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THE BEST RED SOX TEAM EVAH! ...
The Sox rally with an 11-run inning
August 29, 2018
... For most of this game, things were actually
looking pretty rough, with the Sox seemingly taking one step forward
and two steps back throughout the night. They lost David Price after
the lefty was hit by a comebacker in the third. Things turned around
on a dime, though. The Sox entered the bottom of the seventh losing
5-3, and after an absolute pummeling of Marlins pitching they left
the frame with a 14-5 lead.
Even before Price had to leave the game, he didn’t quite
look like the dominant force he had been for so much of this second half. Things
did get off to a strong start for the lefty. The first inning wasn’t perfect,
with J.T. Realmuto smoking a two-out single, but it only included the one
baserunner and 12 pitches. In the second, his relative lack of command came back
to bite him. Derek Dietrich led off the frame for Miami, and Price left a
changeup right in the middle of the zone. The Marlins infielder was ready for
it, absolutely crushing one into the right-field corner for a solo homer. Just
like that, it was 1-0. Price would come back with three quick outs after that,
to his credit.
In the third, there was some real and extended trouble. At
this point Price seemed to be getting a little too into his fastball, and Miami
was ready. Their first baserunner, Rafael Ortega, hit a chopper over Price’s
head for an infield single. A couple batters later, Realmuto jumped on a pitch
for the second time in the game and this time sent a double into the left-center
field gap. That gave Miami their second run of the game. Starlin Castro then
followed that up with a bloop single to score the third run. After Price hit
Dietrich in his second at bat of the game, Austin Dean lined one right back
through the middle. It caught Price right off the wrist, and while they’d be
able to convert the out the southpaw immediately went down the tunnel with a
trainer, and he wouldn’t return.
While this was happening, the Red Sox offense was having a
bit of trouble against Trevor Richards. Miami’s rookie righty did have his
changeup working, and it had some Red Sox hitters off balance for much of this
night. He retired the first five batters he faced in a run that included three
consecutive strikeouts. Eventually, with the Red Sox trailing 1-0, Eduardo Núñez
came up with two outs in the third. He worked the best at bat of the night,
fouling off pitch after pitch and eventually getting to a twelfth offering of
the plate appearance. Richards made a mistake there, leaving a changeup right
over the heart of the plate. Núñez smoked it into the Monster Seats, and just
like that the game was tied at one thanks to the infielder’s second homer in as
many days.
After Price allowed those two runs in the third, the Red
Sox were looking for another answer from their offense in the bottom half of the
inning. Two weak pop ups to left field started the inning, and it seemed like
the answer wasn’t coming. Mookie Betts had other ideas, however, getting a
fastball at the top of the zone and hitting a laser into the seats in left
field. That cut the Marlins lead to one, but Boston couldn’t get any more going.
After that homer, Richards settled into a groove. He’d
retire the next nine batters he faced. On the other side of things, Hector
Velazquez came on in relief of Price, and looked pretty okay. He faced only
three batters in his first inning of work, though a connection between Sandy
León and Ian Kinsler to catch a would-be base-stealer helped with that. In the
fifth, Velazquez would hit the second batter he faced before throwing a wild
pitch. That would be important, with the runner moving to second and soon after
he’d score on a single. Miami had a 4-2 lead, which Velazquez held from there.
Meanwhile, the groove from Richards would end in the bottom
of the sixth when Betts came back around. This time, the rookie walked him on
four pitches and followed that up with another free pass to Andrew Benintendi,
putting two on with one out for Steve Pearce. He would strike out, leaving it up
to J.D. Martinez with this chance. He did come through, poking a chopper through
the middle to plate Betts and cut the deficit to one.
Velazquez came back on for a fourth inning of work trying
to hold that deficit, but after allowing a walk and a single, his night was
over. Tyler Thornburg got the call to clean up the mess with two on and nobody
out. The righty wasn’t able to keep runs off the board, but it wasn’t a
disaster. He allowed a fly ball to move the runner to third base, and then a
soft ground ball to shortstop extended Miami’s lead back to two.
So, the Red Sox had nine outs to try and at least tie this
game up. They got off to a good start in the seventh when Núñez stayed hot with
a single and Kinsler followed that up with a double off the Monster. Suddenly,
they had two in scoring position with nobody out and Blake Swihart came out to
pinch hit for León. He came through with a single of his own, and the Red Sox
were back within one with runners on the corners and still nobody out. Jackie
Bradley Jr. followed that up with a double, and the game was tied with two
runners in scoring position. Betts kept the rally going with a double of his
own, and just like that it was a two-run lead for the Sox. Benintendi bunted
Betts over to third for some reason, bringing up Brock Holt as a pinch hitter.
He’d show off with a stand-up triple, and then he’d come in to score on a single
to make it 9-5. A whole lot would happen after that but long story short the Red
Sox scored 11 runs and after starting the frame down 5-3 they’d leave it up
14-5.
This sudden explosion meant that the bullpen wouldn’t have
to stress us out in this game. Ryan Brasier came out for the eighth, and he did
allow a solo homer but nothing else. Drew Pomeranz then came on for a scoreless
ninth to finish it off.
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