The Red Sox have now blown six different leads in their last three games.
On two different occasions tonight, each for entirely different reasons, the Red Sox found themselves on the verge of a feel good win. But in a game that became a microcosm for the first half of their season, they allowed a combination of shoddy bullpen work, a complete failure to execute in key situations, and a side of stupid baseball to undermine phenomenal potential.
The first, and most direct opportunity for bliss came when Garrett Crochet strutted off the mound after seven brilliant innings of work. More specifically, he threw seven shutout innings while striking out ten, leaving the Sox just three outs away from a rested Aroldis Chapman in the ninth. All they had to do was was get by the bottom of the Angels’ underwhelming lineup in the eighth, and they had it made.
Unfortunately, that turned out to be too big of a bridge to build for this bullpen as Greg Weissert managed to cough up the lead a mere two batters after Crochet left the game. Here he is serving up a bomb to Christian Moore, who had just one career home run before this at bat.
Despite this kick in the grapes, the Sox managed to once again align themselves for a feel good win in the tenth. This time, it was thanks to Marcelo Mayer knocking in the go-ahead run. It marked Mayer’s third hit of the game, adding on to a night that already included his first career triple, some solid defense in his major league debut playing second base, and scoring the team’s only run from the first nine innings.
So despite completely ruining Crochet’s masterpiece, they had a backup feel good narrative ready to go if they could just manage to make that hit stand up.
But once again, it took only two batters for the lead to vaporize, and once again, it was Christian Moore supplying the gut punch with a home run. This time though, it was of the walk off variety, and it now means that 67percent of his career home runs are now against the Red Sox bullpen in late and close situations. Just lovely!
This is also a good time to mention it never should have gotten to that point. Other than Mayer, the rest of the lineup was trash, recording just two hits and going a combined 0-7 with runners in scoring position against some of the most average pitching you will ever see in a major league ballgame.
Two situations that really stand out are when they had Jarren Duran on second base with nobody out in the seventh and couldn’t score, and then had Romy Gonzalez on second base with nobody out in the ninth and couldn’t score. Two speed demons just waiting for the opportunity to make their legs useful, and nobody hitting behind them could execute the little things and drive them in. This team is just hideous when it comes to getting a timely single.
But the bad baseball didn’t stop there. In the tenth inning, David Hamilton tried to drag bunt for a hit, which (surprise, surprise) he couldn’t get down, twice! So instead of the guy batting .181 just bunting Mayer over and putting the almost always needed extra inning insurance run on second base for the top of the lineup, Hamilton ends up hitting into a double play, which set the stage for the latest implosion in the bottom half of the inning. Dumb and infuriating!
All of this futility provided the perfect cherry on top of the fact that for the seventh time in Garrett Crochet’s last eight starts, the team scored three runs or less. They’re just 4-4 in those games, and they could easily be 7-1 or 8-0 with even marginally competent execution from an offense that ranks sixth in all of baseball in terms of raw runs scored on the season.
The loss also makes the Red Sox 0-6 in extra inning games on the road, and they’ve had the lead in the ninth inning or later in every single one of them. It’s so pathetic!
Studs
Garrett Crochet: Seven shutout innings (but apparently he needs to go nine to get the win).
Marcelo Mayer: Three hits, a triple, the go-ahead RBI in the tenth, and some solid defense at second base. This should have been a great night for him, but the rest of the team ruined it.
Aroldis Chapman: He got the scoreless ninth and provided the opportunity to win in extras. As a side note, it’s amazing how many brutal losses the Sox have with how solid he’s been all year.
Duds
Everybody else, but there were a few particular galling moments that stand out.
The lineup: Outside of Mayer, they went 2 for 30.
Greg Weissert: He had one job: Build the bridge between Crochet and Chapman.
Justin Wilson: He didn’t just serve up the game winning home run, he served it up on an 88mph pitch down the middle of the plate with nothing on it. And this was after he got away with a pretty mediocre pitch on the offering before it too.
David Hamilton: He only had one at bat in this game, but boy did it stink!
Play of the game:
It angers me that I have to list Christian Moore’s walk-off here instead of posting a video of Crochet’s monster performance or Mayer’s heroics.