|
THE BEST RED SOX TEAM EVAH! ...
Rick Porcello at his best, dominating the Yankees
April 12, 2018
...
What a night for Rick Porcello. The Red Sox number three starter and
2016 Cy Young winner looked a lot like he did in that hardware-worthy
season, showing off impeccable command from his first pitch to the
last. The righty had all of his offerings working and he was locating
everything exactly where he wanted. That allowed him to get through
six full innings without allowing a hit, and he only allowed one
baserunner in that time. The Sox have had a number of great pitching
performances this year, but all things considered this was probably
the best so far. The offense also managed to get plenty of runs,
giving Porcello a 6-0 lead after just three innings, and the pitching
staff maintained the rest of the way, though the Yankees did make a
little noise in the ninth.
Porcello, as you can surmise from the above, was phenomenal throughout his start
and it was clear from the get-go that he had his best stuff and command going
all night long. Despite the rain coming down, and getting harder as the night
went on, he didn’t seem to have any problems getting a grip on the ball and
doing his thing. Porcello came after Brett Gardner to start off the game and got
him to hit a weak groundout to start things off. He’d get two more similar
ground balls from Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, and we were rolling.
Things didn’t get much more difficult for him moving forward, either. In the
second, he got one strikeout on a nasty slider and two weak pop ups to the
outfield. In the third, he got another strikeout, this time on a cutter, and a
weak grounder along with a routine fly out. Porcello had to face the top of the
order again in the top of the fourth after setting down the first nine batters
he saw, but he still didn’t have much trouble. Gardner hit a routine fly ball,
Judge grounded out again, bringing up Stanton as Porcello looked for four
straight. Instead, he just barely caught the slugger’s elbow guard, giving New
York their first baserunner and breaking up the perfect game. The no-hitter
would stay intact, though, as Didi Gregorius flew out to end the inning. The
Yankees would go down with two groundouts and a fly out in the fifth, and
Porcello was more than halfway to a no-hitter.
It was at this point when the tarp was brought on the field, putting in jeopardy
the pitcher’s accomplishment. The game was delayed for about 45 minutes and
rather than letting the bullpen attempt to keep the no-hitter going, Alex
Cora brought his starter back. Porcello didn’t miss a beat in his first frame
back, getting a groundout and two strikeouts to set the Yankees down in order
yet again.
So, he took the no-hitter into the seventh, but this is where it would die.
Aaron Judge led things off, and he smashed a leadoff double over Jackie Bradley
Jr’s head in center field to break up the potentially historic event and turn it
into merely a very good start. Except, that Stanton followed that up with a
single of his own to put two on and nobody out, and things got a little scary in
a 6-0 game. Porcello settled down, however, and got a flyout and a pair of
strikeouts to end the inning and his night. All told, he tossed seven shutout
innings in which he allowed just the two seventh-inning hits with five
strikeouts, no walks and one hit batter.
On the other side of things, the Red Sox offense was having no problem with
Sonny Gray and the Yankees pitching staff, though the first inning looked a
little bleak. They did get a little bit of damage without scoring any runs, but
this was also when Hanley Ramirez was hit in the wrist with the fastball.
The Sox would end up stranding runners on the corners in that first, but they
came back a lot stronger in the second and really put a hurting on Gray. That
one started with an infield single from Eduardo Nuñez, who moved to second on a
walk and scored on a Sandy Leon single. After Brock Holt loaded the bases on a
walk, Mookie Betts crushed a fly ball right in front of the triangle that was
caught but was deep enough to not only score a run but also advance the other
two batters. From there, Andrew Benintendi hit a ground ball to second base on
which Tyler Wade made a poor throw home, allowing a run to score and putting
runners back on second and third. With a 3-0 lead, Mitch Moreland, who came in
for Ramirez, knocked in one more on a single against the shift.
The Red Sox didn’t take their foot off the gas in the third, and they got a
little more help from the Yankees defense. This inning also started with Nuñez,
who smashed a double high off the Monster this time around. Jackie Bradley then
came up and hit what looked like a routine pop up to left field. However, the
ball apparently got caught in some wind and/or Stanton lost it in the rain, and
he was waiting for it by the wall while it landed a good ten feet away from him
and bounced into the stands. Leon struck out swinging on a pitch in the dirt on
the next play, but Bradley made an aggressive decision to go to third and Gary
Sanchez tried to get him instead of making the easy play to get Leon at first.
Instead, he got no outs and put runners on the corners. The Red Sox would get
one more on a Betts groundout to go up 6-0.
That was all the offense would do, but it was enough given the performance on
the mound. When Porcello was lifted, the Red Sox turned to the recently promoted
Marcus Walden to finish off the final two innings.
He did just that in the eighth, but the ninth did not go so well. The Yanks sent
the heart of their order up, and quickly loaded the bases on a walk, an error on
a rocketed line drive and another walk to bring up Gary Sanchez, who then ripped
a bases-clearing double. All of a sudden the Yankees had the lead down to three
with a runner in scoring position and nobody out, and the Red Sox had to turn to
Craig Kimbrel. Fortunately, the closer got out of the jam and held the score to
6-3, giving the Red Sox two out of three in this eventful series and a 10-2
record on the year.
|
