Red Sox Follow Up Their Most Important Win Of The Year By Getting Shut Out
We wouldn’t know if Sunday’s comeback victory was the turning point until we saw what they followed it up with. How did they follow it up? They got shut out, and lost 1-0 on a run that scored on a wild pitch. That’s how.
Every time that this Red Sox team has given their fans a glimmer of hope that things could be changing for the better, they revert right back into being the offensively inept and baseball IQ-challenged team that they’ve been for a majority of the season. We’ve got guys like Rusney Castillo, who can’t get a god damn bunt down. Then you have guys like David Ortiz and Mike Napoli, who are constantly swinging out of their asses, trying to be the hero by pulling an 800-foot home run in a spot where all the team needed was a base hit. Not only that, but refusing to hit the ball the other way, and still trying to pull the ball when they’re being pitched away.
And then to top it all off, we witnessed a star being born at Fenway Park on Sunday when Xander Bogaerts came through in the clutch to complete Boston’s eighth-inning comeback against the A’s. Where does John Farrell bat him in the order the very next game? Fucking seventh. Seventh! What in the actual fuck is going on here? Bogaerts had been hitting .483 with a 1.086 OPS over his last eight games coming into Tuesday, and Farrell hit him seventh (cue the comment section asking where Farrell hit Bogaerts). I hope somebody in that clubhouse asked Farrell what his thought process was on that decision. But whatever he says, it’s completely wrong and unjustifiable, unless he says, “I closed my eyes and threw a fuckin’ dart at a poster with a bunch of numbers on it.” It’s the second week of June, the Red Sox are “fighting” to keep their season relevant, the team has had problems scoring runs all year long, and you bat your hottest hitter seventh. I’m not advocating for the Red Sox to fire the manager. But if they did, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.
On the bright side, Eduardo Rodriguez is making a strong case for being the best pitcher of all-time. Through his first three major league starts, Rodriguez has yet to give up a hit when he throws a changeup. He’s thrown 55 changeups with a strike percentage of 63.6%, while batters have swung 54.5% of the time and whiffed at a rate of 23.3%. It was clear that he didn’t have his best stuff against the O’s on Tuesday night — as reflected by a very uncharacteristic trio of walks — but E-Rod’s worst night is still a really good night for most other pitchers. Rodriguez gave the Red Sox six shutout innings, allowing just three hits, while racking up seven strikeouts, including this strikeout of Adam Jones that I’m sure (and I hope) pissed off the Almighty Defender of Baseball Purity, Buck Showalter. God, I hate him.
Anyway, Rodriguez’s ERA is down to 0.44 through his first three major league starts. Is that good?
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