Crawford wasn’t good tonight, but he also showed you why he’s a guy you want in the rotation the next time the Sox have a contending team.
Early this afternoon, Over The Monster’s own Jacob Roy noted the following:
“Against splitters, Red Sox hitters are 28th out of 30 teams in swinging strike rate. Against four seamers, Red Sox hitters are 26 out of 30 teams in swinging strike rate. Shota Imanaga comes into tonight with a 25.6% strikeout rate throwing 88% four seamers and splitters. He’s also left handed.”
Unfortunately, our resident pitching hound snuffed this one out hours in advance. Imanaga came as advertised and mowed down the Boston lineup. He gave up just one run in 6.1 innings of work, and outside of the fourth inning, it felt like he was going to go even deeper than that.
The only way the Sox were going to beat him tonight is if they had yet another outstanding pitching performance from their delightfully spunky rotation, and unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
Kutter Crawford, who came into the game with a league leading 0.66 ERA, finally slipped up. He just didn’t have his best stuff, and the Cubs came out swinging, ready to make him pay. On the attack in virtually every inning (Chicago didn’t go down in order until the eighth), the Cubs piled up more hits off Crawford tonight (ten) than he gave up in his first four outings this year combined (nine).
However, even in his worst game of the season, Crawford did something admirable; he grinded one out for his teammates. In literally any of his six innings of work after the Cubs got traffic on the basepaths, he could have lost focus, imploded, and created an even bigger. Instead, despite taking punches all night, he never truly got knocked out. He walked off the field after six innings giving up four runs and not handing out a single walk. The result was a game the might have been winnable if it wasn’t against someone as dialed in a Imanaga, and perhaps even more importantly, he saved the bullpen for tomorrow and Sunday.
Only two arms, Joely Rodríguez and Zack Kelly, were needed to get through the rest of the night. If the Red Sox win a bullpen heavy game in the next two days, Crawford finding a way to navigate through six innings tonight is at least part of the reason why.
Play of the Game:
You really have to squint to find any way this might have become a competitive game. However, if you look hard enough at the bottom of the fourth inning, there was a path for things to get interesting if the frame unfolded a little bit differently.
Just before Tyler O’Neill launched his eighth home run of the season on a blast to centerfield, Jarren Duran led off trying to bunt his way on base. He almost pulled it off, but Imanaga made an outstanding defensive play.
Shota Imanaga showing off the glove work! pic.twitter.com/9jS7RyAxAn
— MLB (@MLB) April 27, 2024
If the rest of the inning played out the same way it did but with Duran reaching base safely, O’Neill’s solo shot becomes a two-run homer, and Pablo Reyes’ flyout to end the inning becomes a sac fly because it occurred with one out instead of two. All of the sudden, that’s a three run frame and a tied game.
Three Studs
Tyler O’Neill:
He had almost half the total bases for the Red Sox offense in this game (five out of eleven). He was also the only man in the lineup with two hits, including the home run that gave the team their only run of the night.
Rob Refsnyder:
Drew two walks, include one right after the O’Neill homer when it felt like it might have mattered for a moment. Also, he’s rocking a 1.264 OPS on the season!
Zack Kelly:
It was garbage time, but this was a garbage game for the Red Sox. So two innings of scoreless mop up work gets him here.
Three duds
Jarren Duran:
After starting the season on fire batting .394 with a .944 OPS in his first eight games, Duran’s production has sharply faded. With another 0-4 showing tonight, he’s now batting .185 with a .543 OPS in his last 19 games. Perhaps an off day is due for him on Sunday given the Cubs are likely to throw a lefty in that game and there’s an off day on Monday. This would give Duran two days to reset, and hopefully, become the spark plug this team needs again.
Joely Rodríguez:
Any chance this game had of getting interesting went down the drain during his inning. Three runs, three hits, and the only walk the staff gave up all night. Yuck!
The Fenway Experience:
The Red Sox are off to a dreadful 3-8 start at home this year. I hope viewers watching on TV enjoyed Patrick Dempsey’s appearance in the booth.