Red Sox @ Blue Jays Game Thread/ 19th-21rst July 2021

Christian Vazquez is not expected to play on Monday after getting hit in the right knee by a foul tip during Sunday night's battle against the Yankees.

Vazquez noted after the game that he was stiff and sore. While he won't play on Monday, be believes that he'll be available to play on Tuesday and isn't expected to require a trip to the injured list.


Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters after Sunday's loss to the Yankees that Christian Arroyo (groin) is likely to wind up on the injured list.

Arroyo suffered a groin strain while doing the splits in an attempt to stretch for a throw from second base on a double play attempt. With Danny Santana set to be activated from the injured list on Monday, he's likely to take Arroyo's spot on the active roster.
Source: Alex Speier on Twitter

Fan who struck Alex Verdugo with ball banned from all MLB parks for life
By Peter Abraham Globe Staff,Updated July 19, 2021, 12:28 a.m.
94

NEW YORK — The fan who threw the ball that struck Red Sox left fielder Alex Verdugo in the back on Saturday night has been banned for life from attending major league games.

The incident occurred in the sixth inning and led to a brief delay as umpires and Red Sox players pointed the man out. He was then escorted away by security.

A New York Police Department information officer said there was no record of an arrest, but the Yankees on Sunday said the fan, who has not been identified, would no longer be allowed in their ballpark.

“While the Yankees appreciate the spirit and passion of our fans in our various rivalries — especially with the Red Sox — reckless, disorderly and dangerous behavior that puts the safety of players, field staff or fellow fans in jeopardy will not be tolerated,” the team said in a statement.


“There is absolutely no place for it at Yankee Stadium. The safety of everyone at Yankee Stadium, including guests in the stands and players on the field, will always be the top priority for the Yankees organization every time we open our doors.”


Major League Baseball also banned the man from its 29 other parks.

The incident delayed the game as two umpires ran out to left field to diffuse the situation. Red Sox manager Alex Cora briefly kept his team off the field until Verdugo could get his emotions under control.
Related: Fan hits Red Sox left fielder Alex Verdugo with baseball in wild scene at Yankee Stadium on Saturday

Verdugo was in the Red Sox lineup for Sunday night’s game against the Yankees, again in left field.

“I’m still going to be out there. I’m still going to be jawing with the guys, having a good time,” he said on Saturday. “If someone throws a ball again, someone throws something again, we’re going to have the same problem. That’s crossing a line to me.”


Verdugo patted his chest and motioned to the fans when he went to left field in the first inning on Sunday.

Cora said he doesn’t mind Verdugo mixing it up with the fans. But when he went on the field Saturday to calm his left fielder down, “it got nasty.”

“Hopefully that’s the last time something like that happens,” Cora said.

There were no incidents in New York’s 9-1 victory on Sunday outside of a light being shined at Christian Vázquez from center field when he batted in the seventh inning. The umpires paused the game briefly until the light went out as security approached.


MLB senior vice president of on-field operations Mike Hill was at the game on Sunday to discuss the events from Saturday, which were numerous.

Red Sox bench coach Will Venable and backup catcher Kevin Plawecki were ejected after disputing a check-swing call by first-base umpire Manny Gonzalez. The game also was played in a downpour throughout the fifth and sixth innings. The Yankees scored twice in the sixth, then were declared the winners after a 52-minute delay.

Cora thought the game should have been stopped earlier. Umpire crew chief Jeff Nelson told a pool reporter he considered the field playable until after the sixth inning.

Cora said he would prefer that games be suspended and finished the next day or later in the season instead of being called.
Painful debut for Christian Arroyo

After two days of taking groundballs, Christian Arroyo started at first base against righthander Jameson Taillon. He came out of the game in the third inning with a left hamstring strain suffered while reaching for a throw. Cora said it was likely Arroyo would go on the injured list for the third time this season.


Arroyo said prior to the game that it would be the first time he has played the position, outside of a few innings in an intrasquad game with Cleveland last season.

“I’m athletic enough. I think I’ll be fine,” he said.

The idea was for the Sox to keep a hot bat in the lineup. Arroyo has hit .271 with 18 extra-base hits and 25 RBIs in 155 at-bats.

“He’s earned his playing time, let’s put it that way. He’s putting good at-bats,” Cora said before the game. “He deserves to start.”
Related: The pennant race is on as Yankees knock around reeling Red Sox again

Bobby Dalbec replaced Arroyo at first base and was 0 for 3, striking out twice.
Danny Santana on the way

Utility player Danny Santana will meet the team in Buffalo on Monday and be activated for the series against the Blue Jays. He has been on the injured list since July 7 with a strained left quadriceps . . . Vázquez, who took a foul tip off his right knee, said he would be down on Monday but expected to be back in the lineup on Tuesday . . . Triston Casas was 0 for 2 with a walk as Team USA tuned up for the Olympics with an 8-3 victory against the Collegiate National Team in Cary, N.C. Casas, on loan from Double A Portland, hit cleanup. Jack Lopez of Triple A Worcester was 0 for 2 with an RBI . . . The Yankees called up Ryan LaMarre from Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and started him in left field. LaMarre, who played five games for the Red Sox in 2016, was 2 for 3 with a home run and a walk. They needed an outfielder after Tim Locastro tore his right ACL making a catch on Saturday . . . Double A Portland extended its win streak to 13 games with a 15-4 victory at Reading. Hudson Potts was 3 for 5 with a homer and drove in five runs.

Red Sox Bats Need To Wake Up From Current Slumber
July 19, 2021 at 8:38 am

By Matthew Geagan, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) — The Red Sox could have ended any and all hope for the Yankees over the weekend, shoving their rival further down the AL East standings and snuffing out any glimmer of hope that New York may have had heading into the second half of the season. Instead, the Red Sox are now looking to bounce back and get out of a funk.

Boston arrived in New York having won all six of their previous meetings with the Yankees. They owned a comfortable 1.5 game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays to lead the AL East. That win streak over their rivals is now a thing of the past, and that lead in the division has dwindled to just half a game after Boston dropped two of three in the Bronx.

Losing two of three to the Yankees, with Thursday’s series opener postponed after COVID hit half a dozen players on the New York roster, is not the ideal start to the second half for Boston. And it’s a continuation of the semi-slump that the Sox were riding into the All-Star break. The Red Sox have now lost three straight series — dropping two of three in Anaheim and against the Phillies ahead of the break — and six of their last nine games.

Boston’s bats were snoozing heading into the break, and they were silent again in New York, plating just two runs over the final two games of the series. The Red Sox went 3-for-20 with runners in scoring position during the series.

After Sunday’s loss, Boston manager Alex Cora said his offense needs to shake out of its slumber in a hurry.

“We haven’t hit since we were on the West Coast. We’ve been chasing pitches. We’re in one of those stretches, kind of like when we played Houston,” said Cora, equating the current struggles to a three-game stretch against the Astros where the team scored just four runs. “We love to swing the bats, but we’ve been chasing pitches out of the zone for a while.”

Following their 11-run outburst against the Phillies on July 9, the Sox have scored just 12 runs over the last five games. For a team with such a questionable starting staff (Martin Perez failed to reach the fifth inning for the fifth time in his last eight starts on Sunday), that simply will not get it done.

The Sox better snap out of it quick too, because the schedule doesn’t get any easier. The team now heads to Buffalo for three games against the Blue Jays, who own the best run differential in the division at plus-95. The Jays may be six games back of Boston in the AL East, but they’ve won four straight and six of their last 10. Toronto plated 25 runs over three games against Texas over the weekend, including 15 runs Sunday to sweep a doubleheader.

The Red Sox are familiar with how potent the Toronto offense can be. The Jays pummeled Red Sox pitching with 30 runs over a three-game span in June, as the two teams split a four-game set in Boston.

Boston is 5-4 against Toronto so far this season, and won two of three when the two met in Buffalo in May.

After three with the Jays, the Red Sox have four more with the Yankees and four against Toronto at Fenway Park. A nine-game road trip awaits after that homestand, with trips to Tampa Bay, Detroit and a return to Buffalo.

After such a promising first half of the season, the Red Sox are now looking to shake off a rough start to their post-All-Star break slate. Divisional wins are the best way to right the ship, and Boston will have ample opportunity to get a handful over the coming weeks.

But if they want to hang on to their now slim lead in the division, the Red Sox bats are going to have to wake up from a mid-season slumber.

Tomase: Skidding Sox have gotten away from what made them great
2H ago
/
by John Tomase
John Tomase
RED SOX INSIDER

The frustration appears to be mounting, and how the Red Sox respond to their first real adversity since an 0-3 start may decide how long they remain in control of the American League East.T

On Sunday night, they dropped their third straight series with a 9-1 loss to the Yankees. They did so in familiar fashion, winning the opener and nothing more, just as they did against the Angels and Phillies.

A team that made a habit of finding a way in the first half has stumbled out of the gates in the second, puncturing its aura of resilience in the process.

"I think we need to continue to play hard like we are in first place," said catcher Christian Vazquez. "We need to act more like we're in first place. That's the key for us. We need to be more cocky, like we're in a good place. And we're not acting like that. That's what I see right now."

After worrying only about themselves for the first three-plus months, the Red Sox have been directing their ire outward in recent days while losing six of eight. First, Kiké Hernández bemoaned being one of only two teams forced to play on Thursday out of the All-Star break, drawing uneasy parallels to the disliked Adrian Gonzalez. When a COVID outbreak on the Yankees canceled that game, Hernández suggested it was karma.

On Saturday, outfielder Alex Verdugo rightfully blew his top when a fan drilled him in the back with a baseball thrown from the stands, but it's easy to wonder how much Verdugo's reaction related to the month-long slump that has dropped his OPS to league average. Manager Alex Cora admitted that he pulled his team off the field partly so the emotional Verdugo could calm down.

That same night, the Red Sox were outraged over the miserable conditions at Yankee Stadium while trying to play through deluges before their 3-1 loss was finally called after six innings. Their grievances may have been merited, but the Red Sox of May and June would've simply found a way to win.

And then in Sunday's finale, the bats once again remained silent and the bullpen imploded while Red Sox players continued lashing out. Normally mild-mannered third baseman Rafael Devers appeared headed to an ejection after being called out on an appealed check swing, though Cora led him safely away.

Then Vazquez motioned at a light shining from above the monuments in center field. Whether the Red Sox believed it was an attempt at sign stealing or a random fan aiming a laser pointer, they were distracted enough to halt the game.

Add it all together, and they're limping into their most brutal stretch of the season, a run of 17 straight games against the Rays, Jays, and Yankees. Their pitching has intermittently faltered, their offense has cratered, and they're starting to point fingers externally when they've been so good at keeping the focus on themselves all season.
Skidding Sox
Red Sox' winning percentage through 85 games
62.4%
Red sox' winning percentage, last three series
33.3%

"I think it's more of the offense than anything else," Cora said. "We had that big game against Kansas City (a 15-1 win) at the end of the homestand and then after that, obviously a good pitching staff in Oakland and Anaheim, we didn't do too much. Against the Phillies we didn't do too much, and this series, it was the same thing. There are some positives, but as a group, we need to get better."

There's little doubt the Red Sox have played over their heads. They own only the third-best run differential in the division, which is suggestive of a 51-win team, but they're 56-38. Perhaps the last couple of weeks represent a market correction.

Their lead over the Rays, which stood at 4.5 games not even two weeks ago, has shrunk to a half game. The Jays have been playing nearly .700 ball for the last month and shut out the Rangers in both halves of a doubleheader Sunday to pull within six games. The Yankee are seven games out, but they boast the resources to improve in July, and the Red Sox failed to knock them when they had the chance.

There's a reason no one wins any awards for leading the division in July. There's still more than two months to play, and the club's brilliant and surprising first half won't mean anything if there's no payoff in October.

Red Sox at Blue Jays Series Preview

A look at this week’s three-game set in Buffalo.
By Matt_Collins@MattRyCollins Jul 19, 2021, 12:01pm EDT

SB Nation Blog

Bluebird Banter
The opponent in one sentence

The Blue Jays are on the verge of being able to play in Canada again — though not yet for this series — and they should head north of the border with a real chance at a playoff berth led by a strong core in their lineup.
Record

48-42
Head-to-head record

Red Sox 5, Blue Jays 4
Trend

Up, sort of. The Blue Jays weren’t playing their best baseball heading into the break, having lost four of their last six including a series loss to the Rays immediately before All-Star week. That said, they had a nice first weekend of the second half, taking all three games they played against the Rangers. And after taking the final game of the first half, they have won four in a row total.
Pitching Matchups

7/19: Nick Pivetta vs. Ross Stripling, 7:07 PM ET

Pivetta served as one of the biggest surprises on the Red Sox over the course of the first half, working around some command issues that came and went with mostly consistent good stuff that missed bats. More recently, however, the righty has been a bit of a roller coaster. If we go back four starts, he was dominant, but then followed it up with a rough one. He came back with perhaps his best outing of the year, before finishing off the first half with five runs being allowed to his former club, the Phillies, over just four innings of work. As a back-end arm, the Red Sox don’t necessarily need consistency from Pivetta, though they need someone of the Pivetta/Garrett Richards/Martín Pérez group to step it up. Pivetta has shown the talent, but it’s just about finding that command on a start-to-start basis. Toronto’s lineup has proven challenging to the righty all year, however, as he’s allowed 11 runs (10 earned) over 10 innings of work, with one of the outings also including four homers.

The Red Sox offense has been struggling of late, and hopefully a meeting with Stripling will be what they need to get back on track. The righty is certainly not a bat pitcher, and he can rack up strikeouts at a fairly high rate. That said, he also gives up a whole lot of hard contact and specifically has some issues with the long ball. He’s coming off an outing to end the first half in which he allowed three homers, and he’s dished up at least one in each of his last six starts. The Red Sox have seen him twice this year and have hit a combined four homers, scoring 10 runs over 9 1⁄3 innings, striking out nine times with two walks. This game will be all about taking advantage of mistakes. Stripling features a low-90s fastball to go with a curveball, slider and changeup.

7/20: Garrett Richards vs. Alek Manoah, 7:07 PM ET

I mentioned a roller coaster in reference to what Pivetta has done of late, but that is nothing compared to the season as a whole for Richards. That ride started way back in spring training when he had zero command, then continued with a shaky start, followed by a great run, followed by a bit of a cool down but still with good results, followed by disaster striking when the sticky stuff crackdown began, and now he’s settled in somewhere in between. The veteran has changed things up since his performance really fell off a cliff in early June, but he’s still not missing bats and seems to be getting results despite his lack of stuff. This is a Blue Jays lineup that will punish bad pitches, so this will be the first true test of whether the new Richards can keep up with the best offenses in the league. This will be his fourth matchup against Toronto this year, and in the first three he’s allowed 10 runs over 16 2⁄3 innings (5.40 ERA) with 10 strikeouts and 12 walks.

Manoah entered the season as one of the top prospects in the Blue Jays system, and he’s filled a big hole in the rotation since being called up. The righty has pitched to a 2.90 ERA over his first eight starts of his career, working around some shaky command at times thanks to big-time stuff. There is a danger in falling behind a guy with a 31 percent strikeout rate, but the Red Sox should be patient and wait for either mistakes or walks, because he’s shown they will come at times. The Red Sox have seen him once this year, scoring only one run across six innings with five strikeouts and one walk. The righty will feature a pair of fastballs, both sitting in the 92-95 range, to go with a slider and a changeup.

7/21: Tanner Houck vs. TBD, 7:07 PM ET

It’s going to be really interesting to see what the plan for Houck is here as a sixth starter. We’ve seen the righty once already since being called up when he came out and earned a three-inning save on Friday, but since coming back from the injured list he hasn’t really thrown a ton of innings. He’s still hesitant with his splitter, though he did throw a few in that aforementioned save. Still, unless he makes it a real part of his repertoire he’ll struggle against lefties and to make it deep into games. He’s better set up right now for a straight relief role, and while it makes sense to go with a six-man rotation for this long stretch, I do wonder if he’ll be piggybacked in some form with Garrett Whitlock, or someone else.

The Blue Jays have not yet announced a starter for this season, though it seems as though Robbie Ray should be the guy for this start. If so, Boston will be going up against Toronto’s ace, a lefty who has totally reinvented himself this year. Ray has always been able to miss bats at an elite clip out of a starter’s role, but he’s never really been able to put it all together due major control problems. But this year, he’s lowered his walk rate to just over six percent, his first time even down to single digits since 2016. Hopefully the Jays not announcing a starter will mean the Red Sox get to avoid Ray.
Old Friends

Santiago Espinal never actually made it to Boston, but he was traded as a prospect in exchange for Steve Pearce. While that trade worked out extremely well for the Red Sox and they would never want to redo it, Espinal has ascended to being a solid bench piece for this Toronto team.

Notable Position Players

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. would be the MVP favorite in a world without Shohei Ohtani. Instead, he’ll have to settle for being one of the very best hitters in baseball. Guerrero has mammoth power that is almost unmatched throughout baseball, and combines it with impeccable plate discipline. It’s about trying to slow him down, not stop him.

Marcus Semien has been one of the best signings from this past winter, showing big power at the top of this Blue Jays lineup with solid on-base ability as well.

Bo Bichette isn’t going to draw a whole lot of walks, and he’ll strike out around an average clip. But when he makes contact, he hits it hard almost every time, resulting in a lot of damage.

George Springer missed big chunks of time early in the year, but he’s back now and looking to find his footing. The power and patience has been there, but he’s striking out a lot.

Teoscar Hernández is getting some help from a high BABIP this year, but he’s also helping himself with hard contact and plenty of power.

Randal Grichuk will swing at just about anything, but he’s making a lot of contact this year to tap into his raw power and put up solid produciton in the bottom half of this lineup.

Cavan Biggio will draw a ton of walks, but he’s not hitting for enough power nor making enough contact to really tie the whole package together.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. got off to a terrible start but has been much better with the onset of summer, putting up a 131 wRC+ in June and a 114 mark so far in July.

Reese McGuire is in a platoon, but with the Red Sox throwing three righties this week he should see at least two starts. He makes a good amount of contact, but that’s about it.


Bullpen Snapshot

Jordan Romano has been tremendous late in games for Toronto this year, striking batters out and keeping the ball on the ground to work around some occasional control issues for a sub-2.00 ERA.

Tim Mayza has terrific control and an even better ground ball rate than Romano, though he doesn’t miss the same number of bats. Still, he’s a tough lefty to face late in games.

Adam Cimber is a recent acquisition from the Marlins, and he can be extremely tough on right-handed batters.
Injuries

Kirby Yates never actually got to pitch for the Jays, undergoing Tommy John surgery before the season began which will keep him out all year.

Alejandro Kirk had seemingly been cleared to return but he hasn’t actually been called back up to the majors quite yet.

Corey Dickerson came over in the same trade that brought Cimber to the Jays, but he hasn’t been able to play yet as he continues to recover from a foot injury.

Julian Merryweather has been out for most of this season with an oblique injury, and a recent setback will keep him out for at least a couple more weeks.

Tyler Chatwood hit the injured list with a neck strain in early July, and it’s not clear when he’ll be back.

David Phelps went down with a lat strain in early May, and ended up needing season-ending surgery.

Tommy Milone has been rehabbing for a few weeks now, but still hasn’t rejoined the big-league squad.

Carl Edwards Jr. suffered an oblique injury in June, and should be out for at least another month or so.

A.J. Cole has been out since June with a neck injury of his own, and he’s looking at a post-trade deadline return.
Weather Forecast

The bookends of this series shouldn’t provide any issues, but Tuesday night could pose something of a problem. There are thunderstorms currently in the forecast around the time of first pitch, so at least a delay could be on the table