Red Sox @ Cardinals Game Thread/ 17th-19th May 2024

Analytic team won't like this
but the answer is hell yes he should be

Is Red Sox rookie getting to point where he needs to start every game?

Updated: May. 16, 2024, 7:59 p.m.|Published: May. 16, 2024, 7:30 p.m.


By

Christopher Smith | csmith@masslive.com

BOSTON — As a rookie last year, Triston Casas platooned at first base for the first couple of months. Casas, a left-handed hitter, started games against right-handed pitchers and mostly sat vs. lefties. Justin Turner would start at first base on those days.

Casas eventually began playing every day, even against left-handed starters.

“Where we were in the season and the approach, I think we let him play,” manager Alex Cora said. “We let him play. It’s a process, man. It’s not that easy, the lefties that we face. ... It’s just the process and the quality of the at-bat.”

Red Sox rookie Wilyer Abreu, a left-handed hitter, is in the same spot as Casas was last year. He usually sits when the Red Sox face a left-handed starter. He has received just 20 plate appearances (three starts) vs. southpaws.

But is it reaching the point where Abreu needs to play every day, no matter if there’s a righty or lefty on the mound? After all, he ranks fourth among all Red Sox players in WAR (1.3).

Abreu — who has the third best AL Rookie of the Year odds — has been one of Boston’s top hitters, batting .283 with a .369 on-base percentage, .496 slugging percentage, .865 OPS, four homers, 10 doubles, one triple, 15 RBIs, 20 runs, 16 walks, 36 strikeouts and five stolen bases in 37 games (137 plate appearances).

Like Casas, he has above-average plate discipline. He ranks in the 84th percentile among major league hitters in walk percentage (12.3%).

His defense also is extremely valuable on a daily basis. He has four defensive runs saved in 235 ⅓ innings in right field.

For now though, the plan remains for him to platoon.

“Throughout my career as a manager, if you look at my track record, all these lefties I platoon because I know how tough it is,” Cora said. “So we’ll keep it like that. We’ve got Ref (Rob Refsnyder). We’ve got Romy (Gonzalez). So most of his at-bats are going to be against righties. We will pinch hit for him against lefties. And with time, I bet he will start hitting lefties. We did it with Casas. It worked out. We did it with Raffy. People forget that we pinch hit for Raffy in Game 1 of the World Series. And it worked out.”

Cora used Eduardo Núñez as a pinch hitter for Devers in the seventh inning of Game 1 against lefty Alex Wood. Núñez hit a three-run homer.

“That’s how I manage it,” Cora said. “That’s how I like it. And we’re going to stay with the program.”

Abreu is 3-for-18 with two walks in his limited time vs. lefties this season.

“I do believe his process, he will hit lefties,” Cora said. “He will. It’s just a matter of right now, I do believe the three at-bats by Ref against the lefties — that’s why Ref is here, too. We have to create a balance. But right now, that’s the way we see him. He’s a good player who we’re going to platoon. But as soon as they pivot to the righties in that start, we go to him.”

Red Sox aim to alter recent fortunes in road clash vs. Cards
FLM

After losing three of their past four games at home, the Boston Red Sox will try to regroup on their six-game road swing.

That journey begins when they open a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

The Red Sox are coming off a 7-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night in one their best offensive games of the month. Jarren Duran (3-for-5, homer, two doubles, two runs) and Rafael Devers (2-for-4, homer, two runs) led the attack.

Devers has hit a homer in consecutive games while Duran is 5-for-8 with four doubles and three runs in his past two outings.

But since May 2, the Red Sox have scored three or fewer runs nine times. They went 4-9 during that period to fall further off the pace in the American League East.

The Red Sox will open the series with starting pitcher Brayan Bello (4-1, 3.13 ERA), who came off the 15-day injured list to earn a 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals in his most recent start. He allowed those two runs on four hits over five innings while striking out one and walking two.

"For his first one coming out of the IL? Good," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. "Gave us five, two runs. So now he'll be ready for the next one."

Right lat tightness had knocked Bello out of the starting rotation for a few turns.

"Feels good to be back, feels good to help the team win and also it feels good that a lot of good things are happening for us right now," Bello told reporters through the team interpreter. "A lot of guys are coming back, so it feels really nice."

This will be his first career appearance against the Cardinals, who have lost 10 of their past 14 games.

St. Louis will counter with starting pitcher Kyle Gibson (2-2, 3.67). He received a pair of no-decisions over his past two starts, allowing five runs (four earned) on 10 hits in 11 innings.

Gibson struck out 11 and walked six in those games. He didn't receive much in terms of run support, which has been a persistent problem for St. Louis this season.

During their 7-2 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, the Cardinals were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. They went 11-for-73 while posting a 3-4 record on their trip against the Milwaukee Brewers and Angels.

Still, St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said he believes his team is in a better place ahead of this Boston series after taking two of three from the Angels.

"Road trip started in a bad way," Marmol said Wednesday in Anaheim Calif. "Look at how those first games, especially that second game in Milwaukee (an 11-2 loss last Friday). They weren't good at all. The third game (a 5-3 loss last Saturday) I actually felt like we got beat. We didn't beat ourselves. And that was the turning point for how the rest of the series went in Milwaukee and how the first two games went here. Feel good going back home. Really do.

"We're in a much better spot. All areas of the game look like they're supposed to right now. The offense is starting to click. And that's what we've been missing. It feels right."

Gibson is 4-4 with a 3.41 ERA in 10 career starts against the Red Sox.

--Field Level Media

Why Tyler O’Neill considered a trade from the Cardinals inevitable
By Alex Speier Globe Staff,Updated May 17, 2024, 1 hour ago

The Red Sox’ weekend trip to St. Louis marks a homecoming of sorts for Tyler O’Neill, who spent the first seven seasons of his big league career with the Cardinals. He still lives in St. Louis in the offseason, and continues to root for his former team — to a point.

“Hope for nothing but positive results for those guys,” O’Neill said on NESN’s “310 to Left” podcast. “But obviously, when we play them, I want to take it to them. I want to go in there and sweep them at home. That would be really sweet for me.”

O’Neill spoke highly of his experience with the Cardinals — his growth in their minor league system after a trade from the Mariners in 2017, his relationships with the St. Louis players, and the atmosphere.

Still, he acknowledged that his time had run its course there after difficult seasons in 2022 and 2023.

In 2021, O’Neill hit .286/.352/.560 with 34 homers and 15 steals, won a Gold Glove for his work in left field, and finished eighth in National League MVP balloting. But he and the Cardinals couldn’t reach agreement on a salary for 2022, so they went to arbitration.

The circumstances were atypical. The lockout by MLB owners had twisted the offseason calendar into knots. Arbitration hearings that typically occur in February and March took place remotely in the middle of the season. O’Neill’s hearing came on May 6, when he was hitting .204/.271/.333.

“I wasn’t hitting too well then,” he said. “[The hearing] was looming and it was on my mind. It was just a really, really [expletive] experience for me.

“It was on a computer, it wasn’t in the courtroom because of COVID regulations and stuff. So I had to sit in my hotel room and listen to the team rip on me for five hours.


“We all know what we’re getting into, man. We both knew what we were getting into going into arbitration, and it’s not anyone’s fault. Just kind of is what it is, but it just really set me back.”

A few days later, the three-judge panel sided with the Cardinals’ submission of a $3.4 million salary and against O’Neill’s sought-after $4.15 million. The process marked the beginning of a rupture in his relationship with the team in a frustrating year when injuries limited him to 96 games and contributed to a season-ending .228/.308/.392 line.

“I just kind of tried to freshly wipe the slate clean coming into 2023, fresh beginnings, kind of reset, and go from there,” said O’Neill. “And then obviously the stuff happened early in the year.”

“The stuff” was Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol publicly blasting O’Neill for what he called “unacceptable” effort on the bases in early April. O’Neill was jarred, particularly since he was dealing with “dead legs” after playing in the World Baseball Classic that spring and contracting a stomach bug shortly before the season.

A less-than-everyday job (starts in 22 of the first 31 contests) led him to start questioning his role.

“It was just a bad series of events,” said O’Neill. “And then, lost the starting job. They just took it from me a week or two into the season. Really affected my confidence from there. Just not being able to be in a consistent routine for my body.


“I’m such a routine-oriented person. I need consistency. I need confidence [from] the people around me.

“The consistency aspect wasn’t there for me over there. It just got in my head and it affected me. It affected me physically. It affected me mentally. And, unfortunately, I was dealing with multiple injuries over the last couple years.”

O’Neill was sidelined for more than two months by a back injury. He returned in the second half of 2023, but by mid-September, he was rarely starting more than two games in a row when his season ended because of a sprained right foot.

While the Cardinals had one remaining season of team control over O’Neill, he was confident that his career in St. Louis had ended. He was prepared when the team traded him to the Red Sox in December for pitchers Nick Robertson and Victor Santos.

“It wasn’t a question of if I was going to get traded; it was where I was going to get traded to,” he said. “It was just a matter of time.

“When I got that phone call … telling me that I was going to the Boston Red Sox, I was really excited about that, really excited for a new, fresh start, really excited to play in a ballpark like Fenway.”

O’Neill has felt renewed with the Sox, his confidence restored by the assumption that, in general, he’ll start regardless of the opposing pitcher.

“I know I’m going to be playing every day,” he said, “so there’s not that anxiety of ‘am I in there or am I not? If I go 0 for 4, am I going to be in there?’ It’s not like that here.

“I just feel like the last couple years over in St. Louis, I wasn’t playing every day, I wouldn’t play against certain starters, and just the confidence, it wasn’t the same, unfortunately.

“But it’s a different ballgame over here, man. So I’m feeling increasingly comfortable and increasingly confident.”

With that confidence has come production. O’Neill carried a .256/.371/.554 line and 10 homers into the series against the Cardinals, taking joy in his new workplace — particularly the proximity of Fenway’s famed Wall for a righthanded pull hitter — and gaining a sense of home even as free agency beckons after the season.

“I’m going into free agency next year, and that’s going to be awesome and exciting,” he said. “We’ll see where that goes.

“But right now, I’m just focused on Boston, man. I’m focused on Fenway. I’m focused on enjoying it.

“Whatever happens in free agency or with Boston in the future, we’ll see. We’ll see where that goes. But what I can tell you is I’m really enjoying where I’m at right now.”

Nootbaar, Winn hit 2-run homers, Cardinals drop Red Sox below .500 with 10-6 win
AP

ST. LOUIS (AP) Lars Nootbaar and Masyn Winn hit two-run homers, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat Boston 10-6 on Friday night to drop the Red Sox below .500 for the first time since the season’s opening week.

Nolan Arenado had three hits that included an RBI single in the eighth after entering in a 3-for-27 slide.

“I think today we were just locked in on just competing and we were in it,” Arenado said.

Nolan Gorman and Alec Burleson also went deep for the Cardinals, who matched season highs for runs, hits (14) and homers. St. Louis has had at least 10 hits in five of its last six games.

“A lot of good at-bats tonight from everybody, you know, and stringing them together as well,” Burleson said. “Just, you know, singled them to death when we needed to and then, you know, had a couple of long balls mixed in there too. So, a lot of fun to watch when we’re clicking.”

Winn’s two-run homer off Cam Booser was the first home run of Winn’s big league career.

“He came up to me right before that at bat, he said I’m going to be taking some big swings,” Nootbaar said. “And I was like, do it, dude, why not?”

Boston has lost three straight and 10 of 14, falling to 22-23. The Red Sox had not been under .500 since a 1-2 start.

Kyle Gibson (3-2) allowed five runs, eight hits and three walks in six-plus innings as the Cardinals won for the fourth time in five games.

Brayan Bello (4-2) gave up a season-high five runs in a season-low 4 2/3 innings. Pitching on his 25th birthday, he tied a career-worst by allowing three homers.

“It was a bad outing,” Bello said through an interpreter. “The team did everything possible to score some runs, to get me some run support, but I wasn’t able to make the adjustment tonight.”

Nootbaar put the Cardinals ahead when he drove a changeup 430 feet over the center-field wall for his third home run in 10 days.

“Hitting’s contagious and you have handful of guys that have some knocks and all of a sudden you feel a little bit better about yourself and have more confidence,” Nootbaar said.

David Hamilton’s two-run triple tied the score in the second. Tyler O’Neill scored on the hit and received a standing ovation in his return to St. Louis, his team from 2018-23.

Gorman homered in the second and Rafael Devers tied the score 3-3 with a 443-foot drive in the third - he is 9 for 20 against Gibson with three extra-base hits.

“We were what, 3 for 12 with runners in scoring position?” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “But the at-bats are getting better, which is, you know, a positive.”

Burleson homered leading off the fourth and Paul Goldschmidt hit an RBI single for a 5-3 lead in the fifth.

“Today was fun, man,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Up and down the lineup, not a whole lot of breathing room. Extra-base hits, homers, some key hits when they were needed from just about everybody. So, offense looked really really good today.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Red Sox: RHP Garrett Whitlock (left oblique strain) experienced soreness in his right elbow following a rehab start and has been shut down. Whitlock, who threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings at Triple-A Worcester on Wednesday, returned to Boston and will undergo imaging tests over the weekend.

Cardinals: C Willson Contreras (left forearm fracture) had his cast removed and still hopes to return around the All-Star break. … RHP Giovanny Gallegos (right shoulder impingement) threw a bullpen session.

UP NEXT

The Cardinals will start RHP Miles Mikolas (3-5, 6.19 ERA) against RHP Kutter Crawford (2-2, 2.24 ERA) and the Red Sox on Saturday night. Mikolas allowed just one run in six innings in his lone career start last year against Boston. Crawford gave up four runs in four innings in his only career start against St. Louis in 2022