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Post by Kimmi on Jun 1, 2021 16:52:40 GMT -5
Garcia 3-3/2.93
His ERA and WHIP(1.02) are the best in the Astro roto however the team is 3-7 in games he started. He is 3-0/1.69/0.94 WHIP in his last 3 starts. It seems like most of the pitchers we face have been 3-0 with a low ERA and WHIP in their last 3 starts.
Another tough matchup.
The team needs to find a way to get it done.
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Post by Kimmi on Jun 1, 2021 16:55:17 GMT -5
Ryan Fagan @ryanfagan 42m It's June 1. Standings notes: The Red Sox are 10-5 since May 13, a stellar .667 clip. But they've lost five full games in the standings to the Rays, who are 16-1 since May 13 and jumped from from fourth (3.0 behind Boston) to first (2.0 ahead of the Red Sox) It's not like the Sox are choking or anything. Tampa Bay is on a ridiculous run (.941 winning % in the last 17 games). It won't last. The Sox just need to keep winning series.
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Post by Kimmi on Jun 1, 2021 16:57:57 GMT -5
Dear Red Sox,
Please win tonight's game.
Sincerely, Kimmi
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 1, 2021 17:28:28 GMT -5
Garcia 3-3/2.93
His ERA and WHIP(1.02) are the best in the Astro roto however the team is 3-7 in games he started. He is 3-0/1.69/0.94 WHIP in his last 3 starts. It seems like most of the pitchers we face have been 3-0 with a low ERA and WHIP in their last 3 starts.
Another tough matchup.
The team needs to find a way to get it done. Astros have a good team seems the zombies at mlb network want to gab about the Rays and still kiss the Yankees ass.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 1, 2021 17:31:00 GMT -5
Bill Koch @billkoch25 · 1h Hunter Renfroe joins us on Zoom. #RedSox
Renfroe -- 'That's always going to be my persona -- hitting homers to the pull side. That's what I do.' #RedSox
Renfroe said it's been a goal to use the opposite field more since 2019.
'Just tried to calm the hands down, be more direct to it and not have a big, sweepy swing.' #RedSox
Renfroe said his success in May comes from quieter hands, being more direct to the ball and seeing it better. #RedSox
Renfroe -- 'In my career, I think I've batted everywhere expect for first. Where I hit in the lineup isn't a huge deal for me.' #RedSox
Renfroe on the #RedSox reaching 54 games (1/3 of the season) tonight -- 'I think we've done pretty well.'
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 2, 2021 2:31:07 GMT -5
Sox look to break out of lineup-wide funk 2:28 AM ADT Ian Browne
Ian Browne @ianmbrowne Marwin Gonzalez's RBI groundout
Jun 1, 2021
HOUSTON -- At the prove-it-to-people portion of their schedule, things aren’t going well for the Red Sox so far this week.
After getting blown out by the Astros on Monday, the Sox hung tough for six innings on Tuesday, only to have an implosion in the bottom of the seventh that included two errors, a wild pitch and three walks.
The end result was a 5-1 loss to Houston that left Boston 0-2 at the start of a seven-game road trip that will include two more games with the Astros at Minute Maid Park and then three at Yankee Stadium for the first series in that rivalry this season.
The Sox have excelled on the road during most of their surprising start to the season, but the competition is getting stiffer, and this is where manager Alex Cora’s team has to prove that it can go toe-to-toe with the top contenders in the American League.
Exactly a one-third of the way through the season, Boston (32-22) is on pace to go 96-66.
“We’re in the middle of the race -- we know we’re good,” said Cora of a team that trails the Rays by two games in the American League East. “But like I’ve been saying all along, we’ve got to get better. We’ve got to keep working to get better.”
Without question, they need to be better than the last two days, when a normally-potent offense got neutralized in a big way.
“We haven't been able to do too much,” said Cora. “We struck out nine times today. We walked once. There was one threat there. It was first and third with no outs -- we ended up scoring one. But so far in this series, we haven’t done much. They’ve been doing a good job using their fastballs in certain spots and expanding with their breaking balls, and we haven’t been able to make adjustments.”
With the middle-of-the-order bats slowed, the role players -- other than Hunter Renfroe -- aren’t picking up the slack.
Too often this season, the Red Sox have needed at least one person from the 2-5 quartet of Alex Verdugo, J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts or Rafael Devers to carry the day to win. That group went 2-for-16 (two singles by Verdugo) on Tuesday.
“They’re human. That’s part of it, right?” said Cora. “It’s going to be part of 162 games. That’s why we always talk about how the other guys have to step up. They’re not going to carry the offense for 162 games.”
Leadoff batter Kiké Hernández went 0-for-3 and is hitless in his last 20 at-bats.
At this point, Cora isn’t contemplating a change, despite the fact the Sox have a .306 on-base percentage in the leadoff spot, which ranks 26th among MLB’s 30 teams.
“A week ago, we were praising him and how good he was,” said Cora. “It’s part of the equation, part of 162 games. He’s going through a slump right now. That’s part of it. He’ll lead off [Wednesday].”
Marwin Gonzalez, who made one of the errors, has five hits in his last 47 at-bats and is at .190 for the season.
Bobby Dalbec, a rookie the Red Sox had high hopes for this season, is hitting .207 and didn’t play the last two games. The player who replaced him, Danny Santana, homered in his first two games for Boston but has slowed down since.
Christian Vázquez, thought of as one of the better offensive catchers in the league, hasn’t gotten off to the start he’d like to at the plate, posting a .657 OPS to this point.
Such lineup-wide struggles led to starting pitcher Garrett Richards taking a tough-luck loss. He held the Astros to four hits and two runs over six innings in which he walked four and struck out five.
When Richards exited and gave way to Hirokazu Sawamura, Boston was down just 2-1.
Then came the seventh inning, when Devers (10 errors in 51 games) let a ground ball play him for an error, and Gonzalez followed by throwing the ball away on a potential double-play throw to first, allowing a run to score.
“Today, we didn’t make two plays in the seventh inning, and they scored three runs and put us in a bad spot. We walked eight guys. It’s hard to win ballgames at this level that way,” said Cora.
For the rest of this road trip, the Red Sox will be out to prove “that way” Cora was talking about was nothing more than a two-game funk.
“That’s why we play 162 of them,” said Richards. “We’re going through a little skid right now, but nobody in the locker room is panicking. We know that we’re a good ballclub. It’s on to the next. Nobody wins a championship in late May, early June.”
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 2, 2021 2:44:10 GMT -5
Jon Couture @joncouture · 4h Pitching (and bad luck) on Monday night, defense on Tuesday night.
Not a great start to one of those statement series in Houston. #RedSox
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 2, 2021 2:44:55 GMT -5
Jon Couture @joncouture · 4h Three walks, two errors, a wild pitch, and an RBI on a dribbler to third base. This seventh inning is not making the championship DVD. #RedSox
The four-pitch walk, three-pitch strikeout back-to-back for Garrett Whitlock was not the exacta I had going. #RedSox
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 2, 2021 2:47:56 GMT -5
Failures in all aspects deal Red Sox second straight loss in Houston By Peter Abraham Globe Staff,Updated June 1, 2021, 11:33 p.m.
HOUSTON — The final score — Astros 5, Red Sox 1 — didn’t look all that awful, particularly for a road game against a contending team. But this was one of the worst games of the season for the Red Sox.
Starting pitcher Garrett Richards gave them a chance to win, but the Sox managed only five hits, four of them singles. Astros pitchers retired the last seven Sox in order and 12 of the final 13.
Alex Verdugo was 2 for 4. The other hitters in the top five spots of the order were 0 for 15 with seven strikeouts against rookie Luis Garcia “They’re human,” manager Alex Cora said. “It’s part of it. It’s going to be part of 162 games.”
Kiké Hernández, who increasingly appears miscast as a leadoff hitter, was 0 for 3 with a walk. He is hitless in his last 20 at-bats and has a .291 on-base percentage.
Hernández will bat leadoff again Wednesday, Cora said.
The Sox also committed two errors that led to two unearned runs in the seventh inning as the Astros scored three times to open up a close game.
Sox pitchers also issued eight walks, matching a season worst. One came on four pitches with the bases loaded by rookie Garrett Whitlock in that ugly seventh inning.
After losing the first two games of the series and scoring only three runs, the Sox send Nick Pivetta to the mound on Wednesday night against Framber Valdez. R “So far in this series we haven’t done much,” Cora said. “They’ve been doing a good job using their fastballs in certain spots and expanding with their breaking balls and we haven’t made adjustments.”
As was the case Monday, the Sox made only one player available to the media after the game. It was Richards, who bore little responsibility for the loss.
“Every night you’re going to be dealt a different hand and you’ve got to kind of make it work,” he said. Garrett Richards gave up just two runs and four hits in six innings, but still took the loss.
Garcia, a 24-year-old righthander with a delivery that looks like the beginning of a dance step, retired 12 of the first 14 Red Sox he faced.
The exceptions were an infield hit by Verdugo in the first inning and a two-out walk by Hernández in the third.
The Sox didn’t challenge him until the fifth inning when resurgent Hunter Renfroe doubled to left field and went to third on an infield single by Danny Santana.
Christian Vázquez popped to shortstop after getting ahead 3 and 1. Marwin Gonzalez then managed a slow grounder to the right side for his first run batted in since May 7.
With Santana on second, Hernández fouled out.
Verdugo led off the sixth inning with a single. But J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts were retired on well-struck fly balls to right field and Rafael Devers struck out swinging at a fastball, a pitch that has become his kryptonite.
For the first time in his major league career, Garcia came out for the seventh inning. He got two quick outs before Vázquez singled to left field.
With his bullpen ready, Astros manager Dusty Baker stayed with Garcia and was rewarded when Gonzalez grounded into the shift on the right side.
Garcia dropped his earned run average to 2.72 through 11 games, nine of them starts.
Richards pitched well again, allowing two runs on four hits over six innings. He walked four for the third consecutive start but that didn’t hurt him beyond running up his pitch count.
Jose Altuve, who on Monday hit a 330-foot home run to left field, cracked a 435-foot shot to left-center leading off the bottom of the first as he jumped on a fastball he preferred after Vazquez called for a slider.
Richards allowed his other run in the fourth inning when Yordan Alvarez led off with a double to right center, moved up to third on a groundout and scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Chas McCormick.
Tuesday was the sixth time in 11 starts that Richards went at least five innings and allowed two or fewer earned runs. His earned run average, which stood at 6.48 after four starts, is down to 3.75.
“He made some good pitches when it counted,” Cora said. “He battled. He didn’t have his best stuff but against a tough lineup they only scored two.”
Hirokazu Sawamura and Whitlock faced nine batters in the seventh inning as the game got away from the Sox.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 2, 2021 2:55:21 GMT -5
RED SOX NOTEBOOK Brandon Workman forces Red Sox into decision: Promote me or release me By Peter Abraham Globe Staff,Updated June 1, 2021, 7:54 p.m.
HOUSTON — The Red Sox will soon have a decision to make with Brandon Workman.
The two-time World Series champion has opted out of his minor league contract, starting a 48-hour clock that will result in his being called up or released to pursue other options.
Workman has appeared in seven games with Triple A Worcester, allowing one earned run on three hits with four walks and 10 strikeouts. The 32-year-old righthander returned to the organization on May 6 after being released by the Cubs.
“His last two outings were outstanding. I feel like that was the Brandon Workman we’ve seen in the past,” WooSox pitching coach Paul Abbott said.
“I feel like he came here on a mission to show that he could be that guy, and I think that he was more trying to impress that he has the stuff. He was just a little disconnected with his delivery.”
Workman was a reliable option for the Sox until being traded to Philadelphia last August. He pitched poorly for the Phillies, and then for the Cubs.
Now he could return to the majors.
“That’s part of the contract,” Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We’re very pleased with the way he’s throwing the ball. He has been throwing his cutter a little bit better. Velocity is OK. Breaking ball has been great.
“But as of now, that’s all I have. He’s going to opt out and I think we’ve got two days or something to make a decision. We’ll see where it goes. There’s a lot of stuff on the table. We have a 26-man roster right now and he’s not part of it.”
Colten Brewer, who allowed four runs over one inning on Monday, is a candidate to be replaced. He has a 4.98 earned run average and 1.78 WHIP in 70 games for the Sox since 2019.
Adding Workman also would require opening a spot on the 40-man roster. Bobby Dalbec out again
Bobby Dalbec sat out the 5-1 loss against Houston, Cora going with Danny Santana at first base against righthander Luis Garcia.
“Right now, obviously, he’s been scuffling,” Cora said. “He’s been chasing pitches out of the zone. He’ll play the next two days in the series. I just feel like there’s certain matchups that we’ve got to try and avoid to protect him.”
But the Sox are showing remarkable patience with Marwin Gonzalez, who was 0 for 3 and is 3 of his last 35 with 11 strikeouts. He did drive in his first run since May 7 with a groundout.
Gonzalez’s .554 OPS is the fifth-lowest among the 156 players in the majors with at least 160 plate appearances.
“It feels like he’s in-between, too,” Cora said. “He knows how they’re going to attack him but the fact that he hasn’t been able to catch up with the fastball the usual way he does, it puts him in doubt.” WooSox offer vaccines
The Triple A Worcester Red Sox are offering free COVID-19 vaccines at Polar Park through Sunday in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center.
Fans 18 or older who receive a Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be given a complimentary general admission ticket to that day’s game, along with a team cap.
Fans who already have tickets and would like a vaccine should check in with the Kennedy Health Center staff after the gates open. They will receive a general admission ticket to a 2021 home game.
Triston Casas plates two for US
Team USA beat the Dominican Republic, 8-6, in the Americas Olympic qualifying tournament at Port St. Lucie, Fla. Red Sox prospect Triston Casas was 2 for 4 with a two-run double. Jarren Duran was 0 for 4 with a walk and a stolen base. Casas is 4 for 8 in the tournament.
The United States, now 2-0, faces Puerto Rico on Wednesday.
Another Sox prospect, infielder Jeter Downs, was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts for Colombia in a 3-2 loss against Venezuela. Downs is 0 for 7 through two games. Moving up
Xander Bogaerts struck out three times in the loss, just the fourth time he’s done that in the last two seasons, but tied Nomar Garciaparra for third in team history with his 956th appearance at shortstop. Only Everett Scott (1,093) and Rick Burleson (1,004) have more . . . Cora said righthanded reliever Ryan Brasier is moving closer to a rehabilitation assignment. He has been sidelined for two-plus months with a calf strain . . . Worcester righthander Tanner Houck, who hasn’t appeared in a game since May 4 because of a flexor muscle strain, threw in the bullpen Tuesday, according to Abbott. Houck, who has started twice for the Red Sox this season, threw all fastballs. “He’s on the mend and looked really good,” Abbott said.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 2, 2021 2:57:06 GMT -5
Steady diet of fastballs again Rafael Devers’ undoing as Sox fall to Astros By Alex Speier Globe Staff,Updated June 1, 2021, 9:24 p.m.
Rafael Devers has been rendered powerless by repeated exposure to his kryptonite.
Over two dreadful days at Minute Maid Park, the Astros have bullied Devers with the bluntest imaginable plan of attack. They’ve thrown the 24-year-old literally nothing but fastballs. Despite the near certainty about what’s coming, the star slugger has been utterly helpless.
On Memorial Day, Astros starter José Urquidy and reliever Enoli Paredes combined to throw Devers 15 consecutive four-seam fastballs. He struck out in all three plate appearances with four swings-and-misses in an 11-2 Red Sox loss.
“Obviously, these guys attack him with the fastball,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of the Astros before Tuesday’s game. “It’s a game of adjustments. I believe probably they’re going to keep attacking him with fastballs. Let’s see if he can make the adjustments today.”
The Astros held up their end of the bargain. Houston starter Luis Garcia threw Devers 14 pitches over three plate appearances. All were four-seam fastballs. So, too, were the four pitches thrown against him by reliever Ryne Stanek in the ninth.
Devers did not make the adjustment. His 0-for-4 night represented a giant, flapping red flag in the Red Sox’ 5-1 loss to the Astros.
Devers had two strikeouts and a weak flyout with five swings and misses against Garcia, and flied to left against Stanek. After his second strikeout – a swing-and-miss through a thigh-high fastball to strand the tying runner on first in the top of the sixth – Devers hurled his helmet and bat in disgust amidst a mind-boggling stretch of frustration, one that highlighted the strange nature of his season.
In 2021, the Red Sox five-hole hitter has re-established his standing as one of the most impressive sluggers in the game. He entered Tuesday hitting .280 with a .349 OBP, .597 slugging mark (seventh in the majors), 14 homers (tied for fifth), and 31 extra-base hits (1st).
Yet his production has been of an atypical sort. He entered Houston with the fourth-highest average (.362) and fifth-highest slugging mark (.745) in the majors against breaking pitches. He crushes breaking stuff regardless of location – in or out of the strike zone.
But against fastballs (both four-seamers and sinkers), he’s been a mess, hitting .172 (243rd out of 262 players who have seen 200 or more fastballs) and slugging .366 (192nd). Devers has 51 strikeouts this year on fastballs, far and away the most in the majors. He’s swung and missed at 22.2 percent of the fastballs he’s seen, the third-highest whiff rate in the majors.
This is not the player who once drilled an opposite-field homer off of a 103 mph fastball from Aroldis Chapman. Nor is it the player who hit .306 and slugged .555 against fastballs in 2019.
“It seems like he’s gotten away from who he is. It seems like he knows a fastball is coming and he’s getting bigger and bigger [with his swing],” said Cora. “Sometimes we forget that he’s still young and he’s still learning at this level, and stuff like this is going to happen.” Related: Brandon Workman forces Red Sox into decision: Promote me or release me
And the depth of his struggles are ominous. Pitchers generally have moved away from fastball-dominant approaches because, regardless of how hard they’re thrown, the pitches that move the least tend to get hit the hardest.
But nearly everyone who steps on a mound now hasmid- to upper-90s velocity in their pocket. And when they see vulnerability on a fastball, they don’t hesitate to exploit it.
That’s been the case with Devers, who has seen 59.3 percent fastballs this year – the eighth-highest rate of fastballs thrown against any hitter in the majors. The Astros, obviously, took that plan of attack to a new extreme. Undoubtedly, other teams will follow until Devers proves capable of punishing them.
Devers isn’t foreignto struggles. At times in his career, he’s gone through profound funks when he couldn’t hit anything, as happened when he carried a sub-.200 average through nearly two months of the 2016 minor league season in High-A Salem.
“He was a young kid. He was trying to find his way,” said Joe Oliver, who managed Devers in Salem that year. “That first half of the year was very frustrating for him. I got to see a lot of young Rafael. Then the second half, he just took off and he found his rhythm. He found his swing. I didn’t see as much of the tapping himself on the helmet [or the] kind of pushing his head further into his helmet.”
That episode – and many others throughout his career – offer a reminder. Devers has been resilient as a professional and capable of self-correcting when something goes awry.
Still, Tuesday’s game offered a glimpse into the severity of the third baseman’s struggles and anguish. Shortly after Devers betrayed his frustration with his post-strikeout helmet and bat fling in the sixth inning, he compounded it with a fielding error in the seventh. For one of the first times this season, he looked like a player consumed by his slump.
“This is a guy, he can catch up with the fastball. He can get on top of it and shoot it the other way,” said Cora. “A good line drive to left field is probably what we’re looking for right now. If he does that, he’s going to be fine.”
For the Red Sox and Devers, there is urgency to reach that point. The Red Sox are four games into a stretch of 15 consecutive contests against teams that have had strong across-the-board pitching performances early in the season, with seven games against the Astros (3.87 ERA, 11th best in MLB), three against the Yankees (3.20, fourth), four against the Blue Jays (3.91, 12th), and three against the Marlins (3.40, eighth).
Those teams are certainly capable of pitching to gameplans and exploiting weakness. And in the case of Devers, the stunning inability to hit big league fastballs represents a glaring vulnerability.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 2, 2021 3:03:31 GMT -5
Bill Koch @billkoch25 ·
Garrett Richards is on the hook -- 6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 97-53. Didn't look like he'd get 18 outs at a couple points, but here we are. Another effective outing. #RedSox
Kiké Hernandez now 0-for-19 and 10-for-44 since coming off the IL after that pop to third
Marwin Gonzalez made a great defensive play to save a run earlier. That throwing error balances it out.
Xander Bogaerts in an 0-18 slump after that strikeout in the 9th. #RedSox
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 2, 2021 3:04:47 GMT -5
Bill Koch @billkoch25 · 4h Alex Cora joining us on Zoom. #RedSox
On Garrett Richards -- 'He gave us a chance to win.'
'He didn't have his best stuff, but he battled.'
Cora on Devers -- 'It seems like he's gotten away from who he is. It seems like he knows a fastball is coming and he's getting bigger and bigger (with his swing).' #RedSox
Cora on Devers -- 'He had some good takes on some of them, but then he got big. We've got to make sure he's on time.'
'A good line drive to left field is what we're looking for right now.' #RedSox
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 2, 2021 3:05:59 GMT -5
Bill Koch @billkoch25 · 4h Replying to @billkoch25 Cora on his offense -- 'There was one threat there.'
'So far in this series we haven't done much.' #RedSox
Cora on being a third of the way through 2021 -- 'We're in the middle of the race. We know we're good, but like I've been saying all along, we have to get better.' #RedSox
Cora on Martinez-Bogaerts-Devers -- 'They're human. It's part of it.'
'They're not going to carry the offense for 162 games. They're going to run through stuff like this.' #RedSox
Cora -- 'We've got to make adjustments. We've done it before.' #RedSox
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 2, 2021 3:07:11 GMT -5
Bill Koch @billkoch25 · 4h Richards -- 'We had a chance to win. We still feel like we're the better team, obviously. That's baseball. You play 162 of them.' #RedSox
Richards -- 'I'm super pumped about being healthy and being able to compete every five days. Some familiar things are still coming back to me. I'm still far away from a finished product.' #RedSox
Richards said he shook off a slider and went fastball on the Altuve homer.
'I felt like kind of challenging him.'
'I wanted to see out of the gate how they were going to react.' #RedSox
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