Trade Season Starts For The Red Sox As Enrique Hernandez Gets Flipped Back To The Dodgers

 

    There is a week left before the MLB Trade Deadline (August 1) so it was about time that Red Sox chief baseball officer (the nerdiest title of all-time) Chaim Bloom logged off his computer for a minute and made an actual baseball trade. This afternoon's move was not a blockbuster by any means but at least it was something as Boston (53-47 overall) sent utilityman Kike Hernandez back to where he came from-the Dodgers (57-42)-for a pair of minor league pitchers (Justin Hagenman and Nick Robertson) and $2.5 million cash considerations. Hernandez played six seasons in LA before playing 2.5 seasons here in Boston. This reunion had been rumored since last week and with infielder Pablo Reyes activated yesterday plus shortstop Trevor Story expected to make his season debut shortly, Hernandez was the odd man out. 

    Besides a crazy heater during the 2021 postseason, Kike's Red Sox stay was pretty forgettable. He began this season as Boston's starting shortstop but that was a complete disaster as he made 14 errors and eventually lost the job in mid-June. He is a good defensive outfielder but there was not really a place for him there in this current Red Sox roster and his offense had also gone off of a cliff (.222/.279/.320) with six home runs and 31 RBIs. Red Sox manager and fellow Puerto Rican Alex Cora is a big fan of Hernandez but I am sure that Kike will be happy to return to LA where he still owns a home. 

    It is doubtful that he will get a ton of playing time with the loaded Dodgers who are still one of the top teams in baseball but that is where he won a World Series title in 2020 and there are still a bunch of teammates from that time that he is probably close to. Now we wait to see if Bloom will invest further in this up-and-down team with more substantial moves or if he stays with his usual middling trades like this. I certainly do not believe in this group who entered tonight's series opener vs. Atlanta (64-34 overall) 2.5 games behind Toronto (56-45 overall) for the third and final AL Wild Card. However, the third AL Wild Card winner will likely face the AL Central winner which figures to be the Twins (54-48 overall) or Guardians (49-51 overall)-two similarly mediocre teams to the Red Sox. 

    The bottom line is that this is a huge MLB Trade Deadline and regular season for Bloom who is in his fourth season here. If the Red Sox do not make the playoffs, he should be fired. Enough of running a big market team like they are the Rays (61-42 overall). The last time I checked, Tampa Bay has never won a World Series title so who cares that they can win a bunch of meaningless regular season games on a tiny budget. Boston should be in the mix for Shohei Ohtani and every other star player that is available via trade this next week or in free agency over the winter. If the past is any indication though, Bloom is too infatuated with his own prospects-many of whom will never amount to anything, that is just a fact in baseball-to make any notable transactions. Boston is one of the few good baseball markets left in the U.S. but with so little star power on the Red Sox, it has been very hard to get into the club for most of Bloom's tenure except for the (lucky?) 2021 campaign. We all deserve a better product on the field than this and a better baseball decisionmaker than him.

The Best Player In Baseball (Shohei Ohtani) Helps Shut Down The Hottest Team In MLB (Red Sox)

 

    Hardcore fans of this blog will note that I have rarely written about losses by the Red Sox (54-33 overall, 27-16 away) this season, not only because they have been few and far between but since it is hard to make a loss in baseball remotely interesting to read about. Tonight was one of those rare occasions where a 5-3 loss by Boston to the Angels (43-42 overall, 25-20 home) at Angel Stadium of Anaheim nevertheless was headline news. The most exciting thing to happen to the sport in years-Shohei Ohtani (4-1)-was the starting pitcher for LA and he also batted second in the Angels' lineup. The man who is the first player ever to be named a two-way All-Star (pitcher and hitter) in the same season went seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits with four strikeouts to earn the win. He also had an RBI double and scored a run, haha is that all? 

    On paper, it looked like an awesome matchup since the Red Sox had won 10 of their last 11 games and they had their own All-Star starting pitcher-Nathan Eovaldi (9-5)-opposing Ohtani. Eovaldi has been really great in his last few outings (part of the reason that he was a bit of a surprise first-time All-Star) but that was not the case this evening as he allowed three runs in the first inning and he could never really get into a groove. Boston only had one brief lead all game: designated hitter J.D. Martinez drove in center fielder Kike Hernandez with a sacrifice fly in the first inning. Ohtani and the Angels responded right away as he knocked in second baseman David Fletcher (4-for-4 with 2 doubles) with that RBI double then his catcher Max Stassi hit a two-run homer (his 6th of the season) to left field to score his batterymate. 

    From there, Ohtani efficiently (89 pitches) started to mow down the Sox until Martinez hit an RBI single in the sixth inning that scored catcher Connor Wong and cut LA's lead to 3-2. Boston could have taken a 4-3 lead in that frame but center fielder Juan Lagares robbed Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts of what would have been a two-run bomb to right center. Just like in the first inning, the Angels answered with a pair of runs in the sixth: former Red Sox great Jose Iglesias drove in a run with a ground out then Stassi scored on an infield single by Fletcher. Los Angeles' set-up man Michael Mayers pitched a scoreless eighth inning for his 11th hold of the season before Angels closer Raisel Iglesias struck out two in the ninth inning as he recorded his 17th save of the season. The other Sox run came on right fielder Hunter Renfroe's solo shot off Iglesias (his 13th of the season) with two outs in the ninth. 

    The Red Sox conclude their six-game trip to California tomorrow afternoon (4:07, NESN) with Eduardo Rodriguez (6-4) facing crappy lefty Andrew Heaney (4-6). No more late night start times for awhile! After winning two of three games over the weekend in Oakland (49-38), Boston has gone 3-2 on this West Coast swing so ending it with one last victory going into a much-deserved day off on Thursday would be sweet. E-Rod has been much better in his last two starts, giving the club hope that he is finally regaining his stellar form of a few years ago.

If The Red Sox Can Get Anything This Season From Hunter Renfroe And/Or Bobby Dalbec, Look Out!

 

    One of the biggest question marks for the Red Sox (24-16 overall, 12-11 home) coming into the 2021 season was the bottom of their lineup-granted you could say that for basically any other team in MLB history. Tonight at Fenway Park in their series opener against the Angels (16-21 overall, 8-12 away), Boston's offense was actually carried by their No. 8 and No. 9 hitters for a change: right fielder Hunter Renfroe was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and two runs scored while first baseman Bobby Dalbec had a clutch two-run bomb of his own in the seventh inning which gave the Sox a 4-3 lead and that is how it would end. This could be the start of a nice win streak as the Red Sox won back-to-back games while LA has dropped its last three games in a row. 

    Boston's starting pitcher Nick Pivetta (6+IP, 2 ER, 4 hits, 7 Ks, 0 BBs) and Angels starter Griffin Canning (6 IP, 2 ER, 7 Ks, 2 BBs) were essentially a draw so it came down to a battle of the bullpens in the late innings. Former Red Sox great Jose Iglesias hit an opposite field two-run double in the top of the seventh that scored third baseman Anthony Rendon and first baseman Jared Walsh to make it 3-2 Angels. Dalbec answered in the bottom of the seventh with his two-run homer (his 4th of the season) that went high over the Green Monster then bounced off the Draft Kings sign. Boston's set-up man and closer were both lights out as Northeastern's Adam Ottavino pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning with two strikeouts for his eighth hold of the season. Not to be outdone, UConn's Matt Barnes nearly pitched an immaculate inning (3 strikeouts on 9 pitches) as he struck out the side on 11 pitches for his ninth save of the season. 

    Renfroe opened the scoring with a two-run missile in the second inning that went to the first row of the bleachers in straight away center field. His fifth homer of the season gave Boston the 2-0 lead that they would carry until the sixth inning when the most exciting player in baseball-Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani-hit an opposite field home run of his own that cleared the Monster for his American League best 11th homer of the season. It was his first career home run at Fenway so I bet that he will remember that one forever even if it came in a loss for his crappy team. Seriously, what a waste that he plays for LA (for instance, any of the other four California clubs would be much appealing) which has been stuck in neutral for the better part of the past decade. 

        One of the key facets of this win was that LA's other superstar-center fielder Mike Trout-was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts including a bogus called third strike that Ottavino got on him to end the eighth inning. Trout is at least part robot so naturally he didn't even argue with home plate bozo, I mean umpire Ron Kulpa. Tomorrow afternoon (4:10, NESN) Red Sox pitcher Martin Perez (0-2) continues his quest for his first win of the season while the same could be said for Angels pitcher Dylan Bundy (0-4). Boston is two games ahead of New York (21-17) for first-place in the AL East and they are tied with Oakland (24-16) for the second-best record in the AL, trailing only Chicago (23-14) who has played three less games than them. The Red Sox have scored the second most runs in MLB (203), trailing Houston by only one.