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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE BEST RED SOX TEAM EVAH! ...
August 11, 2018 ... In Game #1, David Price was stellar, mixing his pitches and showing off impeccable command for one of his best starts of the entire season. The offense wasn’t quite as impressive, but two homers from Jackie Bradley Jr. and one from Eduardo Núñez, along with Xander Bogaerts doing work with his legs were enough for a relatively comfortable victory. In the first half of this doubleheader the Red Sox lefty carried momentum into this start. The southpaw did a great job of mixing his pitches, and while he wasn’t as efficient as we would have liked in an ideal world, that’s a small price to pay for how well he pitched. Really, the Orioles were not able to get much of anything going at any point while Price was on the mound. They went down in order in the first, including one strikeout on a fastball. In the second, Price worked around a one-out single in an inning that included yet another K, this one coming on the changeup. The third went just about the same, except it included two strikeouts instead of one, with the first on the cutter and the second on the changeup.
Going up against Jimmy Yacabonis, the Red Sox lineup was stumped by this struggling rookie, and it was frustrating to watch. Over the first four innings, The Sox managed just one baserunner on a single, couldn’t advance said baserunner beyond first base and struck out twice. Given how well Price was throwing and the expectations for this lineup against someone like Yacabonis, it was not very fun to watch all of this unfold. Finally, in the fifth, they were able to break through. There, Xander Bogaerts came through with his second single of the day, and a couple batters later Eduardo Núñez would come up with one on and one out. The infielder got the green light on 3-0 and it paid off, as he took a middle-middle fastball and smoked it out by the left-field foul pole. Just like that, it was a 2-0 lead for the Sox. After the second out of the inning was recorded, Jackie Bradley Jr. added to the lead with a solo homer off a middle-middle fastball of his own. In the sixth, the Red Sox would add some insurance to that 3-0 lead, too. Once again it was Bogaerts getting the action going, smacking a one-out double out to left field. Shortly after that, the shortstop would keep the pressure on by attempting to steal third. Austin Wynns, the Orioles catcher, made a bad throw down to the bag, allowing the ball to reach the outfield and Bogaerts to cross the plate. That was all The Sox would get, but it was a 4-0 lead. So, Price came out looking for a shutdown inning in the bottom half of the sixth, but he’d get into a little trouble by allowing a one-out double to Adam Jones. The veteran was Baltimore’s first runner to advance more than 90 feet around the diamond. Price would recover, though, getting a strikeout and a grounder to strand the runner at second. That ended his phenomenal day, tossing six scoreless innings on just five hits and no walks with ten strikeouts. After the Red Sox lineup stranded two in the top of the seventh, it was on to Tyler Thornburg in the bottom half. He did his job relatively easily with a quick 1-2-3 inning. Ryan Brasier was up next in the eighth with the same 4-0 lead, and he’d toss a 1-2-3 of his own. Bradley hit his second homer of the day in the top of the ninth, giving Matt Barnes a 5-0 lead to work with in the bottom half. The setup man gave the Red Sox bullpen their third perfect inning and gave his team the win. The Red Sox are feeling some fatigue in the bullpen thanks to this doubleheader and a couple of short outings from their starting pitchers in recent games. They were able to make their way through today’s doubleheader, thanks to some good performances and key pitches from unlikely faces, while also getting some big swings from the offense. Specifically, it was J.D. Martine carrying the load as the slugger hit two very important home runs to push the Red Sox into the lead and eventually into the win column. In the top halves of the innings during the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, things were pretty similar to the first game. Just like in the afternoon, the Sox was going up against a rookie starting pitcher who, while pitching admirably, certainly could have been punished. Instead, they seemed baffled and failed to get much going early on. This one was a little more confusing because they were going against Yefry Ramirez, who they’ve already seen a couple times over his short career. It took them three innings to even threaten to get anything going, as the Red Sox only sent seven batters to the plate over the first two frames, with J.D. Martinez reaching on a walk. Finally, they made their presence known even slightly in the second when Mookie Betts smacked a two-out single and quickly stole second to put himself into scoring position. Unfortunately, Brock Holt was batting second tonight with Andrew Benintendi getting the game off, and the utility man struck out to spoil the chance. In the fourth, things would finally start to break in the Red Sox favor, and that was because Martinez is an absolute machine at the plate. The slugger quickly fell behind 0-2 in his at bat that inning, and it seemed as if Ramirez could keep cruising. Martinez worked the count, though, eventually getting to a 3-2 situation. On the tenth pitch, Ramirez hung a slider down the middle of the zone and Martinez demolished one out to straightaway center field to give the Sox their first run of the night. Unfortunately, the Red Sox pitching staff couldn’t get the same kind of magic from their cobbled together group in the nightcap as they got from David Price in the afternoon set, though that’s to be expected. Hector Velazquez got the start, but he was never going to last that long since he’s not really stretched out. The first inning was actually solid for the right as he got three ground balls for a relatively easy 1-2-3 frame to start things off. Things did not stay as easy in the second. There, he immediately allowed a single, hit a batter then gave up a double, allowing Baltimore to take an early 1-0 lead and giving them runners on second and third with nobody out. Fortunately for Velazquez and the Red Sox, Chris Davis was the runner on third. The next at bat ended with a ground ball to second base, and although Holt was playing back Davis stayed home at third. Then, Mookie Betts ran down a fly ball in foul territory, but again Davis stayed home for some reason. Thanks to that turn of events, Velazquez escaped the inning when Rafael Devers made a nice stop in the hole on the left side and Steve Pearce made a great play keeping his foot on the bag to save a rough and rushed throw from the third baseman. Baltimore was up 1-0, but it should have been much worse. In the third, Velazquez walked the leadoff man and after two ground outs he left the game with his pitch count over 40. Brandon Workman came in trying to quickly get out of the inning and hopefully provide some length out of the bullpen. Unfortunately, his command was rough and he immediately allowed an RBI single before walking two batters to load the bases. He’d escape the jam, but it wasn’t pretty. After the Red Sox got the run on Martinez’ homer in the fourth, Drew Pomeranz came on for the bottom half. He continued to look solid with a 1-2-3 inning in relief. That would be important because the Red Sox came charging back in the fifth. There, it was Eduardo Núñez who started things off with a big leadoff triple out to center field. He’d quickly come in to score on a sacrifice fly, and the score was tied at two. That was all they’d get there, but after another scoreless inning from Pomeranz the Red Sox went out and got themselves a lead in the sixth. With Ramirez out of the game, Baltimore turned to Cody Carroll, and the righty had some control issues. He walked the first two batters he faced, and while he did get a big double play after that it still put a runner 90 feet away from home. That would be important because Carroll threw a bad wild pitch and Steve Pearce easily made his way to the plate to give the Red Sox a 3-2 lead.
After both teams failed to score in the seventh it was Martinez again in the eighth. This time he came up with Pearce on first base, and on the second pitch of the at bat he got a fastball middle-in and did what he does. The slugger launched one into the left-field seats, giving the Sox a 5-3 lead. With the bullpen being incredibly overworked in recent days, Alex Cora turned to William Cuevas for the eighth. He did get two outs in his first three batters, but he also walked one then walked another with two outs. After a wild pitch, Baltimore had two in scoring position with two outs. Cuevas was able to bear down, though, and thanks to some help from the umpire got a huge strikeout to end the inning without a run crossing the plate. The Red Sox added one more on an RBI single from Brock Holt in the ninth, giving Craig Kimbrel a three-run lead to protect in the bottom half. The closer did allow a solo homer to Trey Mancini with two outs, but that was it and the Red Sox went home with yet another win.
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 GAME RECAP |
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