Let’s win at Fenway for a change
21 years ago the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox almost played each other in the World Series. Now there’s a universal DH and a balanced schedule will bring Chicago to town every other year!
The Cubs landed two big stars this winter: Cody Bellinger, who simply re-signed after Scott Boras held his market too long, and Shota Imanaga, the other starter from Japan besides Yamamoto. And so far he’s been pretty good. His ERA sits at a tidy 0.84 thanks to allowing just 2 earned runs on the season and 4 runs total. He’s struck out 21 batters in 21 innings and walked just 2. He’s allowed 1 home run. He’s topped out at 6.0 innings and 92 pitches. The upside? Well, his competition has included the Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins in addition to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Seattle Mariners. Although it was those Marlins who scored 3 of his total runs allowed. The southpaw has been good no matter how you slice it.
However, the Red Sox have Kutter Crawford on the mound. Like Imanaga, Crawford has allowed just 2 earned runs on the year. Crawford has walked 11 and struck out 30 in 27.1 innings (he’s made 5 starts to Imanaga’s 4). Is this the breakout? Along with Tanner Houck? It’s starting to look that way.
Rafael Devers is back at DH and Masataka Yoshida is on the bench. There’s a lefty on the mound so make of this what you will.
Ceddanne Rafaela is holding down shortstop.
The hot hot hot Connor Wong is catching.
First pitch is at 7:10 PM ET on WEEI and NESN.