Red Sox, Mookie Betts Walk Off With The Win At Fenway
Still can’t get a quality start to save our lives, but on Monday night it didn’t matter.
The Red Sox overcame a pair of three-run deficits in the series-opener against the Toronto Blue Jays, ultimately winning the game thanks to a walk-off single by Mookie Betts in the bottom of the ninth, his third hit of the night. With the win, the Red Sox won their seventh consecutive series opener to start the season, which is only the third time in team history that they’ve accomplished that feat. The last time the Red Sox won their first seven series openers was in 2013 when they won eight straight, the most in team history. That season turned out pretty decent.
There were a few positives and a few negatives to take out of the win on Monday. First and foremost, Joe Kelly had quite a puzzling start. On the positive side, his fastball, at times, was clocking in between 98 and 100 MPH. He’s mixing in a slider now, which he hasn’t done since his amateur baseball days, and he set a new career high with 10 strikeouts against the Blue Jays.
What’s confusing is, how can he have such filthy, swing-and-miss stuff, and still get tagged for five earned runs over six innings in the same night? In his defense, though, the conditions weren’t favorable for a pitcher to be carving up a lineup, and he actually did finish strong, retiring the last eight batters that he faced. While his results were certainly a mixed bag, it seems like he’s not far away from figuring it all out. Kelly came into 2015 having never struck out more than six batters in a game in his career, and Monday night marked the third time in four starts that he’s had at least seven strikeouts in a start.
Another positive was that Koji Uehara’s fastball was back up a few ticks from where it was over the weekend when it got crushed in Baltimore, clocking in as high as 88 MPH. That may not seem like much, but for Koji, that’s right about where it needs to be to set up his splitter. The splitter is his bread and butter. Eleven of the sixteen pitches that he threw on Monday night were splitters, with four being swings and misses, including the third strike on each of his two strikeouts over his perfect inning of work.
The Blue Jays are one of two teams in the majors to have scored at least a hundred runs so far this year — Baltimore has scored the most, after scoring a hundred runs against the Red Sox alone — but the Red Sox have caught Toronto at an opportune time, as they’ve now lost their last four straight. Here’s to two more.
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