Red Sox Respond To Blown Save With A Game-Tying Homer In The Ninth By Rafael Devers, And A Walk-Off Bomb In The 10th By Mookie Betts
Having fun yet? A night after Jackie Bradley Jr. struck out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, after being ahead in the count 3-0 in a 2-1 ballgame, it was looking like the Red Sox were about to one-up themselves in the frustrating loss department. With Chris Sale being dominant yet again, going six shutout innings with ten strikeouts, the Red Sox offense mustered just two runs of support for their ace, both of which came in to score when Thursday night’s scapegoat, Bradley, hit a two-run blast in the bottom of the fifth.
The Twins made it a 2-1 game when Eduardo Nunez let a weakly hit grounder go right through his legs and into right field. That’s where we were at in the top of the ninth when Craig Kimbrel, who came on with two outs in the eighth, was asked to finish off a four-out save against the Twins. Kimbrel issued a pair of walks in the ninth, three total since entering the game, before allowing a two-run double to Eddie Rosario that banged off the Green Monster, bringing in both runners, who were running with two outs, to give Minnesota the 3-2 lead.
Fernando Rodney is far from being a lockdown closer, as we saw the night before when he nearly blew the game just from walking everybody. This time, it wasn’t pitches out of the strike zone that hurt Rodney; it was a 2-1 fastball right down the dick that Rafael Devers smoked on a line for a game-tying home run into the Red Sox bullpen. I mean, I can’t remember the last time that I’ve seen a baseball hit on a line like that for a home run. It reminded me of David Ortiz’s grand slam in the 2013 ALCS, but it was even lower. I thought for sure that thing was either getting caught or finding some grass, but it kept carrying until it screamed over the bullpen wall for the game-tying home run. Exit velocity of 112.1 MPH. The kid’s got sneaky power for a 12-year-old.
With the game now tied, the Red Sox turned the lineup over for the bottom of the tenth and they’d only need one guy to put a bow on this thing — Mookie Betts. Betts took a fastball right in his wheelhouse for the first pitch of the at-bat. The second pitch was in the exact same spot and he absolutely murdered this thing. Walk-off bomb, baby. The first of his career, and his 25th homer of the season which is already one more than he hit in all of last year.
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Even though home runs were the story of the night, we’ve gotta give some love to Sale, who got jobbed out of another win on Friday. After tossing six more scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts, his ERA for the season is down to an American League-leading 2.04 with a major league-leading 207 strikeouts. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in any of his last three starts, he has at least ten strikeouts in seven of his last nine starts, he hasn’t allowed a home run in any of his last nine starts, and over those nine starts, he’s got a 0.75 ERA with 97 strikeouts in 60 innings. It’s just flat out stupid. He’s not real life.
On Saturday, it’s Rick Porcello versus Jake Odorizzi. Porcello is coming off a six shutout inning performance of his own against the Baltimore Orioles, getting his ERA back under four after he had gotten rocked before the break by Toronto. Odorizzi has been big time hit or miss this year. He’s either gonna go five or six innings and hold you to a run or two, or he’s going to implode and cough up six or seven runs in three or four innings. This will be his first time facing Boston this year, but he faced them three times last year with Tampa, and the Red Sox were victorious in two of those three games.
Final score: Red Sox 4, Twins 3