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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE BEST RED SOX TEAM EVAH! ...
August 8, 2018 ... For most of the night, Brian Johnson cruised through Toronto’s lineup. Things did get dicey for the lefty as the night went on and the game was close temporarily, but the offense made sure it didn’t last. The Sox lineup ultimately carried the day, and it was a group effort but the biggest performer was Rafael Devers in his first game back from the disabled list. The Red Sox offense got off to an early start and set up a somewhat comfortable lead relatively early in the ball, but the story here was Brian Johnson. It took a bit for Johnson to even break a sweat in this game as he retired the side in order in the first on eight pitches, including one strikeout. After another 1-2-3 frame in the second, his no-hitter was indeed broken up in the third. It was a Russell Martin infield single that broke up the potentially special outing. That led off the third, but Johnson quickly came back to get three straight outs after that. In the fourth, the Blue Jays got their first runner into scoring position when Justin Smoak laced a one-out double into left field. Facing his first bit of adversity on the night, Johnson responded well. He got a big strikeout followed by a grounder to end the inning and strand Smoak at second. The Blue Jays then managed just a one-out walk in the fifth. In the sixth, Johnson would lose his shutout. It was Smoak again starting the rally, this time with a single. After that, Teoscar Hernandez came up with two outs and took a fastball up and in and sent it way out to left field. Meanwhile, the Red Sox offense did get going against the Blue Jays and their starter Mike Hauschild. The Sox struggled a bit in their first look at him. In the first two innings, they managed only a couple of walks, the first of which was quickly cancelled out by a double play. In the third, things turned around in a hurry. Rafael Devers, in his first game back from the disabled list, started that inning off and he got back into the action quickly with a double. After a walk and a hit batter, the Red Sox suddenly had the bases loaded with nobody out. Andrew Benintendi couldn’t deliver a massive blow, but he hit a deep fly ball to score one. Then, Mitch Moreland had another big swing as he crushed a double out to center field to score two more. A J.D. Martinez single would knock Hauschild out of the game, and with runners on the corners Xander Bogaerts came through with a sacrifice fly. The Sox left the top of the third with a 4-0 lead. After a quick fourth inning, the Red Sox got back to work in the fifth. It was the top of the order doing the thing this time around, with Betts singling and Benintendi doubling to put two on to lead the inning. Eventually, the bases would load up after an intentional walk to J.D. Martinez, and that proved to be a mistake. Bogaerts came up next and drew a four-pitch walk to score the Sox fifth run of the game. A double play would prevent them from tacking any more on, but it was something. The next inning, the game went from safe to out of hand with one swing of the bat. Eduardo Núñez kicked off that inning with a single, bringing Devers back to the plate. He once again looked as if he didn’t miss a beat with his short stint on the DL, taking a slider down and in and depositing it over the wall in right-center field. Just like that it, was 7-0. The Red Sox would add one more in the seventh on an RBI double from Bogaerts, which would be a nice insurance run to have considering how the bottom of the inning went. Johnson started to hit a wall in that frame, allowing a walk to Martin and a single to Kevin Pillar to bring Randal Grichuk to the plate with two on and two out. Johnson threw a fastball with the first pitch and it stayed right down the heart of the plate, and the southpaw doesn’t have the kind of stuff to get away from that. The Blue Jays outfielder hit it out of the park, and suddenly the Red Sox lead was cut down to 8-5. Fortunately, The Sox’s hitters are super good, so they’d get some of those runs back. Martinez got an RBI single and Benintendi later scored on a wild pitch, bringing the score to 10-5, heading to the bottom of the eighth. Ryan Brasier came on for that inning, and he worked around a single and an error to toss a scoreless inning. The ninth belonged to Joe Kelly, who got himself into trouble. The righty allowed two of the first three batters he faced to reach base, causing Craig Kimbrel to start warming up. The trouble quickly dissipated, though, as Kelly induced a big double play to end the game. |
 GAME RECAP |
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