I don't know about you but nothing gets me fired up quite like a Monday afternoon makeup game between the Red Sox (37-23 overall, 17-13 home) and the Marlins (25-34 overall, 13-22 away) at Fenway Park in the middle of a rare early June heatwave. While you were coming home from work (is that still a thing?), eating dinner or getting ready for Game 5 of Bruins-Islanders, Boston and Miami had to complete their three-game series that saw the finale cancelled last Sunday afternoon because it poured. Not surprisingly, it was not the most exciting or interesting game of the season but at least the Sox still put in enough effort to come away with a 5-3 victory. With the win, Boston pulled within a half game behind first-place Tampa Bay (38-23) in the AL East and their fifth straight victory officially makes them the hottest team in MLB.
The final score was not that high in terms of total runs scored but you wouldn't have guessed that since each club had to use six pitchers (come on!) apiece just to get through nine innings. Red Sox starting pitcher Nick Pivetta (4.2 IP, 2 ER, 7 hits, 6 Ks, 3 BBs) did not have his best stuff in what looked like a great spot to pick up an easy win. Of course, it also helped that Boston was staked to a 2-0 lead in the second inning and it was 5-1 Red Sox by the fifth inning. Garrett Whitlock was the first reliever summoned from Boston's bullpen and he got the final out in the fifth inning on two pitches. Darwinzon Hernandez recorded two outs (both via strikeouts) and Boston's newest weapon-Hirokazu Sawamura (2-0) earned his second win of the season after notching four outs including striking out two. Sox manager Alex Cora pieced together the final two innings by having Josh Taylor get two outs before Northeastern's Adam Ottavino hung on to nail down the last four outs for his third save of the season. Closer Matt Barnes was mercifully unavailable after he pitched in high leverage situations for all three games against the Yankees over the weekend.
Shortstop Xander Bogaerts scored on a wild pitch in the first inning to give the home team a 1-0 lead. Left fielder Alex Verdugo (2-for-4) added an RBI double in the third inning that scored second baseman Christian Arroyo (2-for-3, 2 runs, 2 RBIs, 2B, BB) to make it 2-0 Red Sox. Miami got on the board in the fourth when catcher Jorge Alfaro drove in right fielder Adam Duvall (2-for-5, 2B) with an RBI single. Arroyo answered with a two-run single in the home half of the frame that scored catcher Kevin Plawecki and center fielder Enrique Hernandez. Arroyo later came around on a fielding error by Duvall. Marlins center fielder Starling Marte (3-for-4) crushed a solo homer (his 4th of the season) to center in the fifth that cut it to 5-2 Sox. Miami's third baseman Isan Diaz knocked in left fielder Corey Dickerson with an RBI double in the ninth. Ottavino appeared in his third game in a row and had to throw 23 pitches so I'm pretty sure that he won't be available for Boston's series-opener vs. Houston (33-26 overall, 13-13 away).
The Astros just took three of four from the Red Sox last week at Minute Maid Park so they'll be trying to continue that roll as two of the best teams in baseball face each other three more times this week at Fenway. Martin Perez (4-2) gets the ball tomorrow night (7:10, NESN) in the series opener against Framber Valdez (1-0); they both pitched gems last week against these same clubs. On Wednesday night (7:10, NESN) Nathan Eovaldi (7-2) takes on Jake Odorizzi (0-3) who the Sox shelled in his last outing. Finally, Eduardo Rodriguez (5-4) opposes Zack Greinke (6-2) on Thursday night (7:10, NESN). Houston is in a similar position to Boston in the AL West as they trail first-place Oakland (35-26) by only one game and who really expects that to last for much longer? The heatwave should be here for a few more days as these contenders meet yet again for what should be a better series than the mostly one-sided affair in Texas.
No comments:
Post a Comment