The Red Sox Played Like Complete Dog Shit Last Night, Made 4 Errors And Looked Sloppy As Hell
When your team sucks in the first month of the season, fans will often hide behind the “It’s April” excuse. Often times, it is just April. But what happens when they start to suck in May? Then what?
Coming into last night, the Red Sox had managed just two wins in five tries against the Orioles this season, but fans had the “They haven’t seen Rick Porcello or Chris Sale yet” logic to deflect their poor showing against the early division leaders. Well, they’ve seen one of them, and you’re still losing.
Now, is it fair to pin that loss all on Porcello? Of course not. I mean, it’s not like he threw a shutout, so he does deserve a piece of the blame pie, but with this Red Sox offense, six innings and two earned runs should get you a win more often than it doesn’t. Last night, it didn’t. However, despite now having a 1-4 record on the season, it does appear that Porcello has returned to form after the 8-run drumming that he took at the hands of the Rays back on April 14. Since that beating, he’s made three starts and posted an ERA of 1.83 and opponents are hitting just .205 with a .574 OPS against him with 21 strikeouts in 19.2 innings.
Of the two earned runs that Porcello allowed, one of them came on a Manny Machado bomb that Porcello called the worst pitch that he threw all night, a hanging slider. If the Orioles’ scoring had ended there, then we might’ve had a ballgame on our hands, because the Red Sox put up two runs themselves against Dylan Bundy, who has been fantastic this year. But four errors by the Red Sox defense contributed to three unearned runs, which ultimately sunk them to 13-12 for the year.
Marco Hernandez was responsible for two of the four errors, drawing attention to Boston’s glaring issue at third base, which is actually a two-year issue versus just being a 2017 issue. Props to Travis Shaw, who appears to have found a nice home in Milwaukee and hit a game-winning homer in extras for the Brewres last night, but he didn’t perform at a level that was of much help last year, and he’s made just as many errors in 2017 as Pablo Sandoval has. They could certainly use his pop right now, though.
But after what we’ve seen from Sandoval prior to his stint on the disabled list and what you’re getting from the Hernandez and Josh Rutledge platoon, I’d imagine we’re not far away from the Todd Frazier and Mike Moustakas trade rumors heating up. And for those asking, it’s way too soon for Rafael Devers. He’s had 66 at-bats in Double-A where he’s hitting .273 with a .789 OPS, but still projects to be at the major league level some time next year. Maybe later this season, Devers becomes a consideration, but only because Dave Dombrowski has a history of aggressive call-ups.
It wasn’t just the defense that was sloppy, either. There was this play that involved both Andrew Benintendi, who made a throwing error, and Hanley Ramirez:
Who’s wrong here? The answer is both guys. Benintendi has to get to third base on that play, especially given his wheels. But Hanley has to keep his head up and know where Benintendi is. Hanley said after the game that he wasn’t going to throw his teammate under the bus and that he was just hustling, which is both true and a spin zone. You can hustle and be aware of the play in front of you simultaneously. And when you’re asked whose fault it is, there are only two parties involved, and you say you don’t want to throw anybody under the bus, you’re basically throwing the guy under the bus because you’re implying it wasn’t your fault, so, in turn, it has to be his. You were both at fault there. Sloppy play.
Then, there was this. In the sixth inning, Mookie Betts was hit by a Dylan Bundy fastball. Here is what we know — the Red Sox and Orioles do not like each other. Matt Barnes threw behind Manny Machado’s head last Sunday, the Orioles’ best player. If the Orioles were to retaliate for that, which I believe is more than fair to do given that the Machado pitch was up around the head, then it’s commonplace for the retaliating team to go after the other team’s best player. Boston’s best player is Mookie Betts. In the at-bat that Bundy hit Betts, he missed inside two pitches prior in the same exact spot:
If you’re gonna hit someone, you do it the right way, and where Mookie got hit was in an area that isn’t going to create controversy in the way that Barnes did. Also, the two pitches shown above where Bundy comes way inside on Betts and hits him on the second one, both of those fastballs were his two hardest thrown pitches of the night.
So, those are the facts that we have. All of that is presented without opinion. Having all of that information, let’s add another layer to the story in that it was the sixth inning with one out and nobody on in a 2-0 ballgame. Why would Bundy want to bring the tying run to the plate? Well, ideally, you wouldn’t want to do that. That’s dumb. But it’s plausible to believe that if you hit Mookie in that situation, you have more deniability of any intent, thus avoiding a suspension for Bundy, who has been Baltimore’s best pitcher this season. You also set up the inning-ending double play for a pitcher who recorded a season-high 10 ground ball outs last night.
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If it weren’t for the first pitch inside that Bundy missed, I’d probably think it was just an accident, but missing in the same exact spot twice kinda gave it away. That, and the juiced up velocity on both pitches, assumingly from adrenaline. And for the record, no, I do not have an issue with the Orioles pegging Mookie. The Machado slide that spiked Dustin Pedroia being followed up by Machado getting one up by the head was not an eye for an eye situation. The Red Sox deserved one back for that, and, again, the Orioles did it the right way by picking out Boston’s best player, an equivalent to what Machado is to them, and hitting him in a spot that isn’t going to threaten his life or his career. This should be the end of this whole thing now.
Final score: Orioles 5, Red Sox 2