Red Sox Hit Three Homers, Bullpen Steps Up To Take Series From The White Sox
I thought the White Sox were supposed to be good? That’s what I was told. Was I lied to?
Before you even open your mouth, I know what you’re gonna say. Oh, but they didn’t face Chris Sale! Wah, wah, wah! Valid point. But guess what? The White Sox saw Boston’s worst starter, who the Red Sox hadn’t won a game all year when he took the mound, and Henry Owens, who lowers his stock every time he pitches. The White Sox saw Boston’s two worst starting pitchers and lost both of those games. They saw the Red Sox’ best pitcher and got the win, despite only scoring two runs off of him. Gotta tip your cap there. But am I impressed by the White Sox? No.
I know you can’t really use the Cubs as a benchmark for what an impressive team is supposed to look like, because they’re just in a category of their own, but there isn’t a team in the American League that is well-rounded in the way the Cubs are. In simpler terms, there isn’t a team in the American League that hits as well as they pitch. The American League is the land of mediocrity thus far.
Speaking of mediocrity, and I think that’s the nice way of putting it, Henry Owens just doesn’t do it for me. The Red Sox did an excellent job of hyping the shit out of this guy when he was making the transition from Double-A to Triple-A in 2014, and I bought in. That’s when they should’ve found another team to buy in, too. You could get hit by this dude’s fastball and not even realize it.
In his last two starts, his four-seam fastball has averaged 87 and 88 MPH respectively. AVERAGED. And Koji Uehara has proven that you can get away with that kind of velocity if you have pinpoint location, but Owens walked six batters on Thursday night, and has walked 13 batters in his 12.1 innings over three starts this year. That’s awful. It’s not just a rough stretch, either. He’s been struggling with location for his entire professional career. Owens only allowed two earned runs, but lasted just three innings and needed 64 pitches to get through that. Kudos to John Farrell for recognizing that Owens just didn’t have it (again), and made the right decision to help the Red Sox win the game and the series by giving Owens the early hook.
It was a big night for the Red Sox bullpen, as Heath Hembree, Matt Barnes, Junichi Tazawa and Robbie Ross Jr. combined to toss six innings of one-run ball. Hembree is enjoying a breakout season as a reliever in Boston’s bullpen, as that was just the first run that he’s allowed in 10.1 innings this year. Also, Ross is quietly having a really solid year. Including Thursday night, seven of his nine appearances have been scoreless, and three of those seven scoreless appearances have been multiple innings.
What could that be attributed to? Well, his fastball velocity is up about 3 MPH from where it was at the end of last year. In his last appearance of the 2015 season, Ross’ fastball averaged out to be about 93 MPH. On Thursday night, it was averaging 96 MPH. Also, everybody talks about Craig Kimbrel’s fastball, but is Barnes the quietest flamethrower in Boston’s bullpen? In 12 appearances this year, Barnes’ fastball has averaged 97 MPH three times and 98 MPH five times, and he’s never averaged less than 95 MPH.
While the bullpen deserves a ton of credit for the win on Thursday, the Red Sox offense was back at it, scoring seven runs on 12 hits, three of which were home runs off the bats of Dustin Pedroia, Hanley Ramirez and Jackie Bradley Jr.
With the win, the Red Sox have now won 9 of their last 11 games, and they’re the only team in the American League East with a record over .500 in their last 10 games.
Final score: Red Sox 7, White Sox 3 – #GoldBottles