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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 29, 2021 14:59:01 GMT -5
Jen McCaffrey @jcmccaffrey · 21m Brasier and Sawamura are among a group of pitchers taking PFP here pregame. Marwin Gonzalez is running the bases in preparation of going on a rehab assignment this weekend.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 29, 2021 17:05:37 GMT -5
Steve Hewitt @steve_hewitt · 19m You’re never going to believe this, but the tarp is on at Fenway. No word on a possible delay for Red Sox-Blue Jays yet.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 29, 2021 17:46:50 GMT -5
Red Sox Stats @redsoxstats · 3h Franchy starting at 1B the day before the deadline against a good lefty certainly highlights a couple of areas of need
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 29, 2021 18:14:17 GMT -5
Alex Speier @alexspeier · 39s Raining at Fenway at first pitch.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 29, 2021 18:25:43 GMT -5
dear jesus E-rod's pitching is giving me a migraine 3-0 Jays in the first
command is spotty
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 30, 2021 1:06:28 GMT -5
'Unable to locate' fastball, E-Rod struggles 1:28 AM ADT Ian Browne
Ian Browne @ianmbrowne
BOSTON -- On Trade Deadline eve, the 13-1 loss the Red Sox suffered against the Blue Jays on Thursday night at Fenway Park was quickly cushioned when chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom finalized a trade shortly after the game.
Boston got left-handed slugger Kyle Schwarber, who had a power surge for the ages in June, from the Nats for Minor League righty Aldo Ramirez.
Bloom nicely countered the Yankees' pickup a few hours earlier of Anthony Rizzo from the Cubs.
Things went much better off the field for the Sox on Thursday than on it.
Eduardo Rodriguez turned in a sluggish first inning en route to a sluggish night as the Sox had to settle for a split of their four-game series with the Blue Jays on getaway night.
The Sox now head to Tropicana Field for a first-place showdown with the Tampa Bay Rays, who are just 1 1/2 games behind Boston in the American League East.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez took a step back in his wildly inconsistent season. What was the issue on Thursday?
"Command," Rodriguez said. "I think overall, with all my pitches, that was the whole problem today. A lot of walks, a lot of base hits. That's what I think was kind of the problem today, a little bit. I would say the only pitch I was able to use most of the time today was the fastball -- and I wasn't able to locate it."
Rodriguez made some progress before the All-Star break and had a stellar start in his first outing after it at Yankee Stadium.
In a five-start stretch from June 22-July 16, Rodriguez had a 2.83 ERA while holding opponents to a .220 average and a .609 OPS.
However, in a home start against the Yankees last Friday, Rodriguez had to come out after two innings due to a migraine. That could have contributed to him being out of rhythm on Thursday.
"I don't know," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. "Obviously the last one, the migraine, and today didn't go as planned. But before that, he's been good. He's pitched well against the Yankees. I think the stuff has been there, he's been getting people out, he's been going deep in the games."
Projected to be the ace of the Red Sox coming into the season, Rodriguez is 7-6 with a 5.60 ERA.
With Blue Jays ace Hyun Jin Ryu at his best over six shutout innings (two hits, no walks, five strikeouts), the Red Sox didn't stand much of a chance in one of their most lopsided defeats of the season.
But a lopsided defeat was easy to shake off with a new slugger suddenly in tow.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 30, 2021 1:51:14 GMT -5
With trade deadline, Tampa showdown looming, Red Sox blown out by Jays By Julian McWilliams Globe Staff,Updated July 29, 2021, 10:35 p.m.
On the eve of Friday’s 4 p.m. MLB trade deadline, as the Yankees made their surprise addition of Chicago’s Anthony Rizzo official and Max Scherzer appeared headed to the Dodgers, the Red Sox suffered one of their worst losses of the season, 13-1, to the Blue Jays at Fenway Park.
It was an ominous lead-in to a critical weekend series at the second-place Rays, who convincingly beat New York, 14-0, to trim Boston’s AL East lead to 1½ games. The three games at Tropicana Field begin a 10-game, three-city road trip, which will include the first Sox visit to Toronto since the 2019 season.
Boston’s only other double-digit loss in 2021 was also to the Jays at Fenway Park, 18-4, on June 13. While the Red Sox allowed only one home run on Thursday — Vlad Guerrero Jr.’s 33rd — versus the record eight they did that Sunday afternoon, the Jays once again jumped on an ineffective starter immediately and never let up to grab a four-game split.
Eduardo Rodriguez, making his first appearance since departing early with migraine symptoms last Friday, allowed six runs in just 3⅓ innings. Toronto tagged him for seven hits and four walks; his eight strikeouts were an empty stat.
“Command of all my pitches, I think, was the whole problem today,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of walks. A lot of base hits.”
The Red Sox have been waiting for Rodriguez to turn the corner all season. In the first half, Alex Cora pointed to his slow start in his 19-win 2019, noting Rodriguez didn’t take off until he had roughly a dozen outings under his belt.
The Sox slowed down the speed of his changeup this year, believing that tweak would create some separation in velocity between his four-seam fastball and his sinker. Yet the Sox are still waiting.
“We talked about it, you know, when [the changeup] is like that it blends like a sinker,” Cora said.
From the outset Thursday, Rodriguez didn’t have it — a reflection of his season to this point.
The Blue Jays scored three times in the first. After loading the bases on a one-out Guerrero Jr. single, Marcus Semien double, and Bo Bichette walk, Teoscar Hernández lined a double over Hunter Renfroe’s head in right to make it 2-0. A fielder’s choice got Rodriguez within an out of escape, but Cavan Biggio singled home a third run to right.
A Reese McGuire double and George Springer single leading off the second made it 4-0, but Rodriguez struck out five of the next six batters. Cora tried to squeak a fourth inning out of his starter, but the lefty gave up a leadoff single and — after another strikeout — walked three straight to end his night by forcing in a run.
Rodriguez was simple unable to make enough competitive pitches. Despite drawing 18 swings and misses, he wasn’t fooling anyone. The Jays fouled off 20 pitches, helping drive his pitch count to 92. And though they whiffed at eight four-seamers, the average exit velocity on the two they put in play was 102 m.p.h.
A Bichette force out against Phillips Valdez made it 6-0, and Toronto tacked on three in the fifth (on Guerrero Jr.’s 436-foot home run just inside the left-field foul pole), three more in the sixth (on five of the seven hits Brandon Workman allowed in two innings), and a single run in the seventh when Hernández singled home Semien. Darwinzon Hernandez and backup catcher Kevin Plawecki finished it with scoreless innings.
Workman was designated for assignment after the game, his 40-man roster spot going to former Cubs and Washington slugger Kyle Schwarber, whom Boston acquired in a trade soon after the loss.
The Boston offense had no answers against Hyun Jin Ryu, who allowed just two hits over his six scoreless innings, beating Boston for the second time in three tries this season. The Sox were held to six hits, and only broke the shutout in the seventh on back-to-back doubles by Christian Vázquez and Bobby Dalbec.
“He got a big lead, but he’s still good,” Cora said of Ryu. “Changeups down, cutters up and in to righties. He’s done it throughout his career. He’s one of the best lefties in the big leagues.”
Despite the beating, Cora said Rodriguez’s stuff has been there. But it’s a result-oriented league, and Rodriguez’s 5.60 ERA, the highest among the Sox starters by nearly half a run.
“Just turn the page,” Rodriguez said. “Go out there in the next bullpen and work and get back to where I was.”
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 30, 2021 1:52:04 GMT -5
The Dinger Vlad hit just landed in Toronto
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Jul 30, 2021 2:11:58 GMT -5
Eduardo Rodriguez takes another step back in Red Sox’ ugly loss to Blue Jays Lefty shelled as Sox fall 13-1
By Steve Hewitt | stephen.hewitt@bostonherald.com | Boston Herald PUBLISHED: July 29, 2021 at 10:41 p.m. | UPDATED: July 29, 2021 at 11:27 p.m.
Just when things seem to be going right for Eduardo Rodriguez this season, they go wrong.
A year after missing the 2020 season due to myocarditis, Rodriguez looked great during spring training before a dead arm ended it on a sour note and forced him out of an Opening Day start. He rebounded for a strong April, when Alex Cora described him as an ace, but he regressed in May for the worst month of his career.
It’s happened again in July. Rodriguez was trending up to start the month, but then a migraine forced him out early of last Friday’s start against the Yankees. On Thursday, he returned with one of his worst efforts of the season as the left-hander’s frustrating 2021 continued in the Red Sox’ 13-1 loss to the Blue Jays at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox (63-41) are 1 1/2 games up on the Rays in the division as they head to Tampa Bay for a big three-game series starting Friday. And they have some questions to ask of their starting rotation going into Friday’s 4 p.m. trade deadline as they ponder the need for reinforcements over the next two-plus months.
Beyond Nathan Eovaldi, the rotation is full of wild cards and unconvincing options if the playoffs started today. Chris Sale’s return looms in a few weeks, but it’s uncertain how he’ll look after two years away from the big leagues, no matter how excited Cora and the organization are about him.
“It’s the trade that nobody else can make and it’s the ace,” Cora said. “I think that’s what makes it different. I think in that clubhouse, you see him walking around, you see him putting in work, you see him throwing bullpens, you know that he’s throwing in two days and sooner rather than later he’s going to be with us. I think that changes the whole thing.”
The Red Sox need Rodriguez to find a way to turn it on over the next two months, but his season to date doesn’t allow a lot of confidence going into a potential playoff start. It looked like he was finally rounding a corner this month, as he posted a 2.12 ERA in his previous five starts entering Thursday.
But coming back from the migraine, Rodriguez was shelled by a potent Blue Jays lineup for six runs on seven hits and four walks in just 3 1/3 innings. He gave up three runs on four hits in the first inning, and he and the Red Sox never recovered.
Rodriguez said he wasn’t affected by the migraine or having pitched just one inning in the previous 12 days.
“I was feeling fine body-wise, shoulder-wise, everything,” Rodriguez said. “It’s just the command wasn’t there. That’s all I think it was going that way today. …
“Just turn the page and work on my next bullpen and get back to what I was.”
Rodriguez finished his night with eight strikeouts, but he wasn’t attacking hitters the way he’s accustomed to. He ended his outing with three consecutive walks, the last one to Marcus Semien with the bases loaded to force in a run.
“He was off in that inning,” Cora said. “In between, both innings, he was really good. That’s a positive. But overall, obviously, he expects better. We expect better. He will be better.”
Rodriguez’s season ERA is now at 5.60, the highest of any Red Sox starter.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. later added salt to the Red Sox’ wound with his 33rd homer of the season, a three-run blast off Phillips Valdez that cleared everything in left onto Lansdowne Street to make it 9-0, and the Jays (50-48) were well on their way to a rout.
The Red Sox couldn’t do anything against Toronto starter Hyun Jin Ryu, scratching just two hits off him in six innings. By the seventh, trailing 13-0, the Red Sox threw in the proverbial white towel when they made substitutions that included putting Christian Vazquez and Bobby Dalbec at shortstop. Backup catcher Kevin Plawecki pitched a perfect ninth.
The 13-1 loss marked just the second time the Red Sox have lost by 10 or more runs this season, with the first coming in an 18-4 defeat to the Blue Jays on June 13.
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