Oh no! We suck again!
For the third time this season, the Red Sox got swept and blew another early-game lead. The sweep now puts the team 2 games under .500. Richard Fitts’s return to major league pitching went pretty well overall, but once again the offense failed to provide adequate support for the starting pitcher. It was another stinky game. The West Coast Road Trip wasn’t a winning one this time.
Three Studs:
Richard Fitts: If you leave the back-to-back home runs out of it, it was actually a very good start for Dick Fitts, despite only going 4 innings. His final line was 4 IP, 4 hits, 2 runs (both earned, as stated above), 1 walk (refreshing!!!!), and 6 strikeouts.
Trevor Story: Provided the only runs of the game with a bases loaded 2-run RBI single. Trevor Story’s clutch gene does exist, although it doesn’t show itself all the time. Today it did.
Ceddane Rafaela: Tried REALLY hard to catch Travis d’Arnaud’s home run, so A for effort. The amount of vertical that man managed to have was pretty impressive. Rafaela always gives it his all out there, even on fly balls he has zero hope of catching.
Two Very Big Duds:
The Offense: Kikuchi had 12 strikeouts against the Sox and helped restore the narrative that the Sox can’t hit off lefties. Also nobody scored after the first and there were only 3 hits all game. It was pretty abominable.
Luis Guerrero and Brennan Bernardino: They did not keep the score tied at 2. Guerrero gave up 2 ER in 0.2 IP and Bernardino gave up 1 in the same timespan. It’s funny how when Weissert, Whitlock, and Chapman are almost always so dominant, Guerrero and Bernardino are almost always terrible.
Play of the Game: Trevor Story’s 2-run Single
The only good thing the Red Sox did all day, besides Narvaez throwing someone out and the call still being upheld after the Angels challenged it.