This will be written a little bit more as a dialogue to myself in this game:
Through one inning, it is good to see that Porcello doesn’t look anything like that great outing he had against us last time. Good to see Gardner getting into the action on offense with a solid double
Ugh, Tanaka is not sharp either. The 2 run HR to Moreland was terrible, missing his spot badly. Can’t do that to a hot hitter.
Down 2-1 we didn’t score as Torres swung at a lot of bad pitches, but it is good that Porcello isn’t sharp because Tanaka will allow some runs. We need to be ready with a quick hook
2 walks with a DP and Tanaka worked his way out of it, but he is not sharp.
Gardner with another double and after a walk to Judge we got a break that Didi squibbed one to 1st that allowed both runners to move up on the productive out. Stanton, who looks to have widened his stance a week or so ago, did a great job of driving an away fastball down the line for a 2 run double. What was interesting was that on the 2-1 pitch he took a FB right down the middle of the plate. I believe that Porcello felt Stanton was looking for the breaking ball or he wouldn't have that hittable pitch go by and decided to come back with a fastball. I would have come inside with that thinking (and would have done that), but Porcello, threw the fastball outside and Stanton went with it and ripped it.
With a 4-2 lead we can be a little more lenient with Tanaka, but I would be careful
Hard liner and a single and I am seriously thinking of making a move to Holder (if he is our long man now as I don’t know who we have in the pen?) I would not be upset if Boone makes a move.
What do I know? Leon grounded into a DP where Torres made a very quick pivot and throw and Didi made an acrobatic one legged throw to first
Top 5: Ugh, hanging breaking ball by Tanaka and Benintendi launched a long HR. Taking him out would not have been such a bad move. He is not sharp at all. Next pitch Ramirez gets another hanging breaking ball and just missed it for a long out. I thought it was gone but he got it off the end of the bat a little. Tanaka has nothing today. Got the last out on a very nice running/diving catch by Judge. I would take Tanaka out before he allows another HR that could be a 2 run type that puts us in jeopardy.
Both pitchers when they miss are missing by a lot so the batters aren’t chasing anything. Bases loaded nobody out Sanchez who terribly chased 2 balls in the other box got a hanging slider on 3-2 and ripped a hard line drive for a sac fly. Hicks and Walker couldn’t get anyone else home.
5-3 good guys into the 6th
Why is Tanaka still in? Bogaerts rips a double and this has to be it for Tanaka…nope letting him face Moreland as nobody was ready; hope this doesn’t bite us.
On a 2-1 count he chased a splitter so Bogaerts moved to 3rd with 1 out. Green in now…he let up the sac fly but struck out Devers to end the inning.
5-4 into the top of the 7th.
After 2 outs, Green walks Benintendi. He then hangs a slider to Ramirez who crushes it for a long HR to LF. Very bad pitch selection in my book as he just had thrown a slider well off the plate and then came back with one that just hung. Green is a fastball pitcher and while you need to mix in the slider a little, he was not able to control it on any of his previous ones. Ramirez is a good hitter but he is really good on off speed mistakes.
Shoot down 6-5, bad job by Green. Still have 9 outs to score some runs
Top 8: Shreve walks the leadoff guy (drives me nuts) and then allows a double down the line. With 2nd and 3rd nobody out Shreve is able to get Devers swinging for a huge out. Boone correctly takes Shreve out now (after his great start to teh year, Shreve has had 2 bad outings in a row). In comes Holder and he gets a huge strikeout.
Have to walk Betts here
..and Boone does! OK holder now get the job done…got him; very nice work by Holder (haven’t said that often).
Bottom 8: Walker does it again with a leadoff double being down by 1! It has that feeling again…this team is fun!
2-0 count on Andujar and he was very intent on hitting it to the right side. While you want to try and do that; on a 2-0 pitch I would be trying to do some damage. He basically gave himself up. Torres did a great job of laying off the curves he swung at last time and walked (Barnes actually threw Torres a 3-0 breaking ball; that was surprising). So with Gardner up the Red Sox brought in their closer (I call him the scarecrow because he stands on the mound with both elbows up – looking stupid).
I like this matchup for Gardner as he has hit the ball hard all 4 times and Kimbrel comes from the right side a little. Oh Baby, a huge triple by Gardner just scoring Torres who held up a little to ensure that the ball wasn’t caught. Betts was playing very shallow and Gardner drove it for his 3rd extra base hit. One run lead and Chapman will be in. Boom, Judge crushed a line drive HR…Man, this is exciting to watch. 9-6!
Chapman throwing 102 and 103 strikes out the side (allowing a hit in between)!
AWESOME!!! We have 10 come from behind wins already; we have had a lot of exciting games for 22% of the season!
Other notes:
Can someone please tell Gardner to stop sliding headfirst into 1st and home? Torres got injured for the year sliding into home headfirst and on Gardner’s triple did it again. WHY?
On a Judge squibber, the pitcher got the ball in between the catcher and pitcher slightly on the 3rd base side. When he threw to first, the 1st baseman was standing with his foot on the bag and his right foot on the line toward 2nd base. Veterans to this blog no that this is another one of my pet peeves. This does not allow them to stretch for a close play, but it also does not allow them to field a ball when it is thrown into the bag where the 1st baseman can get his arm hurt by reaching in to catch the ball and hitting the runner. However, if you stretch toward the throw you can actually get to the ball before it is in a dangerous spot. Instead, Moreland started to reach and just stopped with no effort…not only is Judge safe (he would have been out) the throw got away and he went to 2nd. I don’t get it and I am not sure why this is taught as it is ineffective.
If O’Neill says that the player just needs to “stay within himself” one more time…
Last comment: I don’t usually get to hear much of the announcers, but Cone told what I thought was a funny story about his first major league spring training game. He was nervous and came into a game where there were a lot of hit batters. His coach told him to throw directly behind the hitters head (again in his first ML game in Spring Training). Cone said he was so nervous he threw one so high it went up on the screen and he got tossed on his first ML pitch in ST. LOL
Hopefully, we can get the sweep!
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