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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 1:47:15 GMT -5
Red Sox (12-11) @ Orioles (14-7) Monday 24th April 6:35pm @ OPACY
Sale 1-1/ 8.00 vs Kremer 1-0/ 6.16
On six-game roll, Orioles open series with Red Sox FLM The Baltimore Orioles have set the bar pretty high in the first few weeks of the season.
They share the second-best record in the American League. Yet from their perspective, this might just be the beginning.
"We have a lot of good players," Baltimore infielder Adam Frazier said. "Everybody wants to win. We're still coming together. It's a good start."
The Orioles carry a six-game winning streak into Monday night's game against the visiting Boston Red Sox. It's the opener of a three-game series.
The Orioles have given up a total of just three runs across the last five games, most recently resulting in a three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers to begin the homestand.
Next up in the rotation is right-hander Dean Kremer (1-0, 6.16 ERA). He's coming off his best outing of the season, having pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings against the host Washington Nationals last Tuesday.
The season didn't begin so well for Kremer, who allowed five runs on six hits and a walk in three innings on April 1 at Boston. In six career starts versus the Red Sox, Kremer is 0-4 with a 7.76 ERA.
Left-hander Chris Sale (1-1, 8.00) will start for the Red Sox. He opposed Kremer on April 1 and also struggled, surrendering seven runs on seven hits and two walks in three innings. He gave up three home runs.
Sale also had his best outing of the season last Tuesday, going six innings and holding the Minnesota Twins to one run on three hits and two walks while striking out 11. Once one of the game's most dynamic pitchers, Sale has been slow to recover from Tommy John surgery and had only two big-league appearances in 2022.
"This is what we've been working for," Sale said of his outing against Minnesota. "For the most part, I had everything going under control."
Certainly, Sale is encouraged about what could come next as he goes through the season.
"I just need reps. I need to get off the mound. I need to feel more comfortable and just be more consistent," Sale said. "You know, this is a game of consistency and making adjustments and those are two things I desperately needed to make."
His outlook might be brighter knowing Baltimore is the next foe. Sale is 10-3 with a 3.21 ERA in 24 career appearances (18 starts) against the Orioles.
Boston catcher Reese McGuire didn't play Sunday after his right hand was struck by a foul tip Saturday. It's not expected to be a long-term absence, Red Sox manager Alex Cora said.
"He should be available in Baltimore to start a game," Cora said.
Despite recent victories, Baltimore's run production has been shoddy at times, but there are enough good signs to keep things moving in the right direction.
"It goes back to putting the pressure on the defense, putting the ball in play and making things happen," Frazier said.
The Orioles didn't have a base runner until the seventh inning Sunday against Detroit's Eduardo Rodriguez. That didn't prevent them from finding a solution. Baltimore won 2-1 in 10 innings despite collecting only three hits.
The Red Sox, who have won three of their last four games, should feel good about their bats after Sunday's 12-5 romp at Milwaukee. Boston exploded in the eighth inning, scoring nine runs thanks in large part to a solo homer and grand slam from Masataka Yoshida.
"I'd love to stack wins, whether it's in the division or out of the division," Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.
Boston won two of three games against the visiting Orioles to begin the season. The Red Sox scored nine runs in all three of those games.
--Field Level Media
Forecast Partly Sunny 58.9 °F Humidity: 34.6 % P.O.P.: 4 %
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 1:48:31 GMT -5
Red Sox @ Orioles
Monday, 6:35 p.m. ET -- LHP Chris Sale (1-1, 8.00 ERA) vs. RHP Dean Kremer (1-0, 6.16 ERA)
Tuesday, 6:35 p.m. ET -- RHP Corey Kluber (0-4, 8.50 ERA) vs. RHP Kyle Bradish (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Wednesday, 1:05 p.m. ET -- TBD (likely RHP Tanner Houck) vs. RHP Tyler Wells (0-1, 2.70 ERA)
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 6:59:24 GMT -5
Orioles amused by change in perception alt By Roch Kubatko Orioles April 24, 2023, 4:00am
The Orioles have won 14 of their first 21 games to tie for the third-best start in club history. And they don’t want to hear about soft schedules and beatable opponents.
It used to be them. Remember?
They were tagged as the easy marks during the rebuild. They were the team that the rest of the league was supposed to view as providing a breather during a heated pennant race.
Funny how a narrative can spin as the tables are turned.
The Red Sox and Yankees are a combined 4-2 versus the Orioles, and everyone else is 3-12. A stretch of 10 wins in the last 12 games has come against the Athletics, White Sox, Nationals and Tigers, who are a collective 25-60.
Social media is loaded with posts about the Orioles bullying the weaklings, in so many words. Just wait until they play somebody good. What they're hold might be fool's gold.
Accept the compliment.
“That’s 100 percent a sign of progress,” said center fielder Cedric Mullins. “Facing the Tigers, for example, we don’t take any team for granted. Last year they swept us (in Detroit). Still a major league team on the other side, so we’ve got to come out and have our best.
“It just means the expectations are higher and with continued success is just going to mean higher expectations.”
“I guess if we’re allowed to have a soft part of the schedule, that’s pretty cool. I’ll take it as a positive, I guess,” first baseman Ryan Mountcastle said with a grin, before breaking up Eduardo Rodriguez’s bid for a perfect game with a single in the seventh inning.
“We’re playing well and I don’t think it really matters who we’re playing right now. I just feel like we’re playing our game and winning games.”
An amount that is making everyone notice and question the validity. Maybe that’s irony.
Tear down the roster, rebuild and now try to destroy a perception.
“We used to be the soft spot. I get it for sure,” said reliever Bryan Baker.
“You heard things about the Rays and their (13-game) win streak to start the year, like, the teams weren’t as good, but I think winning at this level against anybody should be celebrated. I don’t really look into that very much. I think every team we play has quality players. But yeah, I would say it’s definitely nice not to be considered one of those weaker teams. But I honestly don’t even think about that, really. It’s just show up and try to get a W that day.”
They can do it by outhitting clubs or by shutting them down. They’ve posted a 1.15 ERA during their six-game winning streak. Adam Frazier had a walk-off fielder’s choice ground ball Friday night and scored in the 10th inning yesterday on a wild pitch.
Two Gatorade baths without getting a hit.
These are your 2023 Orioles, tied with the Rangers for the second-best record in the American League. They won two of three games in Texas, by the way.
Before the schedule became cushier than fresh bread.
“At the end of the day, I don’t view it in that way,” closer Félix Bautista said via translator Brandon Quinones. “I view it that these are 30 of the most competitive baseball teams in the world, it’s the most competitive league in the world. Every team has a bunch of talent in this league. I feel like we’re playing great baseball right now and we’re doing a really good job of facing whoever’s in front of us.
“I don’t view it as we’re facing easy opponents out there every night. We’re facing competitive teams every night and that’s just the way this league is.”
Pitching is making the biggest difference, as it usually does.
The Orioles have allowed three runs in the last 54 innings. Starters are working deeper into games and the bullpen seems refreshed. Outs are coming from everywhere.
“We’re playing some really good baseball,” Mullins said. “The pitching turning the corner like they have, it’s been amazing to watch. And obviously on the defensive side, made our jobs a whole lot easier. And then our offense still doing what it’s been doing, putting runs on the board, giving those guys some support, and coming out with the win.”
“Our pitching’s been phenomenal the last week or so,” Mountcastle said. “Seemed like early in the year we were hitting the ball to win games and now we’re pitching and we’re just sort of feeding off each other. We’re getting some key hits when we need to. Offensively, we could string a little bit more together, but pitching’s been great and the defense has been really good the last week or so.”
Outfield defense was a major contributor to some early losses, but it’s also tightened. Ryan McKenna made a lunging catch in right field yesterday to leave the bases loaded in the third inning, and came within inches of throwing out Matt Vierling at the plate in the eighth. Mullins is running down everything. Austin Hays is tracking balls again like he usually does.
“It was being brought up after two days of play,” Mullins said. “A lot of different stuff happened. We had guys coming back from the WBC and might not have had the same amount of reps as they normally would in the outfield. It’s different conditions. Boston is always one of those tricky spots just in general. Just to get past that, make adjustments and move forward.”
The Orioles are sprinting out of the gate. Maybe not with Jorge Mateo’s speed, but they’re motoring. Traction gained in that soft spot of the schedule after years of spinning their wheels.
The month of May includes series against the Braves, Rays, Angels, Blue Jays, Yankees, Rangers and Guardians. The Orioles begin June by traveling to San Francisco and Milwaukee, and they get the Blue Jays and Rays again.
This is the harder part of the slate, but that’s what the Orioles have become to other teams, going back to their spirited second-half run at last year’s wild card. Maybe it’s a weird sign of respect that a 14-7 start isn’t universally respected.
Just doing what they're supposed to do, right?
“I’ll take that for sure, yeah,” Baker said. “I think if you ask around, anybody that’s playing us is probably taking us pretty seriously at this point. So, I think it’s a good thing.”
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 11:08:50 GMT -5
Tomase: Three role players have helped turn around Red Sox' season 1H ago / by John Tomase John Tomase
When the first domino fell this Red Sox season with an injury to center fielder Adam Duvall, it started a fire. Three recent dominoes, however, have extinguished it.W
While you've been focused on the Bruins and Celtics, the Red Sox have very quietly righted the ship. Sunday's 12-5 pummeling of the Brewers completed not just their fifth series win in seven tries, but it marked their third straight against a first-place team, following the Angels and Twins.
At 12-11, the Red Sox remain in last place in the American League East, but they've won seven of 10 to pull within two games of the Yankees and Blue Jays for the final wild card spot.
So how have they done it? With pieces of their mismatched roster clicking into place, led by three players: Jarren Duran, Yu Chang, and Brayan Bello.
That's a motley assortment at first glance. Duran started the year at Triple-A, his Red Sox career seemingly careening towards throw-in status at the trade deadline. Chang missed virtually all of spring training between the World Baseball Classic and visa issues. No one knew exactly what to expect out of Bello, who shut it down early in spring training with elbow discomfort.
What they've done is solidify three trouble spots, either directly or indirectly. Duran has taken over center field and given length to the lineup with his new swing, hitting .391 primarily in the bottom third of the order. He has also taken advantage of the new rules to steal two bases and change games with his speed.
Duran easily could hit leadoff, except that Alex Verdugo has excelled in the role. So he provides the next best thing -- a second leadoff man out of the eight- or nine-hole, which means that Verdugo and Rafael Devers often hit with someone on base.
While Duran has claimed center, he wasn't the first choice to replace Duvall. Manager Alex Cora turned to reliable super-utilityman Kiké Hernández for that job, since Hernández had played a Gold Glove caliber center in 2021.
That created an opening at shortstop for Chang, who has bounced between four organizations over the last 11 months. The Red Sox selected him off waivers from the Rays last September, then didn't re-sign him until mid-February. The transaction elicited minor derision -- all the great shortstops on the market, and they come home with Yu Chang? -- but Chang has fixed one of the team's most glaring flaws with his defense at short.
Hernández started the year there, but made five errors in 10 games while grading poorly from an advanced analytics standpoint as well. While Chang may not be hitting (.146, but with three homers), his glovework has been outstanding.
In Sunday's finale against the Brewers alone, he ranged into short left field to snare a popup, made a nice sliding play to his right and strong throw, and cut a ball up the middle as part of a busy afternoon. The night before, he saved a run by corralling a smash to his right that was ticketed for left field. A couple of days before that, he robbed Twins All-Star Carlos Correa. Baseball Savant already rates him in the 91st percentile for outs above average.
The performances of Chang and Duran also meant that when a hamstring injury sidelined struggling second baseman Christian Arroyo, Hernández could slide over to second base -- the position the Red Sox envisioned him playing when they signed him two years ago -- and turn another negative into a positive.
Hernández hit just .083 as the starting shortstop, but he's at .348 since returning to his super utility roots. With Verdugo and Devers playing like All-Stars, Justin Turner swinging it again, and Masataka Yoshida coming off a breakout two-homer day, the lineup is no longer two-thirds populated with easy outs. Its strength is measured as much by the recent losses as wins, with the Red Sox showing good fight in 5-4 defeats to the Angels and Brewers.
That leads to our final domino, and it's Bello. He hasn't pitched particularly well in his first two starts -- he's 0-1 with a 9.82 ERA -- but he was better Sunday vs. the Brewers, leaving with two outs in the fifth of a 3-3 game, and there's every reason to believe he'll improve as he gets his legs under him.
What Bello's arrival has done is shift right-hander Kutter Crawford to the bullpen, where he has become a multi-inning weapon, allowing just four hits and one run in 11.1 innings of long relief. With right-handers Zack Kelly and Chris Martin on the injured list, Cora needs places to turn beyond Josh Winckowski and John Schreiber in front of closer Kenley Jansen, and Crawford has eaten innings in three losses that otherwise would've taxed the bullpen.
With veteran left-hander James Paxton nearing a return, either Tanner Houck or Nick Pivetta could land in the bullpen, giving Cora further options that aren't Kaleb Ort or Ryan Brasier.
Add it all together, and it becomes easier to see why the Red Sox have played like one of the hottest teams in baseball since being swept in Tampa. If they keep this up, maybe those dominoes will lead right out of last place.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 11:16:02 GMT -5
There’s a shuffle looming in the struggling Red Sox rotation Boston's best starter to date has been Tanner Houck, but he's likely to get demoted with James Paxton due back.By Jon Couture April 24, 2023 | 9:57 AM Facebook Twitter Email Email COMMENTARY Well, there’s three more days of evidence maybe there’s something here after all. In a second straight series against a division leader, the Red Sox looked like they eminently belonged, winning two games and coming just a hit or so short in the third. Milwaukee’s looking up at someone in the NL Central on Monday morning because of it. Of all teams, it’s at Pittsburgh — the perennial also-ran whose sweep at Fenway Park the first week of the season looks a little different now that the Pirates are 16-7. We’re still deep in the speculative part of the season, of course. Texas atop the AL West. Arizona even with the Dodgers and Padres. None of it matters, but all of it counts, as I’m newly fond of noting. “It’s 23 games,” manager Tom Caron (blue checkmark redacted) Alex Cora told reporters Sunday. “I don’t want to say this is who we are, but it seems like this is who we are.” The Red Sox are in the one division where mediocrity isn’t going to get them anywhere, but it at least looks like the puzzle pieces fit a little bit. The big blows in Sunday’s nine-run eighth, which made it nine come-from-behind wins in 12 wins this season, were from Justin Turner and Masataka Yoshida. Both began the season lost in a competent offense. The old DH found it in the Tampa series. The young DH found it this week. With Kenley Jansen as good as he’s ever been at closer, with Yu Chang playing a competent shortstop beside “no really, he plays defense now” Rafael Devers, with Jarren Duran and Alex Verdugo . . . you can talk yourself into this, can’t you? Lord knows, every win has people trying. @tomcaron · Follow Tough weekend for Chaim haters: -Yoshida (F/A signing): 5 H, 7 RBI -Turner (F/A signing): 5 H, 3 runs, 2 RBI -Winckowski (Benintendi deal): 1.65 ERA -Verdugo/Wong (Betts deal): combined 6 hits, 6 RBI -Jansen (F/A signing): 5th SV in 5th SVO Sox win series vs 1st place Brewers Unmentioned to this point is the starting pitching. The run as a six-man rotation was better, though that only means so much when a 6.12 ERA improves your season numbers to 6.61. (Thank goodness for the A’s.) This matters, and not merely because trailing every game after the first inning is a questionable strategy. James Paxton is scheduled to make his fifth minor league rehab appearance Tuesday in Worcester, and Thursday’s travel day after the Baltimore series was due to be the end of the six-man experiment. These things tend to work themselves out, as Terry Francona used to say. (His MLB Network special on Sunday night was excellent, by the way.) But presuming Paxton comes through his night at Polar Park clean, with better command than he’s shown to date, then what? In a reminder of just what three weeks of baseball means in the long term, Boston’s best starter likely gets demoted. To be clear, Tanner Houck being the odd man out is not some grand injustice. His 4.23 FIP — an ERA-like stat that aims to iron out some of the randomness of balls put into play — is roughly a run better than any other Sox starter, but its squarely in the middle leaguewide. He threw an excellent seven innings last week against the Twins, the longest work of his career at a time he’s got the deepest pitch mix he’s ever had. Boston’s won all four of his starts, but that’s largely a function of scoring 9, 14, 5, and 11 runs behind him. Consider the alternative cases. Chris Sale is penciled in the ace slot, and just had his best start of the year against Minnesota. Nick Pivetta is one of only 20 pitchers to make 30 starts each of the past two years, and though he’s pitching slightly worse than last season, they need the innings and he’s kept the Sox in all his games. Garrett Whitlock? He wasn’t good Saturday, and has allowed nine extra-base hits in 16 innings, but the Sox have made no secret they want him in the rotation. (Maybe the conversation’s different if the bullpen was struggling, but it pointedly isn’t.) Brayan Bello? Sunday’s start was better than his first — again, faint praise — and he’d likely go back to Worcester before taking on a bullpen role. That doesn’t seem developmentally smart. Which leaves the obvious: Corey Kluber, with his 8.50 ERA, six homers allowed in just 18 innings, and his exemplary walk rate of a year ago gone. A flatter curveball is getting hit harder, and if not for a still-effective changeup he’s increasingly leaned on, things could be much worse. “I think it’s probably, more than anything, adjusting my sights on where I’m starting my pitches,” Kluber told reporters after the Twins tagged him for seven runs Wednesday. “I don’t feel like there are a lot of big misses where I’m missing drastically. I think a lot of it is kind of off the edges and things like that.” “We have to control traffic. That’s the most important thing,” Cora said. “His mechanics are always sound. He’s close to the strike zone, but they’re balls. . . . Throughout his career, he’s been to the edges, but in the strike zone.” Four starts seems like a small sample to cut bait, even on a one-year flyer like Kluber, whose strong 2022 was centered on that excellent walk rate. It’s the eternal driver of roster decisions in spring training: Maintaining flexibility. Are you going to quit on a pitcher who might still have more to offer? (Kluber did retire eight of his final 10 with an error Wednesday, albeit once it was 7-0.) Or are you going to keep him around and plug Houck into a role you know he can handle? “They all want to start, that’s the bottom line,” Cora told reporters Thursday. “Wink [Josh Winckowski], Kutter [Crawford], Tanner. Obviously we can only have five, but we’ll talk about it when we have to talk about it. Competition is always good.” Baltimore will offer that, winners of six straight. They’ve continued to run wild as they did on the opening weekend, second in the American League in steals and tops in drawn walks. Suffice to say, just the sort of team to test Kluber — and perhaps force Houck into a long-relief spot a day before an expected Wednesday start. He’s got something to prove, just like the rest of them. The Red Sox are trying to find themselves, and actually seem like they might hang around long enough to outlast a couple winter playoff runs.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 11:21:21 GMT -5
Game 24: Red Sox at Orioles lineups and notesBy Andrew Mahoney Globe Staff,Updated April 24, 2023, 1 hour ago After taking two out of three at Milwaukee, the Red Sox continue their road trip with a three-game series against the Orioles at Camden Yards. It will be the first meeting between the teams since they opened the season with a three-game set at Fenway Park, with the Sox winning twice to take the series. The Orioles have won six in a row, good for second place in the American League East, behind only the Rays, who have a league best 19-3 record. Tonight’s starters faced off in the second game of the season, and neither fared well. Both lasted just three innings, with Chris Sale surrendering seven runs on seven hits and two walks. Dean Kremer allowed five runs on six hits and a walk. Neither factored in the decision, won by the Sox, 10-9. Lineups RED SOX (12-11): 1. Alex Verdugo (L) RF 2. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 3. Justin Turner (R) DH 4. Masataka Yoshida (L) LF 5. Enrique Hernandez (R) 2B 6. Triston Casas (L) 1B 7. Jarren Duran (L) CF 8. Connor Wong (R) C 9. Yu Chang (R) SS Pitching: LHP Chris Sale (1-1, 8.00 ERA) ORIOLES (14-7): 1. Austin Hays (R) LF 2. Adley Rutschman (S) DH 3. Ryan Mountcastle (R) 1B 4. Anthony Santander (S) RF 5. Ramon Urias (R) 3B 6. James McCann (R) C 7. Cedric Mullins (L) CF 8. Jorge Mateo (R) SS 9. Adam Frazier (L) 2B Pitching: RHP Dean Kremer (1-0, 6.16 ERA) Time: 6:35 p.m. TV, radio: NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7 Red Sox vs. Kremer: Christian Arroyo 1-5, Triston Casas 0-2, Rafael Devers 5-13, Jarren Duran 1-2, Kiké Hernández 1-4, Reese McGuire 0-5, Rob Refsnyder 2-2, Raimel Tapia 3-9, Justin Turner 1-2, Alex Verdugo 6-16, Masataka Yoshida 0-2 Orioles vs. Sale: Adam Frazier 1-2, Austin Hays 5-13, Gunnar Henderson 0-1, Jorge Mateo 0-3, James McCann 8-36, Ryan McKenna 1-6, Ryan Mountcastle 2-7, Cedric Mullins 3-10, Adley Rutschman 1-2, Anthony Santander 2-8, Ramón Urías 0-5 Stat of the day: The Orioles have given up a total of three runs across the last five games. Notes: Sale had his best outing of the season last Tuesday, going six innings and holding the Twins to one run on three hits and two walks while striking out 11. He is 10-3 with a 3.21 ERA in 24 career appearances (18 starts) against the Orioles. … Kremer is also coming off his best start of 2023, pitching 6 ⅔ shutout innings against the host Nationals last Tuesday. In six career starts against the Red Sox, he is 0-4 with a 7.76 ERA. … Masataka Yoshida is 7 of 17 in his last four games, with nine RBIs and only four strikeouts. … Jarren Duran is 9 of 21 (.429) with 4 runs, 2 stolen bases, 3 walks, and 6 RBIs in six starts. … In the three games at Fenway, the Orioles scored 23 runs on 38 hits and stole 10 bases in as many attempts. They are 25 of 28 on stolen bases for the season. Song of the Day: Tom Petty- Yer So Badwww.youtube.com/watch?v=WdRViFCvvUo
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 13:04:04 GMT -5
J.P. Long @soxnotes · 2h Red Sox bullpen ERA:
2022 – 4.59 (26th MLB) 2023 – 3.35 (10th MLB) Last 10 G – 2.48 (8th MLB)
The Sox are 8-0 when leading after 6 innings.
The Sox have a 1.54 ERA in the 8th & 9th innings combined, tied with the Rays for lowest in MLB.
The Sox are 6-for-6 in save chances.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 13:06:32 GMT -5
Here comes the Red Sox big chance to state their case
By Rob Bradford WEEI 93.7 2 hours ago Chris Sale explains his turnaround
BALTIMORE - Just about 3 1/2 weeks ago, the Red Sox left Fort Myers. What was the vibe? What was the take? What was the identity? And, most importantly, could this actually work?
Heading into this three-game series against the mighty - OK, at least surprising - 14-7 Orioles all of those answers remarkably still hover over Alex Cora's crew. Vibe? Take? Identity? This working? Go ahead, we're all ears.
Perhaps as we sit here there is slightly more optimism than existed on that last day in spring training when Cora offered a pregame fire-and-brimstone declaration. And certainly the perception is 180 degrees different than when the Sox left St. Petersburg April 13 a team that had just been taken to the woodshed while living life at 5-8.
Since then, however, the Red Sox have won three straight series - including the most recent one against the first-place Brewers - and would be just 1/2 game out of first-place if they resided in the American League Central.
But, still, most of maybes can't quite yet be turned into certainties.
Masa Yoshida looked like a superstar in hitting two homers (one grand slam) in the eighth inning Sunday. But we still can't define the outfielder one way or another thanks to his struggles leading into the last four games.
Starters Garrett Whitlock and Brayan Bello have shown glimpses their brief showcase, but not enough consistency for anyone to make no-doubt-about-it proclamations (as much as we want to).
Since the best hitter in baseball over the season's first nine games, Adam Duvall, was sidelined, Justin Turner has gone a long way toward picking up the slack. During that stretch, the Red Sox' DH has managed a .943, with teammate Kiké Hernandez (.802) and Alex Verdugo (.891).
In fact, since Duvall's absence the Red Sox have scored the fourth-most runs and totaled the sixth-most extra-base hits in baseball.
But is all of it sustainable without the emergence of Triston Casas and whoever is manning the middle infield spots? Put it this way: It would certainly offer a clearer image if some of those expected outcomes would creep closer to the way we viewed them in late March.
Josh Winckowski. Kenley Jansen. Reese McGuire. Tanner Houck. All certainly seem to be identifiable as part of the solution rather than any future problems.
And then there is Monday night's starter, Chris Sale, who might represent all that we are trying to lock in on when it comes to these Red Sox. After the first three starts? Uncomfortable. After the last one? The perfect guy to throw out in a big game at Camden Yards.
“You’re this far away from being the best in the game but you’re also this far away from being the worst in the game. When you’re at the bottom sometimes you’re not that far off. When you’re at the top, again, you’re not that far off,” Sale told the 'Baseball Isn't Boring' podcast'. “You got to find it and it’s not going to come for free.”
It sure feels like the Sale conversation is at a fork in the road, with his team seemingly coming up on the same sort of navigation. The combined record of the next five opponents (Baltimore, Cleveland, Toronto, Phillies, Braves): 64-46.
This sure seems like Sale's big chance. The same goes for the Red Sox. Who knows? Maybe by the time New England fans pick their heads up from the Celtics' and Bruins' postseason runs this will the team they were hoping for.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 13:47:16 GMT -5
Red Sox Stats @redsoxstats · 1h The Red Sox 5.74 runs per game is 4th best in MLB. They are hitting home runs (30, 4th most) but also doing little things. They have the most pinch hit at-bats (24) and pinch hits (9), and also have the highest productive out rate (38%, lg avg 26%).
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 14:20:30 GMT -5
No shock at all missed most of ST shitty command. get it sorted out on the farm.
Alex Speier @alexspeier · 21m The Red Sox today recalled LHP Brennan Bernardino from Triple-A Worcester, optioning Brayan Bello to make room for him. Obviously, this clears the 6-man rotation logjam, but still a surprise given that Bello showed the ability to develop/refine in the big leagues last year.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 16:58:28 GMT -5
Alex Speier @alexspeier · 2h Bello: “Of course I’m disappointed” about being optioned, but says he knows he’s a big league pitcher and will work to prove it. Bello said he believes his development is primarily going to happen against big league competition at this point rather than in the minors.
James Paxton is expected to pitch both Tuesday and Sunday for the WooSox.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 18:05:25 GMT -5
Casas going yard early was nice
Duran has made a few plays, the last one was another good one in the field kid has learned about routes, first jumps, and is using his speed. I for one like that alot, says alot about the kid.
1-0 Red Sox
3rd
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 18:11:14 GMT -5
Chang advances the runner ( he should stay in the line up) Dugo plates a run
2-0 Red Sox
Devers crushes a 2 run ding dong
4-0 Red Sox
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 18:12:28 GMT -5
Holy shit that dinger from Devers was heading out at 115 mph.....
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 24, 2023 18:15:35 GMT -5
Devers will be getting a plaque after the game that dinger hit Eutow street, first from a Red Sox player since 2017 ( JBJ) Papi has a few.....as does JD Drew
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