Eovaldi took the mound in the top of the first inning and Cavan Biggio flied out to right to start. Bo Bichette struck out swinging and Travis Shaw whiffed as well to end the inning. Shoemaker got the ball in the bottom of the first and and the slumping Sox continued to do nothing. Alex Verdugo whiffed, Rafael Devers grounded out to second and JD Martinez flied out to right to end the inning.
Teoscar Hernandez went down hacking in the top of the second but Verdugo booted a Lourdes Gurriel Jr base hit, allowing Loudres to reach second. Eovaldi recovered by getting Vladimir Guerrero Jr to ground out to short and for Randal Grichuk to strike out swinging to end the inning. The Soz struck first in the bottom of the second although Xander Bogaerts grounded out to short to start. Mitch Moreland belted his fifth home run of the season to give the Sox the lead, but Christian Vazquez whiffed. Andrew Benintendi flied out to right to end the inning with the Sox ahead 1-0.
The Jays almost immediately struck back in the top of the third although Rowdy "Roddy" Tellez took strike three to start. Reese McGuire grounded out to short but Biggio smashed a 760,000 foot home run to tie the game. Bichette grounded out to second to end the inning but the Jays tied it 1-1.
The Sox fought back in the bottom of the third as Jackie Bradley Jr got a base hit to center to start. Tzu-Wei Lin caught Shoemaker asleep with a bunt attempt and Matt threw wide of first, allowing Tzu to reach first. Verdugo then lined one off of Shoemaker who picked the ball up and threw that one away too. JBJ scored and Lin took third to give the Sox the lead. Naturally the slumping Sox continued to do nothing as Devers lined out to center and Martinez banged into a double play to end the inning with the Sox only ahead 2-1.
Naturally the Jays tied the game in the top of the fourth although Shaw whiffed to start. Hernandez effortlessly doubled to left and moved to third on the Gurriel Jr fly out. Guerrero Jr laughed as he effortlessly lined a base hit to center to score Hernandez to tie the game. A wild pitch moved Guerrero to second but Grichuk struck out swinging to end the inning with the game tied 2-2.
The Sox failed to respond in the bottom of the fourth as Bogaerts whiffed, Moreland grounded out to first and Vazquez took strike three to end the inning.
Eovaldi recovered to strike out Tellez swinging to open the top of the fifth. McGuire went down hacking and Biggio lined out to center to end the inning. Benintendi extended his slump by striking out on a pitch nowhere close to start the bottom of the fifth. JBJ followed by striking out swinging as well and Lin lined out to right to end the inning.
The Jays went up for good instantly in the top of the sixth as Bichette drilled a 4,500 foot home run to start the inning. Shaw grounded out to second and Hernandez whiffed, but Gurriel Jr singled to left. Guerrero Jr grounded into a force to end the inning with the Jays ahead 3-2. That was it for Eovaldi who tossed 6 innings of 3 run ball, normally that's a good enough average game to keep the Sox in it.
The Sox fought back in the bottom of the sixth as Verdugo grounded out to second to start. Devers stepped up big time with his second home run of the year to tie the game, welcome back Rafael. Martinez lined out to third and Bogaerts flied out to right to end the inning but the Sox had tied it 3-3.
Josh Osich came in for the top of the seventh and Grichuk grounded out to third to start. Tellez hit a routine grounder to first but Moreland decided to drop an elbow on the ball and pin it for the 1-2-3 count for an error. Tellez was erased on the McGuire force but Biggio walked to chase Osich. Austin Brice came in and got Bichette to ground into a force to end the inning. Good work by Brice.
Ryan Borucki shut down the Sox in the bottom of the seventh as Moreland took strike three to start. Vazquez whiffed and for the second game in a row, Sox manager Ron Roenicke pinch hit Benintendi with Kevin Pillar. Pillar then struck out swinging to end the inning. Nice going Roenicke!
Brice turned up the heat in the top of the eighth as he struck out the side. Shaw, Hernandez and Gurriel Jr all went down hacking in short order. Jose Peraza pinch hit for JBJ to start the bottom of the eighth. The Jays countered by bringing in Thomas Hatch and naturally Hatch got Peraza swinging. Lin went down hacking and Verdugo took strike three to end the inning.
Matt Barnes (1-1, 5.14 ERA) came in for the top of the ninth and got Guerrero Jr swinging on a nasty curve to start. Barnes froze Grichuk for strike three and Tellez lined out to center to end the inning. Could the Sox walk it off in the bottom of the ninth? Devers grounded out to first and Martinez grounded to third. Bogaerts walked and Moreland POUNDED A TWO RUN HOME RUN TO CENTER! THE RED SOX WIN!
Hero of the Night is Mitch Moreland. He hit two home runs, drove in 3 runs and the second home run was the walkoff home run to win the game.
The Good:
Jackie Bradley Jr was 1 for 2 with a run scored.
Nathan Eovaldi tossed 6 solid innings of 3 run ball. If the Sox had any sort of offense, that would have been good enough to win.
Josh Osich got the first two outs of the seventh inning.
Austin Brice struck out 3 of the four batters he got out.
Matt Barnes got the win with a scoreless ninth inning.
The Bad:
Alex Verdugo was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts and an error.
JD Martinez was 0 for 4.
Christian Vazquez was 0 for 3 with a hat trick of three strikeouts.
Andrew Benintendi was 0 for 2 with a strikeout.
Kevin Pillar struck out as a pinch hitter.
Jose Peraza struck out as a pinch hitter.
Tzu-Wei Lin was 0 for 2 with a strikeout.
The Ugly:
Rafael Devers was just 1 for 4 but the one hit was a home run.
Final Thoughts:
Not only did the Sox win on a walkoff but the New York Yankees blew a 3-0 lead against the Tampa Bay Rays with 9 outs to go and lost 4-3 on a walkoff. The Sox are boring, lifeless and have no chance to compete this season but the fact they're only 3.5 games out of first place with 45 left to play is hilarious. The Sox only managed 4 hits in this game but three of them were home runs, unlike last night. Benintendi, Martinez and Devers were once again 1 for 10 combined but at least Devers hit a home run. Maybe he can build on that, who knows? Austin Brice has pitched 5 consecutive good games and hopefully that continues. Tomorrow night the Sox take on the visiting Tampa Bay Rays. Ryan Yarbrough goes for the Rays against somebody Sox manager Ron Roenicke picks out of a hat at 7:30 PM at Fenway Park.
No comments:
Post a Comment