THE BEST RED SOX TEAM EVAH! ...
The Red Sox come from behind
to win in Chicago

August 30, 2018 ... Rick Porcello did not look good at all, and the offense was totally shut down by Lucas Giolito. The Sox then plate nine unanswered runs and for the second night in a row the game went from a possible loss to a blowout victory in the blink of an eye.

Early on in this game, it seemed as though the main take-away from this game was going to be that Rick Porcello had another rough start. In the first few innings of this game, that’s exactly what happened. After a quick first out on a strikeout, he lost the zone and also failed to get any help from the umpire, who squeezed him pretty badly. It seemed to affect Porcello, who was getting noticeably annoyed and ended up issuing a walk. That brought Avisail Garcia to the plate, and Porcello may have been thinking he needs to go closer to the middle of the zone to get strikes. Garcia got a fastball just below the middle of the zone and he crushed it to straightaway center. Three batters into the bottom of the first and Chicago had a 2-0 lead. After that home run Porcello would give up three more singles in that inning and Chicago left the first with a 3-0 lead.

In the second, things didn’t get much better. He allowed a single and a double to put a pair in scoring position. Garcia was up again, and this time he settled for a sacrifice fly to give Chicago their fourth run. Porcello did get out of it after that, and in the third he escaped some trouble. After allowing a leadoff single followed by a walk, he got a big strikeout before inducing a huge double play to keep the White Sox at bay.

From there, he was able to settle down a bit. He was hitting his spots more and settling into a groove. It seemed as though he wouldn’t make it beyond the third inning, but he allowed just a single in the fourth before tossing a 1-2-3 fifth.

Unfortunately, while this was happening the Red Sox offense was being totally and utterly being shut down by Lucas Giolito. He was hitting the zone on a consistent basis, and the Red Sox took some time to adjust.

It actually seemed like that might not be the case very early on as Mookie Betts drew a walk right off the bat. That appeared to be a sign that they’d be able to work some good at bats against Giolito, and that thought was reinforced when Andrew Benintendi made him throw eight pitches in the next at bat. Unfortunately, Betts was picked off in the middle of that eight-pitch at bat, and said at bat ended with a strikeout. In all, Giolito would face just three batters in the first.

In fact, Giolito would face the minimum in the second, again in the third, then again in the fourth. Through the first twelve batters of the game, Giolito didn’t need to face an extra batter in any inning and he hadn’t allowed a hit. In the fifth, the offense finally got going to some degree. Xander Bogaerts gave the Sox their second baserunner of the game when he reached on a throwing error, so the no-hitter was still going. After a couple of quick outs, Ian Kinsler gave The Sox their first hit of the game and Sandy León got hit by a pitch. Suddenly, the bases were loaded and Jackie Bradley Jr. had a chance to tie it with one swing of the bat. He did make good contact, but he ripped one right at the first baseman to record the third out and keep the score at 4-0.

The Red Sox would waste a leadoff baserunner in the sixth, and then Porcello went out and let up a leadoff baserunner in the bottom half. That would represent the end of his night, but Brandon Workman came on and induced a quick double play before ending the frame with a strikeout.

In the seventh, the Red Sox started to break through. Their rally started with a Brock Holt walk, and Ian Kinsler quickly followed that with a double to put two in scoring position with one out. León was due up, but Blake Swihart got the call to pinch hit and he came through with an RBI single, cutting the deficit to three. Bradley followed that up with a sacrifice fly, and the Red Sox were down by only two with Betts coming up. He needed just one swing to tie it up as the superstar launched one into the left-field seats. Just like that, it was a 4-4 game.

With a brand new ballgame, Joe Kelly was called upon in the bottom of the seventh. He’d allow a leadoff single but get three straight outs after that to keep the game tied. In the eighth, both sides would go down in order with Brasier pitching on the Sox side of things.

So, we headed to the ninth in a tie game and after a quick first out the Red Sox got a rally going. Kinsler and Swihart got on with a single and a walk, and Bradley came through with an RBI single to give the Sox a 5-4 lead. After Betts struck out with runners on the corners, Benintendi came through amid a big slump, sneaking an RBI single through the middle to extend the lead to two. Martinez then blasted a three-run homer the other way, and just like that it was a five run lead. It was Heath Hembree coming on for the ninth. He’d toss a scoreless inning and close out another win for the Sox.

GAME RECAP