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THE BEST RED SOX TEAM EVAH! ...
The Sox just keep on rolling along
April 18, 2018
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It’s pretty much
impossible for a team to be clicking any more than the Red Sox are.
The pitching has been great, the offense is building early leads and
never looking back and the bullpen isn’t giving up late runs to make
things more stressful than they have to be. Things are good, and it
continued with a big outing from Rick Porcello and six runs in the
first three innings highlighted by a Rafael Devers grand slam. That’s
now 15 wins in the season’s first 17 games.
The Red Sox offense got
started early and made the opponents starter work. Tyler Skaggs had more success
than Shohei Ohtani in the series opener, but it certainly wasn’t anything close
to a stress-free outing.
This time it didn’t start
with Mookie Betts, who recorded an out for the first time in the series to start
the game. Hanley Ramirez came up after him and ripped a double on a scorched
line drive as he continues to destroy every pitch that comes his way. A couple
batters later Mitch Moreland would come up with a lefty on the mound, two outs
and a runner in scoring position, and he came through in a big spot. The first
baseman smacked a line drive into right field and just like that the Red Sox
opened up a little lead before their opponent even had a chance to get on the
board. A walk and a wild pitch would get two runners in scoring position for
Devers, but his big swing wouldn’t come until later in the game.
The Red Sox held on to that
1-0 lead into the third after they went down in an easy 1-2-3 inning in the
second. This time Betts was able to get things rolling with a base hit, and a
couple more singles would load the bases up for Moreland with nobody out. He
came through again, continuing to make the most of his playing time, pushing a
single through the left side to double the lead to 2-0. After Eduardo Nuñez
struck out for the first out of the inning, Devers came up and didn’t miss his
chance this time around. The young third baseman got a curveball that stayed in
the bottom half of the zone and he lifted it over the wall in right field for
yet another grand slam for this Red Sox team. Just like that, the Sox had a 6-0
lead and the game felt safely in hand with just one swing of the bat. They’d add
another later in the game on a solo homer from J.D. Martinez on a pitch that
looked well below the strike zone, and then they’d add two more in the
ninth when Moreland popped a two-run home run. Martinez and Moreland hit 3-4 in
today’s lineup and they combined to go 7-9 with a couple of homers, five RBI
(four belonged to Moreland) and five runs scored.
Rick Porcello went out and
had another outstanding start against a great offense to continue his tremendous
start to the season. He wasn’t totally dominant in this outing and found himself
in trouble in a couple of different spots, but he found a way to pitch around
trouble and miss bats when he absolutely had to.
The bottom half of the
first inning was one of those times he found himself in some trouble, and it
seemed as if he was going to cough up that early 1-0 lead he was handed. The
Angels started things off with a couple of singles, and after a strikeout they
got one more single to load the bases with just one out. Porcello needed a
ground ball or to at least miss some bats, and he went with the latter route. He
turned to that four-seamer that he uses when he’s looking for strikeouts, and it
worked masterfully as he got two huge K’s to end the inning with the lead
intact.
Porcello would then get
through an easy second before getting into more trouble against the top of that
Angels lineup, again allowing the first two batters to reach. Once again, he’d
get some relatively weak contact and miss some bats and the runners would be
stranded. The righty would allow a couple more hits here and there, but this was
another instance of him struggling a bit early in the game before settling down.
Overall, he lasted six shutout innings in which he allowed six hits and struck
out six Angels. Perhaps most notable was that he didn’t walk a batter and he
still has allowed just one free pass in his four starts to start the year.
So, it was up to the
bullpen to finish off yet another non-competitive game and make sure it stayed
that way. Carson Smith got the call in the seventh, and he’d get through a
scoreless frame with one baserunner. Marcus Walden tossed a 1-2-3 eighth and
Craig Kimbrel came into a nine-run game to throw a scoreless ninth and finish
off yet another convincing win. |
