|
Post by scrappyunderdog on Jul 16, 2023 17:48:44 GMT -5
Cool, got that one with virtually no BP depletion. And none yesterday leaves the BP in good shape for Oakland. We should have Martin & Jansen available for two games each. It looks like an opener on Monday & Tuesday, followed by Bello, Paxton & Crawford?
Sooner or later, we might have to start looking for a another legit SP. Giolito, Montgomery & Flaherty should be available, among others. Or another guy, who would cost nothing, depending on how much the Cards kick in, could be Matz. He'll be the least popular guy on the block, but he hasn't pitched as badly as his record indicates.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 16, 2023 19:05:58 GMT -5
Christopher Smith @smittyonmlb · 26m Alex Cora on John Schreiber's timetable: “We want (him) to go back-to-back. ... I think it’s Wednesday-Thursday, he’ll go back-to-back. And then from there, hopefully if everything goes well, maybe at the end of the Mets series. Most likely for the Atlanta series."
Alex Cora said Pablo Reyes will play nine innings today for Portland. “Let’s see how he feels. Probably he needs a few more at-bats during the week and that’s what we’ll do."
“There’s a good chance” the Red Sox will activate Richard Bleier during the Oakland series, Cora said. I don't like to look more than one series ahead, since rotations change often enough. But if the Mets continue to follow a 5-man rotation, regardless of days off, we could miss both Scherzer & Verlander. And just as importantly, since they have the NYY after us, the NYY could face both those guys. ed-Or maybe I forgot to account for the AS break. Never mind.
No worried about either NY team, as both as usual were over hyped. Not concerned about Verlander or Sherzer either
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 16, 2023 19:07:42 GMT -5
Cool, got that one with virtually no BP depletion. And none yesterday leaves the BP in good shape for Oakland. We should have Martin & Jansen available for two games each. It looks like an opener on Monday & Tuesday, followed by Bello, Paxton & Crawford? Sooner or later, we might have to start looking for a another legit SP. Giolito, Montgomery & Flaherty should be available, among others. Or another guy, who would cost nothing, depending on how much the Cards kick in, could be Matz. He'll be the least popular guy on the block, but he hasn't pitched as badly as his record indicates. Ideally we get 2 would love a bona fide SS but that is getting greedy
and not going to set any expectations on Bloom. easier that way
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 16, 2023 19:10:06 GMT -5
Pete Abraham @peteabe · 4h Kutter Crawford one-hit shutout through six. Gave up a hit leading off the first inning and that's it.
Four walks, nine strikeouts, one HBP. Ricky Vaughn kind of day.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 16, 2023 19:10:49 GMT -5
And why is Faria looking behind him at the runner on 2nd? Fear of the guy stealing 3rd?
Pete Abraham @peteabe · 2h Jake Faria was called into the manager's office after the game, so another roster move coming tomorrow.
It wasn't pretty, but his two innings were important with back-to-back bullpen days coming up.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 16, 2023 19:22:05 GMT -5
Red Sox win: Masataka Yoshida hits grand slam, Kutter Crawford allows 1 hit
Published: Jul. 16, 2023, 4:59 p.m.
By
Christopher Smith | csmith@masslive.com
CHICAGO — The Red Sox had already scored one run in the fifth inning but it looked like they might squander a no-out, bases-loaded opportunity when Rafael Devers struck out and Adam Duvall popped out.
Not so fast. Masataka Yoshida’s two-out grand slam to right field put Boston ahead 6-0 in the fifth. Yoshida’s blast left his bat at 110.1 mph and was his second grand slam this season.
The Red Sox beat the Cubs 11-5 to win two of three games at Wrigley Field. They travel to Oakland this evening for three games against the Athletics beginning Monday.
The Red Sox used seven right-handed hitters in their starting lineup against Cubs left-handed starter Justin Steele who entered with 2.56 ERA in 16 starts. But it was the two left-handed hitters — Yoshida and Devers — who homered against the southpaw.
Devers put Boston ahead 1-0 in the first inning with a 381-foot homer to left-center field.
Sox hitters recorded 10 hits in six innings against Steele. Devers, Jorge Alfaro and Yu Chang each had two hits against him.
Yoshida hit a two-run triple against right-handed reliever Michael Rucker as part of a three-run seventh that put Boston ahead 9-0.
Kutter Crawford allows 1 hit
Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford was terrific despite his four-seam fastball averaging 92.8 mph, down from his average of 94.4 mph this season (Baseball Savant).
He tossed 6 scoreless innings and allowed just one hit while striking out nine. He didn’t have his typical control as he walked four batters and hit another. But he recorded 17 swings-and-misses, a career high. He got five whiffs with his fastball, five with his cutter, five with his sweeper and two with his slider. Triston Casas homers in each game
Triston Casas hit a home run in each of the three games this series.
He hit a 395-foot, 101.8 mph homer Friday, a 425-foot, 112.1 mph homer Saturday and a 419-foot, 105.4 mph homer Sunday.
His homer Sunday came as a pinch hitter in the eighth.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 16, 2023 19:24:40 GMT -5
Red Sox 'taking notes' from red-hot Yoshida Boston's left fielder hits second career grand slam, two-run triple in win over Cubs 8:01 PM ADT Ian Browne
Ian Browne @ianmbrowne
CHICAGO -- A day after Masataka Yoshida’s 30th birthday, when he came up empty in his pursuit of tying Ted Williams for the most consecutive multihit games by a left-handed hitter in Red Sox history, the left fielder got back to business on Sunday.
The one thing Yoshida has made clear through most of his first Major League season is that he can rarely be held down for more than an isolated day or two.
His approach is simply too sound and his swing is too pure.
Yoshida struck at just the right time in Sunday’s 11-5 victory in the rubber match of a three-game series at Wrigley Field, unloading for a two-out, grand slam in the top of the fifth off Cubs All-Star ace Justin Steele.
“It's kind of like a video game,” winning pitcher Kutter Crawford said of watching Yoshida hit. “He’s unbelievable. He's a great hitter, great teammate, and he's helping the team in a lot of ways.”
The floodgates opened when Yoshida tore into a 2-0 fastball on the upper, middle portion of the plate and put it in the basket above the ivy in deep right field to make it 6-0, Red Sox.
It was a tough pill to swallow for Steele, who, with the bases loaded, struck out Rafael Devers and induced Adam Duvall into an infield popup before Yoshida came to the plate and ruined his afternoon.
“For me, it’s bases loaded and a 2-0 count. I was trying to get him to roll over a ground ball,” said Steele. “The two pitches were pretty competitive and then, 2-0, I just kind of had to throw a strike. I didn’t want to fall behind, 3-0. But, he did what he was supposed to do. That was a tough break. But, things happen. It’s baseball."
Impressively, Yoshida’s OPS is actually higher against lefties (.896) than righties (.877).
Truth be told, Yoshida has handled righties and lefties with routine excellence.
For good measure, Yoshida added to his monster Sunday with a two-run triple against righty reliever Michael Rucker to cap his six-RBI afternoon.
The grand slam was Yoshida’s second. He also hit one on April 23 in Milwaukee, another Sunday in which he also had six RBIs.
Yoshida just keeps on chugging along, as this was his ninth multihit performance over his past 10 games.
“Whenever I can hit, I want to hit a lot,” said Yoshida.
And so he has. Particularly of late. Over his past 10 games, Yoshida is 20-for-43 with an OPS of 1.245.
While Yoshida is only 315 at-bats into his career, his manager has already run out of adjectives.
“He’s good, man. There’s nothing else I can say,” said Alex Cora.
The five-year, $90-million deal the Red Sox signed Yoshida to when many other teams in the game didn’t think he was worth close to that is looking pretty good.
Yoshida has a batting line of .317/.381/.502 with 11 homers and 50 RBIs.
“I think we all learn from his approach,” said Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas, who hit a homer in all three games at Wrigley. “He’s just spraying the ball all over the field, taking really quality at-bats. Not chasing out of the zone, putting the ball in play. He’s all around, one of the best hitters in the league for average and he’s starting to hit for power and he’s got that clutch factor here.”
Backed by Yoshida’s latest eruption, the Red Sox (50-44) headed out for their brief West Coast interlude, a three-game series in Oakland, on a good note. Boston has won 10 of its last 12 and 17 of 26.
This, despite three starting pitchers on the injured list in Chris Sale, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock. Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.
Crawford is one of those pitchers being called on to fill the void, and he did an excellent job of it on Sunday, turning in his best start of the season. Over six innings, Crawford allowed one hit and four walks while striking out a career-high of nine.
“It was an all-around good effort. And it's a long flight but it's a happy one,” said Cora.
And few people on the Red Sox have more to be happy about than Yoshida, who just keeps on raking.
Said Casas: “We’re all taking notes from him.”
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 16, 2023 19:27:14 GMT -5
Red Sox Stats @redsoxstats · 4h Masataka Yoshida AL Rankings
2nd - 11% K% 3rd - .315 BA 4th - .379 OBP 7th - .500 SLG
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 16, 2023 19:29:10 GMT -5
Kutter Crawford delivers another big start as part of shorthanded rotation keeping Red Sox in contention By Alex Speier Globe Staff,Updated July 16, 2023, 47 minutes ago
CHICAGO — As the Red Sox try to withstand a summer-long rotation crisis with two openers in every turn, the significance of Brayan Bello and James Paxton to their hopes of remaining in contention is obvious.
But at a time when the team has no major league-ready starting alternatives — hence those openers — the team likewise needs their least-mentioned starter, Kutter Crawford, to serve as another girder for the pitching staff. That was particularly true Sunday afternoon, one day after a Paxton start went sideways.
With back-to-back openers scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at Oakland, a poor outing by Crawford could have left the pitching staff in a state of extreme vulnerability.
“Obviously where we’re at right now, [Crawford’s outing] was huge,” Sox manager Alex Cora said. “It’s not fair for [Paxton, Bello, and Crawford], but we cannot have too many short outings. They’ve got to go five and six [innings.”
That being the case, Crawford’s outing — six shutout innings of one-hit ball with a career-high nine strikeouts in an 11-5 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field — represented a much-needed effort as the Sox try to keep pace with the field of postseason contenders.
Crawford was mindful of that need, particularly early in the outing, as he worked through wildness as well as a fastball that had both less zip (93 miles per hour, the second-lowest average four-seam velocity of his career) and hop than usual.
“I think we’re all aware [of the added responsibility of having three full-time starters] — Bello, Pax, and myself included,” Crawford said. “We’re trying to do the best we can and go as deep in the ballgame as possible.”
And so it was concerning for Crawford and the Sox when he opened the first inning by allowing a single and hitting a batter, his fastball repeatedly missing the strike zone by a sizable margin to the arm side. Where to turn?
Cora recently referred to Crawford’s five-pitch mix — a four-seamer, cutter, slider, curveball, and splitter — as a “buffet” that can lead to some misguided choices.
“We want to stay away from the Jell-O,” Crawford said.
On Sunday, when his four-seamer proved an unsatisfying entrée in the early innings, Crawford dived into the sides and left the Cubs starved for hits.
“I didn’t have a great feel for the fastball, so I had to go to other options,” he said. “That’s one of the good things about throwing five pitches.”
He escaped the first inning by getting Christopher Morel to strike out on a slider and then inducing an Ian Happ double-play grounder on a cutter. With two on and none out in the third, and with the Sox clinging to a 1-0 lead, he again turned to other pitches, striking out Nico Hoerner on a slider and then getting Morel to ground into a double play on a curveball.
Crawford (4-4, 3.74 ERA) showed a veteran’s poise in working through his early struggles while the game was close, finding his rhythm in the middle innings (he said the fourth marked a turning point when his mechanics, a bit wonky even in his final starts before the All-Star break, locked back in), then cruising through the latter part of his outing.
At different intervals, he turned to fastballs, cutters, curveballs, and splitters — and then judiciously unleashed a devastating slider. Of the nine sliders Crawford threw, seven resulted in swings and misses, helping Crawford to set .the career high in strikeouts as well as a new mark for swings and misses at 17.
Though he dealt with plenty of traffic thanks to four walks and the hit batter, Crawford left the Cubs in a state of constant frustration, with hitters flinging equipment or staring at their bats at times as if wondering how they’d missed a pitch.
“He’s got a number of pitches that move in different directions with different velos. Depending on what he has on a given day, he has the ability to mix and match different sequences, different usage patterns,” Red Sox pitching coach Dave Bush said. “He gave us six scoreless on a day he didn’t feel his best. The ability to do that is showing the growth he’s had the last three years.”
At a time when Chris Sale, Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock, and Corey Kluber are all on the injured list, there are no fallback options if Crawford falters. To date, he’s handling his role, with the Sox winning four of Crawford’s last five starts and the righthander posting a 3.04 ERA with 26 strikeouts and eight walks in 26⅔ innings during the stretch.
“He’s grown so much,” Cora said. “You can see the results.”
The results are not merely in Crawford’s personal stat line, but also in the standings, with the 27-year-old doing his part as a key contributor in the Sox’ recent run of 10 wins in 12 games.
“Hopefully we can continue to play some good baseball collectively,” he said, “and we’ll see what happens towards the end of the year.”
|
|
|
Post by scrappyunderdog on Jul 16, 2023 19:45:39 GMT -5
Cool, got that one with virtually no BP depletion. And none yesterday leaves the BP in good shape for Oakland. We should have Martin & Jansen available for two games each. It looks like an opener on Monday & Tuesday, followed by Bello, Paxton & Crawford? Sooner or later, we might have to start looking for a another legit SP. Giolito, Montgomery & Flaherty should be available, among others. Or another guy, who would cost nothing, depending on how much the Cards kick in, could be Matz. He'll be the least popular guy on the block, but he hasn't pitched as badly as his record indicates. Ideally we get 2 would love a bona fide SS but that is getting greedy
and not going to set any expectations on Bloom. easier that way
It feels like we should've made that move way back when. DeJong should've been available given his salary and the fact that the Cards have no room for Edman. But as we get closer to Story's return (assuming he can play SS), the idea of trading up seems less appealing. And I'd be happy be with only one (good) SP. Of course, that also depends on when/if Sale returns. If we are talking the second week of August, I would again be less inclined to trade for someone.
|
|
|
Post by scrappyunderdog on Jul 16, 2023 19:55:08 GMT -5
Red Sox Stats @redsoxstats · 4h Masataka Yoshida AL Rankings 2nd - 11% K% 3rd - .315 BA 4th - .379 OBP 7th - .500 SLG It would be a heck of a thing to win the ROY since draft picks are attached to it.
|
|
|
Post by Kimmi on Jul 17, 2023 6:57:44 GMT -5
Infuriating line up hope like hell that the analytic team is cleaned out when Bloom and his crew are axed.1. Rob Refsnyder (R) CF 2. Justin Turner (R) 1B 3. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 4. Adam Duvall (R) RF 5. Masataka Yoshida (L) LF 6. Jorge Alfaro (R) DH 7. Christian Arroyo (R) 2B 8. Connor Wong (R) C 9. Yu Chang (R) SS I wasn't thrilled with this lineup either, but perhaps Cora knows what he's doing.
|
|
|
Post by Kimmi on Jul 17, 2023 7:00:35 GMT -5
I know we had an 11-0 lead, but even if I were on the mound, the rule is you throw it right down the middle when you have 3 balls. Never, ever walk the guy. Ever. There's nothing more frustrating than giving a guy a free pass when you have such a large lead.
|
|
|
Post by Kimmi on Jul 17, 2023 7:03:25 GMT -5
Pete Abraham @peteabe · 2h Jake Faria was called into the manager's office after the game, so another roster move coming tomorrow.
It wasn't pretty, but his two innings were important with back-to-back bullpen days coming up.
That's the key. Despite Faria giving up 5 runs, he saved at least one bullpen arm, if not more.
|
|
|
Post by Kimmi on Jul 17, 2023 7:12:42 GMT -5
Red Sox 'taking notes' from red-hot Yoshida Boston's left fielder hits second career grand slam, two-run triple in win over Cubs8:01 PM ADT Ian Browne It was a tough pill to swallow for Steele, who, with the bases loaded, struck out Rafael Devers and induced Adam Duvall into an infield popup before Yoshida came to the plate and ruined his afternoon. It would have been considered a "success" if Steele had only allowed one run when he had bases loaded and no outs. After getting Devers and Duvall out, it looked as though he might get out of the inning unscathed. Yoshida's grand slam was a back breaker, more so than most grand slams are. I think the Sox might have lost that game if Steel had gotten out of that mess with no runs scored.
|
|