Although it’s currently still 36 degrees outside, Opening Day at Fenway marks the real end of winter in Boston and despite the Red Sox projected wins total, it’s impossible to be in a bad mood today. In order to truly and fully move on to 2023 though, first we must take a look back at last season.
To be fair, the Sox were coming off a 92 win season in 2021 and an electric ALCS appearance so I may have gotten wrapped up in the hype a little bit.
This year expectations are, to put it nicely, circling the drain already as the consensus has the Red Sox finishing in last place for the second year in a row. With that being said, let’s not lose sight of all the positives that came out of the disappointing (and confusing) 2022 season. To fully appreciate the full picture of last year, take a look at the 5 Best and 5 Worst Parts of Another Red Sox Last Place Finish.
But, as they famously like to say, if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.
So with that in mind, have a good deep belly laugh at some of the wildest moments, reflect on the bittersweet moments, get excited about the potential shown, and fire up some game day dogs for Opening Day baby!
The Red Sox are fresh off of their fifth last place finish in the past 11 seasons. That is absolutely insane for a team with the resources it has and the scrutiny the Sox face year in and year out. Obviously you can’t win the World Series every year and nobody expects that, but you better believe Red Sox fans expect a playoff team every year. Or at the very least a team that is pushing for a playoff spot and not something half the city tuned out in August.
As the baseball season continues for the more fortunate and we all turn our attention to the Bruins and Celtics, I figured what better time to breakdown the 5 Best and 5 Worst parts of this disastrous season? I won’t lie, it was significantly easier (and faster) to make the 5 Worst List than the 5 Best, but as much of a flaming dumpster this season turned into let’s not lose sight of every positive development.
5 Best Parts of the 2022 Red Sox Season
1.) The Youth Movement Has Officially Arrived
The Sox had what some called the worst farm system in all of baseball just a few years ago to being ranked No. 11 in MLB this season. Great, hooray, lets throw a party, I know I know, BUT that tree is starting to bear fruit at the major league level. It’s still early as all three of these guys made their debut in 2022, but Brayan Bello, Triston Casas and to a lesser extent Kutter Crawford showed they are ready to produce at the big league level. Beyond that, there were legitimate showcases of some seriously elite budding talent at Fenway this season.
Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds say that Brayan Bello’s changeup reminds them of Pedro Martínez.
Then you add in Triston Casas, who has shown *prodigious* power and plate discipline along with a really calming influence over at first base defensively. Now we’re cooking with gas.
Top it off with young guys like Tanner Houck (3.15 ERA) and Kutter Crawford (led the rotation in SO/9) and the Red Sox suddenly have some legitimate young talent on their roster, which is something they’ve struggled to restock in recent years.
2.) This Team Isn’t *Too* Far Off
This isn’t a roster that is so bad that it requires a complete tear down. In fact the Red Sox aren’t all that far off from returning to serious contention. Despite their complete cratering after the All-Star break, they were one of the top 3 teams in the AL in the first half so with a couple of key moves in free agency (read: open the damn wallet) and some (any) actual good fortune with injuries, this team could be right back in the mix next year. There will ample opportunity to shore up the rotation this offseason with free agents including guys like Jacob deGrom, Carlos Rodón, Just Verlander, Chris Bassitt, and that’s before we mention their own guy Nathan Eovaldi.
As for the lineup, after getting Kike Hernandez back from injury, Casas getting called up, and when Trevor Story is actually healthy, this is still one of the better lineups in baseball when at full Megazord power. Xander Bogaerts and Raffy Devers showcased what the heart of the Red Sox order can look like for the next 5 years IF the team is smart and extends both players.
Obviously when I say “this team isn’t too far off” it implies that only remains the case if they stop pretending to be the Tampa Bay Rays and crack open John Henry’s piggy back, but there is a clear path back to contention.
3.) Garrett Whitlock is the Real Deal
Arguably the biggest pro of the 2022 season was Garrett Whitlock proved his success last year wasn’t just a flash in the pan. However, the Sox did exactly what I didn’t want them to do with Whitlock: jerk him back and forth from the bullpen to the rotation. Shockingly, Whitlock’s body didn’t hold up and he hit the IL multiple times before ending his season early to undergo hip surgery. By all reports it doesn’t seem like a major surgery so he should be fine for next season, but the Sox *have* to pick a role for Whitlock and stick to it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I want him in the rotation. I understand the game has changed and there is less of an emphasis on starters, less pitchers going through a lineup three or more times, and a greater value placed on middle relievers. But that doesn’t change the fact that a top of the line starter is going to give you 200 innings vs maybe half that for a workhorse reliever. Whitlock is incredibly valuable out of the bullpen because he is lights out, but that value was magnified because the Sox just didn’t have many other reliable relievers to turn to this year. Shore up the bullpen with actual, legitimate additions, set Whitlock up to be a top of the rotation starter and lets go.
4.) Michael Wacha Was a Revelation
If you recall, I was not all that optimistic about Wacha coming to Boston because it had been a while since he was an effective MLB starting pitcher. But, I am not afraid to admit when I am wrong and when healthy (my god I am saying that a lot today), Michael Wacha was arguably the best starter on the team. Wacha finished the season at 11-2 with a 3.32 ERA in 127.1 IP and 104 strikeouts. Having signed a one-year contract for this season, the Sox need to bring this guy back.
Simply put, this is the Chaim Bloom experience. Bloom’s roster management is reminiscent of me walking into Marhsall’s. Sometimes I find really solid workout clothes that are comfortable, affordable, and even name brand. Sometimes I buy a pair of jeans for $12 dollars that rip right down the middle after a couple of times wearing them, ya know because they’re $12 jeans. Once in a while I get a real gem, like the time I found a rare throwback red Patriots Tom Brady jersey for just $20. So there are days I find absolute gold for $20, other times I walk out with an absolute piece of shit that I know I’m probably never going to wear more than once. But like Chaim Bloom, I’m never going to stop shopping at Marshall’s. In case this was too dense to read through, Michael Wacha is the red Brady jersey and the $12 jeans are the $10 million James Paxton contract (0 IP in 2022).
5.) Uhh..
5 Worst Parts of the 2022 Red Sox Season
1.) Finished in Last Place, Yet Again
The Boston #RedSox finished last just once from 1933-2011.
The Sox (72-81) now are on verge of finishing last for the 5th time in 11 years.
It certainly has been feast or famine for Sox during this stretch: 4 first place finishes. 2 World Series titles. 5 last-place finishes.
As I mentioned earlier in this blog, this is the fifth time the Red Sox have finished in the basement in the last 11 seasons. If the two World Series titles sprinkled in over that same period have caused people to overlook the low times, then the tweet above should hit you like a sledgehammer. The wild fluctuation of this franchise from top of the mountain to dumpster fire year after year would be impressive if it weren’t so maddening. For a team with a $200M+ payroll it’s just not acceptable to finish in last place. In fairness the division is much improved from the days when it was a two team race between the Sox and the Yankees back in the day, but the Sox finished a whopping 21 games out of first place.
2.) Absolute Abysmal Record vs AL East
This division has grown into one of the toughest in all of baseball, but the Sox got absolutely walloped by their division rivals this year, going 26-50 vs the AL East. If you can’t keep pace with your peers, take advantage of a distinct home field advantage at Fenway, AND finish behind the perpetually rebuilding Orioles, then something is seriously wrong.
3.) Chris Sale Injured Yet Again
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, just wait until Chris Sale is back, Chris Sale will be better than any trade deadline deal, the Chris Sale injury isn’t considered significant etc. etc. I love Chris Sale so this isn’t Sale Slander, but at 33-years-old and after six(!) years in Boston, he is what he is at this point in his career. Coming back from another offseason injury (broken rib, Tommy John, take your pick) Sale pitched only 5.2 innings this year after a comebacker broke his pinky in just his second start back. I actually felt bad for Sale after this one because it’s just one thing after the next for a guy who clearly relishes pitching in Boston and just wants to be on the mound. With that being said, anything the team gets from Sale here on out has to be considered gravy; not something the team can rely on. In 2021 Sale pitched just 42.2 innings, 0 IP in 2020, 147.1 Ip in 2019, 158 IP in 2018, and 214.1 IP in 2017.
It doesn’t take an economics degree to see the trend line there.
So while I love Sale, I am not banking on him to be the savior of this rotation anymore. It’s negligent to do so at this point. The Sox need to act as if he’s not coming back and build a pitching staff that if Sale does come back healthy then the team will have a good problem finding him some innings. We’ve seen he can still be a highly effective pitcher, he just isn’t someone the team can bank on for volume.
And it wasn’t just Sale either, injuries absolutely killed this team with a ton of games missed by him, Kike Hernandez, Trevor Story, Nathan Eovaldi, Garrett Whitlock and others. If this team can get a little bit of luck with health next season then it’ll make a world of difference.
4.) Somehow STILL Finished Over the Luxury Tax
This is probably the most inexcusable part of the entire last place finish. If you want to clear up dead money and acquire some lottery ticket prospects in the meantime, fine. If your owner ties your hands because of luxury tax penalties so you can’t make any big money moves until the books are in order, then fine. But all of those moves are only tolerated by fans because of the promise that it’s building to something in the near future. To finish in last place, trade away key players, let key free agents walk, and STILL finish over the luxury tax that is the definition of insanity. Moves like eating JBJ’s salary just to scoop up a couple of prospects did not help, made only worse by Bradley playing so poorly that the team ultimately released him. Compare that to the guy we traded away for him in Hunter Renfroe having a career year (28 HR and counting) for a fraction of the price. Oof.
5.) Chaim Bloom’s Plan
In fairness, Bloom does seem to be caught between a rock and a hard place. He now runs a BIG market team and works for an owner who loves to be frugal and efficient and smarter than everyone else, yet is *notorious* for flip flopping on organizational philosophies. Remember the whole mantra about how the Red Sox don’t commit big deals to pitchers over 30? That quote got raked over the coals when the Sox finished in last place their first year without 30+ year old Jon Lester (who flourished for Theo Epstein’s Cubs), and the team immediately signed 30-year-old David Price to a 7-year $217M contract. So I get it that his boss may be moving the goal posts on him a bit, but we are now three years into the Chaim Bloom experience.
It is truly put up or shut up time for Chaim Bloom because I do not want to hear any more talk about his five year plan.
It’s been an up and down tenure for the new face of the Red Sox as the team was surprisingly successful last year reaching the ALCS with a team nobody expected a deep run from. Then came the regrettable Hunter Renfroe trade, the bad gambles on injured free agents, playing stiffs at first base for two years while not even bothering to try and resign Kyle Schwarber (46 HRs for the Phillies and headed for the World Series), the near mutiny in the clubhouse when they didn’t bring in any reinforcements this year, dumping Christian Vazquez, attaching top prospect Jay Groome instead of eating salary in the Eric Hosmer deal, the lowball offer to Xander Bogaerts followed by an entire season of drama and I can go on and on and on.
October 28th marks three years since the Red Sox hired Bloom so its time for the drastic organizational shift away from the Dave Dombrowski (also World Series bound with the Phillies) philosophy to start showing dividends.
Bonus No. 6) Dennis Eckersley Retiring
I could write 10,000 words about Eck and what an excellent broadcaster he is, but for now I’ll just say what a bummer it is to see him go. It was a surprising announcement from Eck mid-season that this year would be his last as he wants to move back to Cali to be closer to his grandkids and for that I can’t fault him. However, that doesn’t make it any less sad to see him go, which I think hit harder for Sox fans as they’ve now seen Eck, the late great Jerry Remy, and Don Orsillo leave the NESN booth in just the last few years. The Red Sox broadcast has a steep, uphill battle to find a crew that comes even close to the entertainment, energy, and chemistry that those three guys displayed on a nightly basis over the years with whoever was beside them. We’ll miss ya Eck, don’t be a stranger.
After another cold, dark, and suspiciously long winter, this afternoon we get The Masters, game day dogs on the grill, and most importantly, Red Sox Opening Day. I wasn’t sure we’d get here after an extensive lockout, constant news of failed negotiations between the players and the owners, and rainouts delaying games further, but we made it guys. It’s baseball season.
After finishing the season 92-70 last year and making a surprise run to the ALCS expectations are high for this Red Sox team. With one of the best lineups in the game expectations should be high as the Sox look to build on last year’s deep postseason run. This season already has a melancholy vibe to it though because there could be some big changes after the season with JD Martinez, Kike Hernandez, and potentially Xander Bogaerts all hitting free agency. The farm system is back in the Top 10 and the Sox finally opened their wallets with the Trevor Story signing so the franchise is in a good position for the long haul, but it’s definitely win now time down on Jersey Street.
The Duct Tape Rotation
The 2022 pitching staff is a mixed bag that should get better when if everyone can get healthy at the same time, but as it currently sits the rotation has some question marks. The staff includes one legit starter in Nathan Eovaldi (11-9, 3.75 in 2021) but he comes with a long history of injuries, one potential hidden gem in Nick Pivetta (9-8, 4.53) who’s looking to build off an eye opening postseason run (2.63 ERA, 14 K’s in 13.2 IP), a 25-year-old in Tanner Houck (1-5, 3.52) that the Sox kept the training wheels on a bit last year but shows a ton of potential, and then two old and possibly washed up vets in Michael Wacha, yes that Wacha from the 2013 World Series, (5.05, 6.62, 4.76 ERAs the last 3 seasons) and Rich Hill (7-8, 3.86) at 42-years-young is back in Boston to see how long he can survive throwing 88 mph fastballs. Gone is rotation mainstay Eduardo Rodriguez after the Red Sox deemed him expendable and to be honest E-Rod seemed like he was gone the minute Alex Cora publicly scolded him for celebrating too hard in the middle of an ALCS game. A rare miss for Cora.
Eduardo Rodriguez got an earful from Alex Cora after mocking Carlos Correa’s celebration. 😳
If it sounds like I’m missing someone, you’re right, I haven’t mentioned Chris Sale who somehow cracked a rib last month throwing a baseball. So I hate to pin my hopes on Chris Sale because while has the stuff to be the best pitcher in the game, he he has struggled mightily to stay healthy the last few years. I still blame the Sox for delaying Sale’s March 2020 Tommy John surgery by several months for no particular reason, which ended up costing Sale nearly two full years. After recently being placed on the 60 day IL, Sale is projected to return the first week of June so I’m cautiously optimistic, but when healthy the lefty has the stuff to carry the Sox down the stretch and into the playoffs.
Welcome to Boston, Trevor Story
I love this signing IF Story is indeed slated to be the second baseman of the future. I don’t however love the optics of the Red Sox signing a career shortstop the same exact year that their own franchise shortstop can opt out of his contract and become a free agent. At best it feels like hedging, at worst it feels like the Sox are preemptively moving on from their team’s de facto leader, homegrown All-Star, and 2x World Series champion.
Garrett Whitlock Will Be Key
For those who don’t know, the Red Sox essentially got Garrett Whitlock off the scrap heap, selecting him in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft off the Yankees roster. Coming off Tommy John surgery, Whitlock was nothing less than a revelation for the Sox last year going 8-4 with a 1.96 ERA and racking up 81 strikeouts in 73.1 IP. Like a child of divorce, Whitlock seems to be stuck between what his dad (Alex Cora) and his mom (Chaim Bloom) want him to be as he gets yo-yo’d back and forth from the rotation to the bullpen. It has a striking similarity to the Jonathan Papelbon situation way back in 2006 when Paps came into the league as a starter before getting shifted to the pen for the postseason and ultimately taking the closer reigns from Keith Foulke. Now, I think Whitlock should be a starter because he has all the tools and multiple legit pitches to become a top of the rotation guy. However, baseball as a whole has really devalued top tier starters as analytics have taken over the game and managers routinely pull starters after a couple of times through the batting order. “Openers” used to be something we all laughed at the Rays for sending out relievers to pitch a few innings to start a game instead of a traditional starter. Now you see it all the time. The workhorse ace of a pitching staff is an endangered species. There were only THREE players with more than 200 innings pitched last year in all of baseball!
So perhaps Whitlock has a higher objective value coming out of the pen as the team’s Rover, but I still would rather seem him as a starter. Then again, Papelbon went on to become the greatest closer in team history so what do I know. Let’s not forget that the team did jerk around guys like Daniel Bard who eventually fell apart and the Yankees did the same thing with Joba Chamberlain. I once saw Chamberlain start a game at Fenway where he struck out 11 guys before the Yankees move him back to the pen. Then again he was a dominant reliever and was the heir apparent to Mariano Rivera before also falling apart. So I guess my main point is let’s just make a decision and stick with it rather than hem and haw to the point that the team screws up another young pitcher.
Rafael Devers Poised for Another MVP Season
Contract extension talks have stalled between the Sox and Bogaerts and Devers so that’s been a bit of a downer heading into the season. Devers just turned 25 in October and posted a season of 38 HR, 113 RBI while hitting .279/.352/.538 last year. He led the Red Sox in HR, RBI, Runs, Hits, Total Bases, Slugging and OPS en route to his first All-Star selection and finishing 11th in MVP voting. No player has more extra base hits than Rafael Devers over the last three seasons. Get. The. Deal. Done.
“We are talking cheapies here. The big boys came through.” – Eck
Matt Barnes was an All-Star last season lest anyone forget after his second half ERA of 6.48 and ya know being left off the ALCS roster. It didn’t help that Barnes seemingly fell apart right around the time the Spider Tack story broke and was suddenly explicitly banned. Maybe it was just a mental thing and he needed a full winter away from the ballpark to reset, but I’m not exactly penciling Barnes in for 40 saves this year. Whitlock could step in and handle the role, but again with baseball overindexing in middle relief guys, the Sox may not want to pigeonhole Whitlock to 1-inning outings. Cora has gone out of his way to not name a closer, which is fine, but I don’t love a revolving door at the end of games.
“They don’t want to call it closer by committee so they’re not gonna use that term is because they know theres a negative connotation. The reason Cora hasn’t named a closer is because they’re not going to use one.” – Tony Mazz on 98.5
It seems like the Sox are just throwing arms against the wall to see what sticks and that could be a problem, but then again relievers are notoriously fickle. So the team will need to define some roles in the pen, but expect the Sox to be active in the reliever market if Barnes and co. don’t bounce back.
This is a Flawed But Dangerous Team
Vegas has the over/under set for the 2022 Red Sox at 85.5 after winning 92 last year. With a loaded lineup that will mash its way to a ton of wins on its own and a potentially sneaky good bullpen, the Sox should be a lock to hit the over. The rotation could be a disaster if there are any more injuries, but with Sale due back in June they should be good enough at the front end. The only thing that could hinder them is how the AL East has seemingly become the best division in baseball. Vegas has the Yankees, Rays, and Blue Jays all projected to win more games than the Sox this season, which Boston is intimately aware of after all-time classic playoff battles against the Yankees and Rays just last fall. With all that being said, I like my chances with a lineup featuring Kike Hernandez, Rafael Devers, Xander Boagaerts, JD Martinez, Alex Verdugo, Trevor Story, and even Bobby Dalbec if he keeps up his second half surge from last season. I think this team will definitely need to add an outfield bat if they’re going to reach the World Series because I love former ALCS MVP Jackie Bradley’s defense, but the man did hit .163 in his lone season with the Brewers last year. Maybe that bat off the bench comes in the form of top prospect Triston Casas, but even then, the kid plays first base. So Chaim will likely need to find an OF bat at the deadline in the same vein as Steve Pearce if the Sox are to go the distance.
Media predictions are all over the place too so nobody knows what to expect from this team. The Ringer has the Sox as the 12th ranked team in baseball behind the Jays, Rays and Yankees, Felger has the Sox winning 95 games, and Chris Gasper has called the upcoming season a bridge year. Then again media predictions are just that, fugazi attempts at defining a team before the first pitch of Opening Day. A lot of people picked the Sox to finish a distant 4th in the division last year, but the team clicked and ended up winning 92 games en route to the ALCS.
With the addition of a healthy Chris Sale I have this team winning 95 games this year, which should be enough to get them into the new 12-team playoff format. Is this a World Series winning team? I’m not sold on that without some additions, but this should be a team that is threatening for the pennant.
The 2013 Red Sox authored the single most improbable championship run I have ever seen. This Red Sox team was a squad filled with journeymen picked off the scrap heap, no names, and guys on one year deals hoping to revive their careers. Andrew Miller, Jake Peavy, Kohi Uehara, David Ross, Mike Napoli, Johnny Gomes, Shane Victorino etc.
The Red Sox were coming off a season in which they were 26 games out of first place and finished dead last in the AL East. They had just pulled the plug on the disaster that was the Bobby Valentine experiment after just one season so they were being led by their third manager in three seasons. So I can’t say I was expecting much from the 2013 team. Prior to the season, the front office signed a bunch of players that were essentially cast offs from other organizations in moves that at the time screamed Bridge Year. John Henry and Ben Cherington will tell you otherwise, but building a team like this was the definition of catching lightning in a bottle.
Except all of these forgotten has beens instantly bonded and banded together to quickly build a team chemistry that was rivaled probably only by the 2004 team.
I’ll never forget this quote from Jake Peavy.
“I’ve never been with a team that is as single-mindedly as focused to do everything they can do to be world champion,” Peavy said. “That’s not making any guarantees because you can’t do that. But we’re going to die trying.”
Goosebumps.
Every guy on that team felt like they were an underdog that had been written off. They all fueled off one other to individually have some of their best seasons and of course go on one of the most unlikely championship runs in baseball history.
Combine that with the emotional rollercoaster that was the Boston Marathon bombing and you had a team that became a rallying cry for a city in need of healing. Where 2004 had Cowboy Up, 2013 had Boston Strong and one of the greatest impromptu speeches from a Red Sox legend.
David Ortiz would go on to have an all-time performance in the World Series too, batting .688 with an absolutely ludicrous 1.948 OPS.
I was living just a mile down the road from Fenway in 2013 so I went to like 20 games that season so I feel an even deeper connection to this team. I still have the ticket stub on my wall from the best game I have ever attended: Game 2 of the 2013 ALCS vs the Detroit Tigers.
I also still have maybe the strangest piece of memorabilia in recent Red Sox history: ticket stubs for Game 7 of the World Series at Fenway Park.
I even have a giant framed picture of Jonny Gomes placing the World Series trophy and a Boston Strong jersey at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
This team was bigger than sports.
The 2013 Red Sox also did what the 2004, 2007, and 2018 teams never got the chance to do; they closed it out at home. I’ll never forget Koji getting the final out and everyone at the bar tossing their $8 tallboys in the air before sprinting out onto Landsdowne Street to celebrate like drunk maniacs as fireworks erupted from the Green Monster.
Maybe they weren’t the best Red Sox team in franchise history, but I can’t say I’ve ever had more fun rooting for a team
Catch the fever! Tickets to September Red Sox games are going for $6 bucks online right now. That is mental. You can get in tonight for $6, tomorrow for $7 and you can even get into Red Sox Yankees Sunday Night Baseball for $18.
I remember being a kid in the early 2000s and you couldn’t get into a Sox Yanks game for less than a bill. The first thing I did every April was sign up for the Red Sox/Yankees ticket lottery just to get a shot at those tickets for a decent price. Granted the Red Sox are 15 games out of first place in the AL East and 5.5 back of the second Wild Card spot. So as I said to a couple New Yorkers busting my balls over the weekend, we’re getting to the point in the Red Sox season where its almost Patriots season.
What a difference a year makes. Last September the Sox were just crushing teams en route to the World Series and I had no problem staying up til 3 am watching a 7 hour 18-inning game. Hell, I was in freaking Buffalo for work during the ALDS so I had to watch the Sox-Yankees in some Buffalo dive bar and I was more than happy to do it. Now? I’m not exactly racing home to watch David Price give up 5 runs in 5 innings and then opine about how his stuff felt good.
But, if I’m being a glass half full guy, which I know so many of you look to me for my optimism, I could at least expand my bobblehead collection two-fold for less than $20 in the next week.
Just shut everyone down, punt on 2019, make some moves in the winter, and come back with your heads screwed on in 2020. We’re done here.
CBS Boston – There will be no charges filed in the case of the mysterious discovery of the Boston Red Sox American League East champions banner…
The company that made the banner didn’t believe the tale. The owner filed a report with Somerville Police in an effort to discover if the item was stolen.
On Friday, Somerville Police said no charges will be filed after the company asked to end the investigation.
Well, well, well. The company asked the police to end the investigation. That’s a far cry from what Tony Lafuente, the owner of the company, had to say to the Boston Globe just two days earlier:
“I’ve been doing work for the Boston Red Sox since 1992. Nothing ever happened like this.” “[These guys] should be ashamed of themselves… those guys stole my banner.”
The story of the guys who found the banner was definitely far fetched, but Lafuente seemed a bit quick to point the finger at them. He probably should have thanked them for recovering an object that fell out of a moving vehicle and could have injured someone, rather than accuse them of stealing it.
We’ll see if Lafuente has anything else to say about this matter, but I doubt it. It’d be interesting to find out if this item truly did just fall off the truck, or if maybe it was “pushed” off the truck by a man on the inside. That’d be embarrassing for Lafuente. We’ll probably never know, though. Either way, I stand by my original position that these guys got hosed by the Sox.
Come on, John Henry. How many extra clicks did Boston.com get out of this? A couple of standing room tickets would be well worth those clicks. You shouldn’t penalize these guys just for being worse dealmakers than Barry Zuckerkorn.
I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t watch a ton of this game since the Bruins started their Cup run at the same time last night. But here are the highlights in case you also decided to watch playoff hockey over April baseball for some reason.
Hanley got beaned in the goddamn wrist in the 1st inning.
Intentional? Hard to say. Does that make me less pissed? Of course not. Because there’s nothing I love seeing more than the Red Sox hottest hitter taking a fastball off the wrist. Worked out great for Nomar.
Not that I would necessarily trust medical reports from Hanley Ramirez, but he himself said late last night that he should be fine so thats a relief.
Hand should be ok, thanks for all your messages. And the boys won. Again. #TenAndTwo baby !
Frederick Alfred Porcello was DEALING as he carried a no-hitter into the 7th inning. I’m sure the 45 minute rain delay didn’t help his case, but we seem to be getting more Cy Young Rick and less MLB Leader in Losses Rick so thats great to see.
As compensation for shielding Joe Kelly from wild haymakers the night before (Sox third base coach Carlos Febles was not so lucky) Aaron Judge was the one to ruin Porcello’s no-no with a double in the 7th inning.
The Sox piled on Sonny Gray early and often, who hasn’t been able to replicate his early career success in the past 3 years. Going into the game Gray was 1-4 with a 4.93 ERA in six career starts vs. Boston, and 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA in three starts at Fenway Park. Sonny had a rough go last night too, getting slapped around for 6 earned runs in 3 innings. Very bad!
The bullpen nearly blew a 6-run lead, but Craig Kimbrel came in and slammed that door shut as the Sox took a 6-3 win. Boston improved to 10-2 and a 2-1 record against the Yankees in the first series of the season. With 16 more games to go it’s going to be awesome watching the bad blood boil over between these two sides as they’re grinding it out for the AL East crown all summer long.
Its an ALL Red Sox podcast as we dive into the trade deadline, the dog days of summer for the Sox, what they need to do if they hope to win the AL East, and WTF is going on with David Price? LETS GET IT.
The 300s 