Sox offense came up and rallied to give Webster a new outlook on the game.  With two outs, Mike Napoli walked to load the bases for the Sox – Shane Victorino and Pedroia reaching earlier on singles – and Jonny Gomes tied the game on one swing as he sent a 1-0 pitch over the Monster and completely out of Fenway Park.  Gomes had led the league in batting average with two outs and runners in scoring position a year ago in Oakland (12-25, .480 BA).  Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia came up and doubled to right, and red-hot Stephen Drew singled him home to give the Sox the 5-4 lead.  The inning ended when Drew attempted to reach second and was thrown out.

The lead was very short-lived as Pedro Florimon led off the second with his first home run of the year.  Morneau would add a sac fly, and a double to score Joe Mauer off the bat of Trevor Plouffe ended Allen Websters night, and the Sox called on Felix Doubront to stop the bleeding.  Making his first relief appearance since 2011, it looked as though Doubront was uncomfortable from the get-go as he walked Doumit on four pitches, and allowed a single to Oswaldo Arcia.  Aaron Hicks lined a two-run single up the middle followed by a Florimon two-run double to deep left-center, as he capped off a three RBI inning, which made it 11-5 after their second crooked number inning.

Felix Doubront can’t bare to look at the Twins onslaught.

The closest the Sox would get again was within five, as Shane Victorino tagged his second homer of the season over the Green Monster.  Ryan Pressly, a former Sox farmhand, relieved starter Pedro Hernandez and shut down the Sox over four scoreless innings to notch his first career victory.

When the final out was recorded, the Twins came away with the 15-8 win, and the Red Sox – losers of five of their last six – are in need of correcting a ship that has suddenly veered off target.  With injuries mounting, and weaknesses being exposed, the Red Sox (now 21-13) find themselves no longer in sole position of first place after the Orioles victory over the Royals evened the records. John Lackey will look to even the four-game set tonight against Twins righty Kevin Correia.

Inside The Game

-David Ortiz went 0-5, snapping his career best 27-game hitting streak.

-Twins Catcher Ryan Doumit is now 6-11 with two home runs and five runs scored in the series, raising his average from .198 to .244.

-In a pressure-less inning, Andrew Miller worked his eighth straight scoreless game and struck out the side in order.  Over those eight games – 5 2/3, 3 hits, 1 walk (yes, I said 1!), and 11 strikeouts.

-Opposite of Miller are Doubront’s last two appearances – 9, 24 H, 12 ER, 3 BB, 6K.  Batters are hitting a ridiculous .511 against the lefty.

Jay Coorey – MLB Contributor – Title Town Sports

Darvish Stymies, Beltre Walks Off In Rangers Sweep

The match-up between the Rangers’ Yu Darvish and Red Sox’s Jon Lester was everything it was billed to be, but the bullpen decided the end of this one as the Rangers took the third game – and the three-game sweep – on an Adrian Beltre walk-off single against Clayton Mortensen in the ninth inning.  The Sox managed to get three runs off of the dominant Darvish, but ultimately fell 4-3 at the Ballpark in Arlington.

The Red Sox actually led for most of the game, using two early home runs to grab a 3-0 lead after two.  As has been the case so often in the early going, David Ortiz provided a two-run cushion in the first on a two-run shot to right-field.  Pedroia had reached on an infield single to avoid a 1-2-3 first before Papi lofted the 3-1 pitch for his 4th homerun of the season.  Red Sox back-stop David Ross followed up with a solo shot in the 2nd, and it looked, however short-lived, as though the Red Sox had finally solved the Rangers’ pitching staff.

Then Darvish got mad.  While he only managed a single 1-2-3 frame, his repertoire was so nasty, the Sox had no real chance even when runners were on.  When all was said and done, Darvish tallied 7 innings and tied a season-high tying 14 strikeouts (he notched 14 in his first start of the year in a near perfect game against the Astros), but could not come out for the eighth after accumulating a career-high 127 pitches.

Darvish silenced the Sox bats over 7 dazzling innings.

Jon Lester (6 innings, 5 hits, 3 ER, 7 K’s) was good, albeit overshadowed, in this one.  Lester managed to pitch into the sixth with a 3-1 lead, poised to hand it over to the Sox stellar bullpen.  To that point, his lone blemish was a Mitch Moreland home-run on an 0-2 mistake that just snuck over the left-field wall.  Despite the hiccup, Lester had thrown just 35 pitches through three and was looking anything but intimidated against the daunting Texas lineup.

Lester lost his two-run cushion in the sixth when Nelson Cruz took him deep after an eight pitch at-bat, this one a no doubter.  His afternoon was over, but with the game tied it was far from over.  Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa, and Andrew Miller combined for an excellent two innings before handing the ball to Mortensen for the ninth.

The Red Sox had a chance in the top of the ninth off Texas closer Joe Nathan.  With one-out and Shane Victorino (pinch-running for Ross after a walk) on 2nd base and Stephen Drew on first after a single, John Farrell called on Jarrod Saltalamacchia to pinch-hit for Pedro Ciriaco.  Saltalamacchia struck out on a nasty 2-2 slider, and Jacoby Ellsbury ended the rally with a grounder to Moreland.

The contest seemed destined for extras when Mortensen struck Leonys Martin and Ian Kinsler with a steady diet of brilliant curveballs.  With two-down, Elvis Andrus singled on the first pitch to center, and moved to 2nd on a wild pitch by Mortensen.  With a red hot Adrian Beltre at the plate, the Sox righty set up a pitcher-friendly 1-2 count.  His final pitch of the afternoon was actually a very nasty, curve darting to the outside part of the plate – but as Sox fans gleefully witnessed in 2010, Beltre’s plate-coverage allows him to get the seemingly unhittable pitches into open territory.  Beltre took the pitch and flicked it over Pedroia’s outstretched glove for the game-winning single.

With the loss, the Sox were swept for the first time this season, and fell to 20-11 (1.5 games in front of Baltimore and New York).  It was a dubious performance for the Red Sox facing what many considered the first difficult challenge for the Red Sox to date, being outscored 15-4 while amassing 31 strikeouts.  Clay Buchholz will take his spit-ball 6-0 record back to Boston when the Sox begin a four game set with the Minnesota Twins starting Monday.

Inside the Game

-Mike Napoli went 1-10 in the series without an RBI (entered series with ML leading 31)

-With Jacoby Ellsbury going 0-3 vs. Yu Darvish (0-5 for the game), lead-off batters are now an amazing 0-19 against Darvish on the season.

-Every batter in the Red Sox lineup with the exception of Ellsbury struck out at least once.

-Of David Ross’ nine hits this season, four are home runs(.943 OPS).

Buchholz, Napoli Power Sox Past Jays

Clay Buchholz pitched seven solid innings, Mike Napoli lit up the Rogers Centre, and the Red Sox (19-8) got back on track Wednesday with a 10-1 blow-out of the Toronto Blue Jays (10-18).  This one was never close, as the Boston bats stayed hot and crushed five home runs off Mike Buehrle and two Blue Jays relievers.

Stephen Drew started the barrage when he tagged a belt-high fastball into the second deck off of Buehrle.  The veteran lefty had been lucky to that point, when Mike Napoli and Daniel Nava began the inning with very deep fly-ball outs.  After a hit-by-pitch to Will Middlebrooks, Drew ended the good fortunes of Buehrle.

The two runs would have been enough for a dominant Buchholz, whose curveball was snapping off as good as it has all year.  Buchholz went seven shutout innings, allowing only two hits and three walks and struck out eight Jays.  He retired nine straight at one point, and only allowed one batter past first when Adam Lind walked with one out in the seventh and reached third  on a single by Melky Cabrera, who proceeded to run himself into an out trying to stretch it into a double.

The offense continued to make it an easy time for Clay, as Mike Napoli and Daniel Nava connected on back-to-back shots in the fourth, with Napoli’s moon shot traveling an estimated 472 feet before it found a landing spot.  In the Sox half of the seventh, this game was officially turned into a run away.  With two outs, Jonny Gomes drew a walk from Buehrle which would chase the lefty.  Esmil Rogers relieved, but provided little of it for Toronto.  After a Dustin Pedroia single, Jonny Gomes came home on a wild-pitch to make it 5-0.  With the count 2-0 to David Ortiz, John Gibbons decided to intentionally walk Ortiz and let his right-hander take his chances with Napoli.  Rogers set up Napoli with a 3-0 count, and Napoli did what Napoli has done all year – deposit a get-me-over fastball into the souvenir section.  His second homer travelled an estimated 467 feet (though Middlebrooks and Napoli later admitted believing the second had travelled farther.)

The Sox would add two more tallies on a Mike Carp home run and a Nava RBI single in the ninth inning to finish off the route.  It was Carp’s 2^nd game in a row with a home run as he continues to be a pleasant surprise off the bench for Boston (12-25 with 9 extra base hits). 

Toronto added their lone run in the eighth when Alex WIlson relieved Buchholz, and Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie tripled in Maicer Izturis.  Clayton Mortensen pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to finish out the game. The Sox and Jays play the rubber match tonight as Ryan Dempster gets the ball looking for his 2^nd win in a Red Sox uniform.

Inside the Numbers

 -The Red Sox have 16 of their 31 home runs this season at the Rogers Centre in only 5 games.  They have 15 combined in their other 22 games combined.

-David Ortiz went 1-3 with a double (10 XBH) to lower his average to a paltry .487

-Stephen Drew is 6 for his last 15 with a triple, home run, and 5 RBI, raising his average from .119 to .193.

-Clay Buchholz is the first pitcher to start 6-0 in his first six starts since Josh Beckett started 7-0 in 2007.  He has not allowed more than two runs in any start (1.01 ERA, best in MLB)

Bruins Shut Out The Lightning 3-0

November 11, 2013 By Rachel Murphy Leave a Comment