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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 28, 2021 14:29:10 GMT -5
Alex Speier @alexspeier · 3m Alex Cora says Arroyo expected to be a short I.L. stint, and that he’s progressing well.
Alex Cora says Sox feel like Richards has been working to get his mechanics back to where they were against the Mets, giving the Sox optimism about him entering today.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 28, 2021 14:33:50 GMT -5
Bill Koch @billkoch25 · 14m Alex Cora joining us on Zoom.
On turning the page from the Yankees to the Royals -- 'It's a new series. It's four games. We're here to try to win a series.' #RedSox
Cora on the #MLB substance crackdown -- 'Adam (Ottavino) was on @mlbnetwork and said he needed to make adjustments. But that's not stopping him from competing.' #RedSox
Cora on Richards -- 'From his standpoint, he feels comfortable where he's at.' #RedSox
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 28, 2021 14:34:59 GMT -5
Bill Koch @billkoch25 · 15m Cora on his #ASG finalists -- 'It's really good. Those guys, they've done an amazing job.'
'Hopefully on the pitching side we can get a few there too.' #RedSox
Cora asked by @bradfo for a recollection on the three-year anniversary of the Steve Pearce trade -- 'We made a decision early on to stick with Mitch, and all of a sudden we didn't have that right-handed bat.'
'We were thinking ahead, to be honest with you.' #RedSox
Cora, asked in Spanish, said the #RedSox have yet to receive notice whether or not Jarren Duran or Triston Casas will be named to Team USA for the Olympics.
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Post by Kimmi on Jun 28, 2021 16:34:33 GMT -5
The 'struggling Royals' beat us 2 out of 3 last time out. The Sox cannot have a let down going into this series.
Tough pitching matchup tonight.
I'd really like to win at least 3 out of 4. Tough to look for 3-4 when the first game is Richards v Duffy. Hopefully Richards is meeting with Bush to decide on a strategy without the goop. He won't be as good, but that doesn't mean he has to disappear. Hopefully, with Duffy's restricted pitch count, we can get him out of the game early and do some damage against the pen. I'm hoping for the best for Richards, but he needs to be on a short leash.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 28, 2021 16:41:08 GMT -5
Alex Cora Provides Positive Updates On Christian Arroyo, Kevin Plawecki
Some good news on Arroyo and Plawecki
by Lauren Campbell
9 minutes ago
Christian Arroyo and Kevin Plawecki’s stints on the injured list appears to be getting closer to the end.
Arroyo was placed on the 10-day IL on June 24 with a right knee contusion after a collision with Boston Red Sox teammate Kiké Hernández, while Plawecki was diagnosed with a hamstring strain.
Arroyo originally wasn’t thought to have needed time on the IL, but he wasn’t progressing the way the team hoped. But things are looking better than last week judging from Alex Cora’s update on him and Kevin Plawecki prior to Boston’s series opener against the Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park.
“Progressing well, both of them” Cora told reporters over Zoom. “Kevin caught Chris (Sale) live BP … they’re moving well. they’re feeling better. It seems like this is going to be something short, and they should be with us sooner rather than later.”
Arroyo was batting .264 with four home runs before getting injured.
The Red Sox begin a four-game set with Kansas City on Monday night on NESN. You can catch all the action starting at 6 p.m. ET.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 28, 2021 18:22:38 GMT -5
3 batters in 3-0 Royals Guess we all know why Richards thought his spin rate was so special.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 28, 2021 18:25:57 GMT -5
OverTheMonster @overthemonster 2m Even the curveball Richards just threw for the strikeout really didn't look very sharp
Jared Carrabis @jared_Carrabis 2m I’m all set with Garrett Richards. Guy can’t get big league hitters out without the sticky stuff. That’s not even just my opinion. He straight up told you that. Get ‘em out.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 28, 2021 18:38:57 GMT -5
2nd inning and another royal homer jesus this guy is horrible
Alex Speier @alexspeier · 1m Royals RHHs have been looking to crush Richards' fastball to the opposite-field -- and they're doing so to great effect. Michael Taylor crushed one into the Red Sox bullpen to put the Royals up, 4-1.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 28, 2021 18:41:11 GMT -5
merrifield goes deep no doubter jesus 5-1 royals
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 28, 2021 18:43:49 GMT -5
Chris Cotillo @chriscotillo · 2m Garrett Richards: 4 outs, 3 homers.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 29, 2021 2:06:00 GMT -5
Renfroe powers Sox to 26th comeback win 1:11 AM ADT Ian Browne
Ian Browne @ianmbrowne
BOSTON -- Remember when Hunter Renfroe was the platoon player the Red Sox acquired for a modest $3 million in the offseason?
He is now an everyday player who is belting the baseball while playing Gold Glove defense in right field.
On a hot and humid Monday night at Fenway Park, Renfroe powered the Red Sox to a 6-5 victory in a game they trailed 5-1 early, giving Boston its MLB-leading 26th comeback win.
The right-handed hitter bashed two mammoth homers -- the first deep into the bleachers and the second a moonshot that hit a sign behind the Monster Seats.
The combined projected distance on homers No. 10 and 11 for Renfroe was 873 feet.
“I feel good. I like where I am right now,” said Renfroe. “I’m swinging the bat well, seeing the ball well. I think that’s the biggest part is seeing the ball before you hit it. I’m seeing the ball as good as I have in a long time, so I’ve just got to keep going, stay with my approach, stay with my routine in the cage and just try to stay healthy.”
Monday’s performance brought back memories of the last two-homer game Renfroe had, which was also at Fenway Park, but when he was a member of the Rays and not the Red Sox. That was Aug. 13, 2020.
“Yeah, [the second] one [last year] was a lot further than both of these. But yeah, kind of the same conditions, it was hot then and hot tonight. I felt good at the plate then and I feel good now,” said Renfroe.
Other than team success -- Renfroe’s Rays went to the World Series in 2020 -- everything else is better for him this year than when he hit .156 in 122 at-bats for Tampa Bay.
The good news for Renfroe this year is that he’s hitting and playing for a winning team. With Monday’s win the 48-31 Sox moved a game in front of the Rays in the American League East.
The original plan when the Red Sox signed Renfroe was that he would start against all lefties and occasional righties. Renfroe did little to change that blueprint when he hit .167 with one homer.
But in May, he turned into a threat at the plate and he has forced himself into the everyday mix over the last two months.
“This is more about him than us. He's earned his playing time. He's earned his spot in the lineup,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said before Monday’s game.
Renfroe made that pregame quote stand up a few hours later.
In fact, Cora was even more effusive after the game.
“He’s on balance, he’s making good swing decisions,” said Cora. “He’s been doing this for a while. You start looking at his numbers, the average, the RBIs, the home runs, the on-base percentage, the last two months, he’s been playing All-Star caliber baseball. And we know what he can do defensively.
“The way he’s playing, people need to start recognizing him as one of our best players. He’s been huge for us. We always talk about the four guys [in the middle of the order], but what he’s doing has been amazing the last two months.”
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 29, 2021 2:08:43 GMT -5
Richards rights himself with new pitch & ice 2:05 AM ADT Ian Browne
Ian Browne @ianmbrowne
BOSTON -- All eyes were on Red Sox righty Garrett Richards heading into Monday’s start against the Royals. He had struggled mightily in his previous three starts, while admitting he was having trouble adapting to the new enforcement on foreign substances on the baseball.
It looked like this was going to be another long night. The righty gave up three homers in the first two innings, including a three-run rocket by Carlos Santana in the first.
But give Richards credit for righting himself and buying his loaded offense time to swing their way back into the game.
With the Red Sox upending the Royals, 6-5, after trailing 5-1 in the second inning, Richards didn’t allow a run over his final 3 2/3 innings.
Knowing that he needed to find a way to adapt, Richards tried everything he could to make it work, including putting his arm in a bucket of ice between innings to try to prevent perspiration.
“I need to stop sweating,” said Richards. “If I can stop sweating, everything will be fine, but I’m a guy that sweats a whole lot. Just trying to work around the new rules and things we have right now. Trying to figure out different ways for me to be successful. That’s what was asked of us to do and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Richards is also altering his pitch mix, adding what he referred to as a split/changeup.
“This is a pitch I literally learned four days ago,” said Richards.
Though his overall stat line (5 2/3 innings, 11 hits, five earned runs, zero walks and three strikeouts) was nothing to write home about, the way Richards finished could give him some momentum going into his next projected start on Saturday in Oakland.
“There’s something about this level or any level, Little League, college, Minor Leagues, big leagues, you have to compete with what you have,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “It doesn’t matter. He was competing from the get-go. It didn’t work out with him. The ball was flying today. They put some good swings. But he kept competing. He gave us a chance to win. The offense picked him up. But the fact that he went 5 2/3 innings, he didn’t look great in the beginning … but he didn’t quit.”
It has been a season of ups and downs for Richards. In his first four starts for the Red Sox, Richards went 0-2 with a 6.48 ERA.
Then came the eight-start resurgence, which saw Richards go 4-2 with a 2.98 ERA.
But in his last four starts, Richards has a 9.18 ERA, giving up 32 hits and 17 earned runs in 16 2/3 innings.
Perhaps the teammate that knows him the best suggested the issues Richards is having at the moment are more mental than physical.
“I think it’s all in Garrett’s head, more than anything. I think he doesn’t believe in himself,” said Red Sox right fielder Hunter Renfroe, who also played with Richards in San Diego. “I think that’s kind of his biggest thing. I think if he just goes out there and pitches the way he’s able to pitch, I think he does fine.
“He’s a great pitcher. I think if he believes in himself, I think that’s half the battle. I think he’s still throwing 96 mph, he invented a changeup that’s a really, really good pitch for him and worked really well tonight. I think his curveball and slider are still there. I think he’s got to go up there and believe in himself and keep throwing the ball.”
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 29, 2021 2:28:54 GMT -5
Jon Couture @joncouture · 8h Would seem to be "when, not if" for Tanner Houck to take Garrett Richards's spot in the rotation. #RedSox
As predicted, Garrett Richards is the starting pitcher to last the longest in this game. #RedSox
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 29, 2021 2:38:26 GMT -5
Garrett Richards’s mid-game reinvention helps Red Sox top Royals By Alex Speier Globe Staff,Updated June 28, 2021, 10:18 p.m.
For two innings, Garrett Richards looked like the loneliest person in the world. Ten batters and four outs into the game, the 33-year-old stood alone and exposed in the middle of the diamond.
Fenway Park’s unforgiving scoreboard featured a “5” in the visitors’ run column, and it seemed possible that the Royals would continue to cross the plate by the handful so long as Richards remained in the game. Already, he’d extended his streak of starts allowing at least five runs to three — the longest such rut of his career.
Little suggested his lot would improve. The adjustment to the league’s enforcement of rules preventing pitchers from using grip-aiding substances aside from the rosin bag seemed overwhelming for the 32-year-old.
But in what had the makings of a blowout, the righthander and the Red Sox corrected course. For a night — or at least a sufficient portion of one — Richards reinvented himself to stifle Kansas City over his final 4⅓ innings, buying time for his team to match its largest comeback of the year.
The Sox erased a four-run deficit in a 6-5 victory over the last-place Royals. The win pushed their AL East lead to one full game over the idle Rays.
“[Richards] didn’t quit,” said manager Alex Cora. “Sometimes you’re going to be just a regular pitcher with no stuff and you have to find a way to do it. He did.”
Typically, Richards possesses a pitch mix so lively that the strike zone magnetically repels it. On Monday, he featured unusual control, throwing 18 of 19 pitches in the first inning for strikes, but his over-the-plate location signaled danger. Richards lacked the late life to dodge bats.
Kansas City jumped him for three straight hits to open the game, with back-to-back singles followed by a hit-me slider that Carlos Santana deposited into the bleachers above the Royals bullpen for a three-run homer and 3-0 lead.
Kiké Hernández narrowed that spread in the bottom of the first, hitting his second leadoff homer in as many days to bring the Sox within 3-1. But the Royals again teed off on the bewildered Sox starter in the second, with Michael Taylor and Whit Merrifield hammering solo homers to put Kansas City ahead, 5-1.
Richards looked like a man in search of an exit that did not exist. The righthander rubbed his hand on his pant leg, on the mound dirt, on the infield grass.
He grabbed the rosin bag and squeezed it so hard it seemed he wanted to turn it back from dust into solid rock. In the dugout between innings, he jammed his arm into a bucket of ice.
“Your arm stops sweating for a short period of time,” Richards said of the ice. “I need to stop sweating. If I can stop sweating, everything will be fine.” Related: For Garrett Richards, it was another problematic start that raised more questions than answered them
On the mound, Richards likewise sought something — anything — different, better. He expanded and reinvented his typical arsenal – mid-90s four-seam fastball, high-80s slider, high-70s curveball — by integrating high-80s changeups, a pitch that relies on diminishing rather than amplifying spin.
“A pitch I learned literally four days ago,” he joylessly revealed.
In 880⅔ innings entering Monday, Richards had never thrown a pitch under 73 mph. On Monday, he began flipping curveballs that registered as low as 63 mph.
“Just trying to figure out how to pitch again,” he said. “I’ve never had to make this kind of change in my whole career. I’m just trying to make the best of it.”
By the end of the second — an inning that ended with a long Santana fly ball that was about two feet short of another homer — Richards had hit bottom. But then, he started his climb. The remaining 3⅔ innings, Richards didn’t allow another run, limited the Royals to five singles, and didn’t allow anyone to advance past first.
In a vacuum, his final line — 5⅔ innings, 11 hits, five runs (all earned), no walks, three strikeouts, three homers – suggest struggle. But for the Red Sox, the pitcher’s mid-game recovery represented the first reason for optimism about him in weeks, even if Richards’ glum postgame demeanor suggested otherwise.
“I think he doesn’t believe in himself,” said outfielder Hunter Renfroe. “He’s a great pitcher. I think if he believes in himself, I think that’s half the battle.”
The Red Sox lineup, by contrast, is playing with considerable self-confidence forged through now-routine come-from-behind wins. With the Sox down 5-1 in the second, Bobby Dalbec drilled a homer to left off Royals starter Danny Duffy to make it a 5-2 contest.
In the fourth, the Sox tied the game when Renfroe blasted a two-run, 439-foot shot to center (his 10th homer of the year) off Duffy and Michael Chavis delivered a two-out, RBI single against reliever Kyle Zimmer to make it a 5-5 contest.
Two innings later, Renfroe launched another epic blast — this one a 434-foot shot off the signage in left — against Kansas City reliever Josh Staumont to put the Sox ahead, 6-5. The two roundtrippers marked the 13th multi-homer game of Renfroe’s career, and positioned the Red Sox to claim their major league-leading 26th comeback win of the season.
Renfroe is hitting .307 with a .910 OPS and 10 homers in 49 games since May 1.
“The last two months, he’s been playing All-Star caliber baseball,” said Cora.
Richards — who was replaced in favor of Hirokazu Sawamura with a man on and two outs in the sixth inning — was not the direct beneficiary of Renfroe’s go-ahead homer. Sawamura (4-0 after 1⅓ shutout innings) was credited with the win, and after a scoreless eighth from Josh Taylor, Matt Barnes claimed his 17th save with a perfect ninth.
Richards, meanwhile, took a no-decision. Yet for a pitcher who in the early innings on Monday seemed close to a no-contest, there was at least something to take from the night.
“Be competitive and give us a chance to win,” said Richards. “That’s the only thing I care about.”
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jun 29, 2021 2:40:40 GMT -5
Hunter Renfroe continues to show value in Red Sox lineup By Kris Rhim Globe Correspondent,Updated June 29, 2021, 12:03 a.m.
Monday night was supposed to be Andrew Benintendi’s return to Fenway — an opportunity for fans to reevaluate last summer’s trade that sent him to the Kansas City Royals for Franchy Cordero and four minor leaguers.
The left fielder didn’t make the trip to Boston, however, as he nursed a right rib fracture he suffered in mid-June.
Instead, it became Hunter Renfroe’s night.
If Benintendi had remained in Boston, Renfroe would likely be splitting time in the right field. But now he is an everyday player. The trade has given Renfroe a significant opportunity, and he’s made the most of it.
That was the case Monday night with the Red Sox down 5-2 in the fourth inning, Renfroe hit a 439-foot home run into center field, driving in Xander Bogaerts to bring the game within one. In the bottom of the sixth, he sent a curveball 434-feet to left field that bounced off the National Car Rental insurance sign. The run gave the Sox their first en route to a 6-5 win over the Royals.
“We wanted to win that game and put ourselves in a good situation moving forward,” Renfroe said. “We got some timely hits when we needed to. ... We knew with our offense we can put a lot of points on the board, whether we hit home runs or singles. We knew we were in a good situation after a few homers, and we liked the way our pitchers were throwing the ball and just kept at it.”
The second homer was his eleventh of the year and his first multiple-homer game since August 13 with the Rays at — of course — Fenway Park. It was also the third multiple-homer game run by a Red Sox player this year.
Renfroe said his multiple-homer game last year with the Rays at Fenway was very similar to Monday night’s game, but he joked about the difference in the distance the ball traveled.
“One [home run] was a lot further than a lot of these,” he said with a smile. “Kind of the same conditions, it was hot then I felt good at the plate then, I felt good now.”
Renfroe finished 2-for-4 with three home runs and three RBI. Cora praised Renfroe post-game, calling him one of the team’s best players.
“He’s been doing this for a while,” Cora said. “The last two months, he’s been playing All-Star caliber baseball, and we know what he can do defensively. …The way he’s playing, people need to start recognizing him as one of our best players — we always talk about four guys — but he’s been amazing these past two months.”
Renfroe hasn’t always looked great this season. In 19 games in March and April, he put up a .167/.235.250 line and only one hit home run.
With Cordero in the minor leagues and Benintendi playing well in Kansas City, hitting 283/.340/.429 with eight home runs, six doubles, 31 RBIs, and 19 walks in 60 games, it looked like the Sox were on the wrong side of the trade .
In 49 games since May 1, however, Renfroe’s game has significantly improved. He’s batting .307 with a .910 OPS, with ten home runs and 32 RBI’s. Before Sunday’s 0-for-3 performance against the Yankees, Renfroe had been on a six-game hitting streak.
“I’m seeing the ball as good as I’ve seen it in a long time,” Renfroe said. “I like where I am right now. I’m swinging the bat well and seeing the ball well. I think that’s the most important part — seeing the ball before you hit it. I just got to keep going, staying with my approach, staying with my routine in the cage, and staying healthy.”
Garrett Richards, who played with Renfroe in San Diego, said Renfroe’s emphasis on the defensive side of the ball makes him unique.
“That’s the vibe I get from him. He gets more fired up throwing somebody out at the plate than he does hitting a homer,” Richards said. “He’s an incredible player. He takes more pride in his defense than in his offense which you don’t really see a whole lot of at this level. He really loves to play plus-defense, and as a pitcher, I love that.”
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