August 16, 2016

The Long and the Short of It





After a bevy of runs on the weekend, I should have seen this coming. Boston was out of their comfort zone today playing a low scoring, tight game, and we all know what that meant. Even though Boston now sits in the middle of the pack in the Majors in one run games at 14-14, they are simply awful when scoring less than four runs with a 5-32 mark. Thankfully, the Sawx had enough muscle left to bang out 2 long balls which provided all the offense they'd need to back Drew Pomeranz's longest career outing as a starter. One of the homers was by Jackie Bradley Jr. who had only gone 1-9 in the Arizona series. His solo shot was only his second extra base hit since August 2nd. The other hit was also a home run.


 Pomeranz actually lingered longer than need be as John Farrell tried to squeeze more than he should have out of him. Pitching into the eighth at over 100 pitches, Drew allowed two doubles which resulted in a Cleveland run. After the first double he should have been yanked. Still, Farrell had been holding off on Ziegler for God knows why, and I thought better late than never. Surely, this would be Farrell's next move. Then in trots Fernando Abad. WHAT!? It's bad enough that he tries to arse up Pomeranz's finest start of the year in a Red Sox uniform, but the silly prick then uses my nut sack for a speed bag by waving in one of his most ineffective relievers as of late. Abad had only stranded 18 of 33 inherited runners. The question that I was left asking is "Where was Brad Ziegler, and why wasn't he ready?" This inept management of the bullpen illustrates why everyone and their dog hammers on Farrell. Abad fumbles around to find the strike zone, but then gets the popup to end the threat.  Kimbrel then adds his signature stylings by allowing a double and a walk before amping up for 2 strikeouts and a weak popup to clean up his own shitty mess.

The coaching left a little to be desired on the bases as Farrell had a partner in crime early in the game. Brian Butterfield turned into "Wave 'em in Wendell"  in the third inning trying to score Travis Shaw on a two out single by Dustin Pedroia. I get the two out scenario, but the Cleveland outfielder Abraham Almonte has a cannon. Also, he had Xander Bogaerts waiting on deck. Xander led off the next inning with a ringing single. A nice win, but game management almost let this one get away. It's getting too late in the season for such nonsense. 

To the Twitter feed:





at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)