August 12, 2016

Bright Lights, Big Shitty


Once again, after a positive first step by taking the first game, the Red Sox dropped their second consecutive series and have authored only one win in their last five games. The New York series reeked like a steaming pile of dogshit with Andrew "Boy Wonder" Benintendi wearing the goat horns last night.

People seem to have their confirmation biases when it comes to the general failings of this team. On one hand, we have those who feel the bullpen is complete garbage (see the game Wednesday). Then, we have those who doubt the stability of the starting pitching (see Pomeranz and Price). But nothing seems to bring out the ire more than the bashing brigade of manager John Farrell. These are the folks who would be quite content to see poor ol' John clamped in a pillory for public condemnation and mockery in Copley Square. The followers of #FireFarrell were out in full force last night on Twitter which was absolutely ridiculous in this case. Sure, I'm willing to admit his decision making probably cost us a few games early on. Any manager wears this hat on occasion, but admittedly, it seems to fit a bit more comfortably on John. In light of what I've been witness to in the early days of August, I think it's time though to point the finger squarely at the offending players, and many are them have weighing in on the team's plight. Boston is floundering with a 0-3-3 record in their last six series, and really have no business being only 3 games out. They are clinging to a half game lead over Detroit for the final wildcard position as they begin their series with Arizona.

Eduardo Rodriguez was absolutely brilliant last night in holding the Yankees to one run on only three hits while striking out six in seven innings of work. The formula is to go to Brad Ziegler to set up and Craig Kimbrel to close. We all know this, and Farrell didn't disappoint. Now, in case some people haven't been watching, Ziegler is a ground ball specialist. Yeah, it's not sexy, but he's made a pretty decent bullpen career out of this approach. So what happens? The guy gets some ground balls but, the Yankees "hit them where they ain't".Damn, I get that it sucks, but the guy pitches to contact. And here's the kicker - if the youngster Benintendi catches the ball, he could have gotten out of his mess, but the kids whiffs and the Sawx lose. Plain and simple -  he lost the ball in the lights which isn't as big as anomaly as the armchair outfielders may think. Have you ever tried to look in the
direction of someone coming toward you with a flashlight? Pretty hard to see, huh? Now try to catch a baseball. I was as pissed off as anyone, but I can live with a 22 year old kid saying my bad, especially since he and Sandy Leon have been doing all they can to produce runs amongst an array of sleepy bats. Benintendi is batting .391 spraying the ball with authority and narrowly missed his first Major League homer in the opening game of the series. In the finale, Sandy Leon had his fourth game with 3 or more hits and is swinging the stick at a .383 clip.

That clusterfuck Wednesday night was your far too typical swift kick in the coin purse. There was absolutely no justification for Boston not laying a massive beatdown on a wounded duck Yankee bullpen. When Nathan Eovaldi left with a wonky elbow after only one inning, the Red Sox had their chance to lay waste to New York. Boston had the bases loaded 3 goddamn times and only scored twice on fielder's choice grounders. They even had the bases drunk once with no one out and got nothing! They are 3 for there last 27 with the bases juiced and on the season a putrid 23-103. The bullpen was absolutely horrific with Barnes, Abad, and Tazawa combining for 1 inning and giving up 7 runs on 7 hits. It doesn't get much worse than that. Drew Pomeranz had a decent outing but 5.1 innings isn't long enough lately with a struggling Sawx pen. Boston's pen has a 4.57 ERA from May 26th on which is good for 4th worst in the Majors. Their record is 32-35

While on the subject of the bullpen, is it just me or does Craig Kimbrel scare the shit out of anyone else? I have to say that the filthiness of his stuff is only equated by his inability to tame these offerings for stretches of time. I have mixed feelings concerning our closer as he seems more thrower than pitcher. He was genuinely surprised at his all-star nod this year, and at least we can say he's honest. He has a lights out arm, but I wasn't counting on the control issues. It was good to see Matt Barnes bail Kimbrel out in the series opening win after he walked four batters in a row to force in a late New York run. Rick Porcello went 8 strong in that one, and Boston is now 9-1 in his last 10 starts. Time for David Price to step up tonight, but I don't know how many times I've said that this year. 

 To the Twitter feed with highlights from the Yankee series:










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