After weeks of speculation, the rumors of the Boston Red Sox being sellers were absolutely true. The first to go was incumbent catcher Christian Vazquez and struggling reliever Jake Diekman. Vazquez was shipped out to tonight's opponent Houston Astros in exchange for 23 year old outfielder Wilyer Abreu who's hitting .249 with 15 home runs in AA and 23 year old slugger Enmanuel Valdez who's hitting .327 with 21 home runs between AA and AAA this season. Chaim Bloom has had almost zero success in his trades the last 3 years so we fully expect for Abreu to be mediocre in AA and Valdez to fall flat on his face in Worcester just like Nick Yorke, Tyreqe Reed and Joe Davis has done. The Sox also managed to dump Jake Diekman on the Chicago White Sox for a player to be named and catcher Reese McGuire....the same McGuire who was arrested for jacking off in public two years ago. If McGuire wasn't enough bad press, the Sox topped it by sending a player to be named to the Cincinnati Reds for noted hot-head Tommy Pham. Giving up the beloved Vazquez for McGuire and Pham may save owner John Henry a few bucks but PR is going to have a nightmare explaining this. To replace Vazquez and Diekman, the Sox activated Rich Hill off the injured list and promoted catcher Ronaldo Hernandez from Worcester.
As for the game, somehow the rag-tag Sox defeated the American League champion Astros just minutes after Christian Vazquez was traded to them. Nathan Eovaldi (5-3, 4.11 ERA) pitched his best game in months, holding the Astros to 2 unearned runs in 6 1/3 gutty innings. After the awful Sox defense turned a 1-0 lead into a 2-1 deficit, Jarren Duran stepped up with a two run home run in the fifth inning to put Boston on top. John Schreiber and Tanner Houck stepped up the rest of the way to lead the Sox to a hard fought 3-2 victory over the Astros at Minute Maid Park.
Luis Garcia got the ball in the top of the first inning as Jarren Duran flied out to center to start. Xander Bogaerts flied out to center and Alex Verdugo took strike three right down the middle to end the inning. Eovaldi got the ball in the bottom of the first and Jose Altuve lined out to third to start. Yuli Gurriel effortlessly doubled to center and moved to third on the Yordan Alvarez grounder to second. Somehow Aledmys Diaz grounded out to third to end the inning.
JD Martinez flied out to right to start the top of the second inning before Christian Arroyo flied out to right as well. Franchy Cordero struck out swinging to end the inning. Kyle Tucker grounded out to first to start the bottom of the second before Jeremy Pena flied out to center. Chas McCormick walked and Jake Meyers got a base hit to left, but Martin Maldonado struck out swinging to end the inning.
The Sox struck first in the top of the third inning as Bobby Dalbec got a double to left to start Yolmer Sanchez popped up to first and Kevin Plawecki flied out to right, but Duran hit a ground rule double down the right field line to score Dalbec. A wild pitch moved Duran to third but Bogaerts struck out swinging to end the inning with the Sox up 1-0.
The Sox defense reared its ugly head in the bottom of the third as Altuve hit a routine grounder to Arroyo who picked up the third base bag and threw it at the ball for an error. Gurriel hit a routine grounder to Bogaerts who picked up the second base bag and used it as a shield on the ball for another error to put runners at the corners. Alvarez hit a sac fly to left to score Altuve and Diaz doubled to left to score Gurriel to put the Astros on top. Tucker walked but Pena flied out to right and McCormick flied out to center to end the inning with the Astros ahead 2-1.
Verdugo got a base hit to center to start the top of the fourth but Martinez banged into a double play. Arroyo got a base hit to right and Cordero grounded back to the mound to end the inning. Eovaldi recovered in the bottom of the fourth as Meyers popped up to first to start. Maldonado grounded out to short and Altuve grounded out to third to end the inning.
The Sox struck back in the top of the fifth as Dalbec walked to start. Sanchez struck out swinging and Plawecki flied out to left, but Duran clobbered his second home run of the year to put the Sox on top. Bogaerts flied out to left to end the inning with Boston ahead 3-2.
Gurriel grounded out to short to start the bottom of the fifth but Alvarez took strike three. Diaz took strike three as well to end the inning.
Verdugo popped up to third to start the top of the sixth but Martinez got a base hit to left. Arroyo flied out to center and Cordero grounded out to second to end the inning. Tucker grounded out to first to start the bottom of the fifth before Pena struck out swinging. McCormick also went down hacking to end the inning.
Dalbec took strike three to start the top of the seventh before Sanchez flied out to left. Plawecki grounded out to first to end the inning. Meyers took strike three to start the bottom of the seventh but Maldonado got a base hit to right to chase Eovladi. Nathan pitched his best game in over a month by allowing no earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. John Schreiber came in and got Altuve to ground into a double play to end the inning.
Phil Maton came in to pitch the top of the eighth and Duran grounded back to the mound to begin. Bogaerts struck out swinging and Verdugo took strike three to end the inning. Gurriel struck out swimnging to start the bottom of the eighth but Alvarez walked. Diaz got a base hit to right and both runners moved over on the Tucker grounder to the mound. With the game on the line, Pena was caught looking for strike three to end the inning.
Rafael Montero came in to pitch the top of the ninth and Martinez struck out swinging to start. Arroyo lined out to center and Cordero flied out to right to end the inning. If it wasn't for Duran's heroics the Sox would have been shut-out again. Jackie Bradley Jr took over in right with Tanner Houck in to close out the bottom of the ninth. McCormick grounded out to short and JJ Matijevic pinch hit for Meyers. Matijevic struck out swinging and Taylor Jones pinch hit for Maldonado. Maldonado grounded out to short to end the game. The Sox had won it 3-2.
Hero of the Night is Jarren Duran. He drove in all three runs the Sox scored including the two run home run to put them on top.
The Good:
Bobby Dalbec was 1 for 2 with a walk and 2 runs scored.
John Schreiber tossed 1 2/3 scoreless innings.
Tanner Houck earned his seventh save with a scoreless ninth inning.
The Bad:
Xander Bogaerts was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts with an error.
Franchy Cordero was 0 for 4 with a strikeout.
Yolmer Sanchez was 0 for 3 with a strikeout.
Kevin Plawecki was 0 for 3.
The Ugly:
Alex Verdugo was just 1 for 4 with 2 strikeouts.
JD Martinez was just 1 for 4 with a strikeout.
Christian Arroyo was just 1 for 4 with an error.
Honorable Mention:
Jackie Bradley Jr played right field in the bottom of the ninth.
Final Thoughts:
Good win but it looks like the Sox are going to be sellers at the deadline. Trading one of the only guys with value in Vazquez and bringing in sub-par talent such as McGuire and Pham to play out the string is a dead giveaway that more moves are on the horizon. It looks like Xander Bogaerts is safe but JD Martinez is the top name on the trading block. He's pretty much said his goodbyes through social media if this is the end so its just a question of what they get back in return. With the trio of Schreiber, Houck and Whitlock nailing down the later innings, another bullpen arm could be the target if they unload Martinez. As for tonight's game, that was a pretty good win. Eovaldi tossed his best game since coming off the Injured List and Duran stepped it up tonight. The Sox committed more errors but Arroyo is not a third baseman and shouldn't be in there. Even the Sox mood isn't good as some of the players grumbled after the game. Good! I hope they get mad at how they played in July that took them from the top wild card spot to last place in the AL East. Maybe they need to get nasty in order to fight back after they humiliated themselves in July. There's one day left until the deadline so it'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow and who stays or who goes. The win improved the Sox to 52-52, 3 games behind the Seattle Mariners for the third wild card. The Sox look to make it three wins in a row tomorrow night against Houston when they send rookie Kutter Crawford (2-3, 4.15 ERA) to the mound against Cristian Javier of the Astros. The game begins at 8:10 PM Eastern time at Minute Maid Park.
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