Yankees @ Red Sox Game Thread/25th-27th June 2021

Alex Cora on Red Sox’ poor defense this season: ‘We need to be better’
Sox have committed most errors in majors


By Steve Hewitt | stephen.hewitt@bostonherald.com | Boston Herald
PUBLISHED: June 25, 2021 at 5:47 p.m. | UPDATED: June 25, 2021 at 5:48 p.m.

Since the beginning of spring training, Red Sox manager Alex Cora has been harping on his team to be better defensively. But through almost three months, they haven’t been up to par.

“I’m going to challenge them to be better,” Cora said in February after he watched from afar in 2020, when the Red Sox committed 45 errors in 60 games, third-most in the majors. “We have to be better defensively. That’s the bottom line.”

The Red Sox prioritized players with track records of defensive success in free agency, including Kiké Hernandez, Marwin Gonzalez and Hunter Renfroe. They dedicated fields to defense during sessions in spring training. But it hasn’t translated to games.

Entering Friday’s series-opener against the Yankees, the Red Sox had committed the most errors in baseball, with 56 in 75 games. They were particularly sloppy during the road trip they just came back from, as they allowed 10 unearned runs in eight games, including the game-losing run on a wild pitch in Thursday’s 1-0 loss to the Rays. Cora clearly hasn’t been happy with their defensive performance, and he was honest about it.

“Sloppy. Bad. Sloppy. Bad. All of the above,” Cora said. “We need to be better. Our pitching staff, they’re solid, but like any other pitching staff, if you give the opposition more than 27 outs, you’re going to pay the price. We’ve been paying the price. In that whole trip, we were bad. That’s something, we’ll talk about it, we’ll address it. We’ve been talking about this since spring training, something that we need to do. …

“It hasn’t been great this whole month. I think it’s 22 errors this month, if I’m not mistaken. It’s not even the errors, it’s the plays that we’re not making. We need to be better. That’s it, that’s the bottom line.”

Managerial future?

With Dustin Pedroia back in Boston to be honored for his career on Friday, Cora was asked if he thinks the former second baseman could be a manager one day. When he retired in February, Pedroia said he was open to anything that may come in his future but wanted to focus on spending time with his family and kids for now.

Cora joked that he wouldn’t be opposed to Pedroia taking his job.

“I think it’s too soon to start talking about that, because he’s in a stage that obviously his career didn’t end up the way he wanted,” Cora said. “It was frustrating towards the end and now he’s enjoying his life again, which is very important. He’s a part of the Red Sox organization. Obviously his role I think will be probably bigger in the upcoming years, whenever he wants to.

“If he wants to manage the Red Sox, hey, I don’t mind that in a few years. I really don’t. This is something that is not an easy job. And it’s something that, if he wants to do it in a few years, hey, I’ll be kind of like a senior advisor. We’ll make a new job description. I can help him from afar, I still get paid more than him but he can do it if he wants.”

Sox still short on vax

Major League Baseball announced on Friday that 23 teams have reached the 85% fully vaccinated threshold in order to relax restrictions. The Red Sox are still not one of those teams, but Cora said they’re still hopeful.

“We’re getting closer, but not as close. I think we’re closer than last week, but we’re not there yet.”

Sale set to face hitters

The next big step in Chris Sale’s Tommy John recovery comes Saturday as he faces live hitters for the first time at Fenway Park. Cora said Sale will throw 20 pitches on Saturday, then throw another live session during the homestand next week. …

Ryan Brasier still hasn’t resumed baseball activities after being struck in his head by a line drive during a simulated game earlier this month. But the reliever was back in Boston on Friday to be checked by team doctors.

“The fact that he’s here, it’s a lot,” Cora said. “He looks great, actually — physically. He had a big smile today. I can’t even imagine what he’s been thinking the last few weeks, right? To get hit with a line drive in the head, I can’t even imagine where your thoughts are at. The fact that he’s here, it means a lot to us.”

Yankees @ Red Sox
Saturday 26th June 2021
7pm @ Fenway

Montgomery 3-1/4.03

Montgomery allowed one run on three hits and two walks with six strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings in a no-decision against the A's on Sunday. The 28-year-old left-hander induced 17 whiffs, including 11 on 18 swings with the changeup. He's been solid on the year, positing a 4.03 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, and 75 strikeouts over 76 innings.

Nasty Nate 7-4/3.90

Nathan Eovaldi allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits and one walk with four strikeouts over four innings in a loss against the Royals on Sunday. Eovaldi struggled to go deep into this one as he was done at 87 pitches through four innings. . The 31-year-old right-hander has posted a 3.90 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, and 78 strikeouts over 83 innings on the year.


New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox
Saturday, June 26, 2021 at 7:15pm EDT
Written by Nick Raffoul

The New York Yankees will travel to Fenway Park on Saturday afternoon as they get set to continue their American League East rivalry versus the Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox come into the weekend in second place in the AL East standings with a 44-31 overall record but sit just one game back of the Tampa Bay Rays for the division lead. Meanwhile, the Yankees have started to close the gap in the division race after winning seven of their last 10 games to improve to 40-34 through 74 games.

Can the Red Sox take control of their weekend series with a win over the Yankees at Fenway Park on Saturday night?

Montgomery turning into reliable starter in New York
The Yankees will continue baseball’s most storied rivalry by handing the ball to southpaw Jordan Montgomery in Boston on Saturday. The Yankees’ left-hander is 3-1 with a 4.03 ERA in 14 starts but he’s been reliable on the mound as of late. In his last six starts, Montgomery has allowed three earned runs or fewer five times while posting a 1-0 record and 3.83 ERA during that span. Last time out, he held the Oakland Athletics to just one run on three hits in 5 ⅓ innings of work. The Yankees’ left-hander has now pitched into the sixth inning or later in each of his first four June starts.

Montgomery continues to pitch better than his overall numbers might indicate. The lefty has fanned 8.88 batters and walked just 2.49 batters per nine innings of work this season. However, he’s stranded just 68.6 percent of his baserunners so far this season, which has inflated his ERA.

In six career starts against the Red Sox, Montgomery has never lost, going 1-0 with a 4.13 ERA in those matchups. He’s struggled on the road at Fenway Park though, posting a 6.59 ERA in three starts there. According to Baseball Savant, current Red Sox hitters own .296 batting average in 59 plate appearances off of the Yankees’ southpaw ahead of Saturday’s matchup.

Eovaldi seeks to bounce back from shortest outing of 2021
Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi is scheduled to toe the rubber for the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Saturday night. He enters the weekend with a 7-4 overall record to go along with a 3.90 ERA but is coming off of his shortest outing of the 2021 season. In his previous appearance, the Red Sox right-hander surrendered four runs (three earned) and lasted just four frames in a loss versus the Kansas City Royals.

At age 31, Eovaldi hasn’t lost any life on his fastball, which is still clocking it in an average of 97.4 mph. The Red Sox right-hander has pitched better than his overall numbers might show. He’s fanned 8.46 batters and walked just 2.06 batters per nine innings of work while allowing just three home runs in his first 83 innings of work (0.33 HR/9). Yet, he’s also stranded just 67.7 percent of his baserunners and has been victimized by a .333 BABIP in 15 starts.

Eovaldi has performed well against the AL East-rival Yankees in his career. In 10 career games (seven starts) versus the Bronx Bombers, he is 2-2 with a 3.30 ERA.

Per Baseball Savant, the Red Sox righty has held current Yankees to a .275 batting average in 158 plate appearances coming into Saturday’s contest.


Yankees
at
Red Sox
Saturday, at 7:15 PM EST
Cloudy
According to Forecast.io, it's expected to be 76° F with a 2% chance of rain and 13 MPH wind blowing out in Boston at 7:15 PM EST.
Hourly Forecasts: Weather.com Forecast.io

Boston Red Sox sell out Fenway for the first time since Oct. 2019 as crowd returns to find a fun team | Matt Vautour
Today 7:00 AM

By Matt Vautour | mvautour@masslive.com

BOSTON — When first organ notes started “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” it could have been the seventh-inning stretch of any Red Sox-Yankees Friday night series opener in any summer in recent memory.

It took a visit from their rivals, almost perfect weather and a ceremony to honor Dustin Pedroia to fill Fenway Park for the first time since COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. But whatever the reason, it felt normal and that continues to be something to embrace.

The last time Fenway had this many people — Oct. 2019 — Mookie Betts was still in Boston. Most Red Sox fans weren’t aware of Spider Tack, coronaviruses or Chaim Bloom. In between Alex Cora was fired and rehired. Brandon Workman was traded and re-acquired and the Red Sox lost a lot of baseball games.

Whether it was those losses or anger at the Betts trade, people seemed strangely disinterested a city that was once boasted baseball’s most fervent fans.

But the people who showed up or tuned in saw a pretty different team than the one that played in the last sellout. Friday’s game was a pretty good representation of what this Red Sox team is. Sure it’s a flawed team in a strange season for a sport that’s fumbling around trying to fix itself. But after a dreary 2019 and a dreadful 2020 in Boston, this season is comparably pretty fun and on some nights really entertaining.

The Red Sox have been resilient and opportunistic. Barring a brutal collapse in the next few weeks, they look worth investing in at the trade deadline.

Their starting pitchers are hard to predict and probably need to be better for this team to really have a chance to be successful down the stretch. But the bullpen, especially the core backend guys have helped mask that with a terrific three months so far.

In a season that’s been dominated by pitching around baseball, J.D. Martinez is back to form and Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers are both playing like All-Stars.

Alex Verdugo isn’t as good as Betts. Obviously. But he’s having a pretty comparable season.

With the combination of Verdugo’s clutch hits, his solid numbers (9 home runs, 32 RBIs, .282/.349/.796 ) and his infectious joy playing the game, he’s made that trade a lot more stomachable than it felt when it was announced.

This team has a reasonable expectation of getting better too. Chris Sale, Tanner Houck and any semblance of improvement from Eduardo Rodriguez could give the rotation a lift even if they don’t trade for anyone. That figures to be more and more necessary as Garrett Richards fades amidst baseball’s crackdown on grip agents.

Jarren Duran seems well-suited to provide a similar shot in the arm for the offense when the Red Sox call him up.

Even before any upgrades, this team has been pretty good. Fans who reintroduced themselves to the Red Sox Friday night have reasons to keep watching.

It’s too early to call this a pennant race. The Red Sox are a half-game out of first place with the season just a week away from its midpoint, but there’s a lot of baseball left to be played. Boston needs a lot to go their way just to stay in contention. But the playoffs certainly look like a reasonable goal, much more reasonable than they did in March. This team has a lot still to prove. But if nothing else, watching them has become an entertaining way to spend a summer night.

And they beat the Yankees. That’ll draw fans in any year.

Maybe I lose my man-card for this, but I like it.  Getting booed is part of the fun of a public proposal.