Advertisement

The Red Sox Beat The Blue Jays' Ass To Make Rick Porcello A 20-Game Winner

Boston Red Sox v Toronto Blue Jays

There isn’t a person on this earth who legitimately predicted that Rick Porcello would win 20 games this year.

Doesn’t matter. He’s a 20-game winner. This season, Porcello has taken the mound for the Red Sox 29 times, and they’ve won 22 of those games. He’s now crept into the top 10 in the American League in ERA (3.21, 9th), and with a WHIP of 1.02, Porcello trails only Justin Verlander and Chris Sale (1.01), who are tied for first, for the AL lead in WHIP.

With the win last night, Porcello became the first 20-game winner for the Red Sox since Josh Beckett in 2007. Beckett finished that season at 20-7. Right now, Porcello is 20-3. I went back and looked at his three losses, and he easily could’ve won two of them. Two of his losses were outings in which he went seven innings, allowing three earned runs to the Yankees, and another where he went eight innings, allowing three earned runs to the Mariners. With that MLB-leading Red Sox offense, we could easily be talking about a 22-1 season right now for Porcello.

As great of an accomplishment as winning 20 games is, I’d say that going into Toronto and shutting down that Blue Jays lineup in the middle of a battle for first place is right up there in terms of impressiveness. Think about it — this is a guy who came from Detroit, and when he arrived Boston, all I heard from Tigers fans was how, “There’s a reason why he never factored into any of our postseason runs.”

Porcello had to shake the perception from Tigers fans, then he had to shake the perception from Red Sox fans after a poor debut season in Boston last year. Not only that, but he’s now being depended upon in a playoff race for the first time in his 8-year major league career. Being part of a playoff push, like he was in Detroit, is much different from being depended on in one, like he is now in Boston. Oh, and on top of that, he was shooting for his 20th win of the season. No pressure.

The box score will show that this game was a blowout, but this was a 5-2 game going into the seventh inning. Porcello didn’t get to pitch with any kind of ease until his final inning of work. Just as I was starting to get tweets about whether or not the Red Sox should move Xander Bogaerts out of the two spot, he hammered a solo home run into the left field corner. A few batters later, Hanley Ramirez crushed a three-run bomb to blow the game wide open.

Since we’re on the topic of discussing players having seasons that nobody thought they’d have back in spring training, Hanley is right near the top of this list. After that three-run homer, Hanley’s up to 22 bombs and 93 RBI. Every single hitter in Boston’s starting lineup had at least one hit last night, including Dustin Pedroia, who went 3-for-4. In the 27 games since Pedroia was moved to the leadoff spot, he’s hitting .455 with a .988 OPS.

With the win last night, the Red Sox have now secured that they’ll return home on Monday with at least a share of first place.

BIG news at the end of this one, JBJ finally busted out the ski jump. Love to see it.

JBJ

Final score: Red Sox 13, Blue Jays 3