The Sox drop their second game in a row to the Twins.
Bullpen games — like smart refrigerators, touch screen refrigerators, and yet another streaming service — are things that absolutely no one wants, but which are being forced down our throats anyway. I hate them. You hate them. Managers hate them. But they’re here.
There are two things that particularly suck about bullpen games. First, they eliminate the possibility of seeing one of the most fun things in baseball — an amazing individual pitching performance — before the game even begins. And, second, they fill us with an unnerving sense of dread from the moment we pull up the MLB at-bat app to see who’s pitching. It’s not that bullpen games always go badly, but the chances of the game being over by the bottom of fifth are much higher when you’re counting on the 8th-11th best pitchers on your roster to carry you.
But there’s one more variety of bullpen game that sucks: the one wherein your parade of relievers actually performs well, but you lose anyway because the bats don’t show up. That’s what happened to the Red Sox against the Minnesota Twins today.
Pablo Lopez mostly cruised through six innings of work against the Sox, striking out eight and scattering five hits. Brennan Bernardino and Gret Weissert actually matched him through the early innings, but Cam Booser and Justin Slaten leaked just enough to give the Twins a 3-1 lead that would hold for the rest of the game.
Cooper Criswell, you’re up to play stopper.
Three Studs
Greg Weissert: 2 IP, 1 H, 3 K, 0 BB 0 R
The strongest of today’s bullpen arms. This also marks the seventh game in row that Weissert hasn’t allowed an earned run.
Wilyer Abreu: 2-4, RBI, 2 K
You could argue that he didn’t actually have that good of a day at the plate. Neither of his singles were hit hard and, had the defense been positioned differently, this is an 0-4 day. But hey, baseball is weird and his ground ball single through the infield plated the only run of the day.
Dominic Smith: 2-4
Dom Smith, on the other hand launched a missile to right that missed being a home run by just a foot or two. . . and then got thrown out going for the double. Baseball, weird.
Three Duds
Justin Slaten: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 K, 2 WP
An uncharacteristically bad and uncharacteristically wild outing for Slaten.
Rafael Devers: 0-4, 2 K
His bases loaded strikeout in the seventh was the spiritual end of the game for the Sox.
Connor Wong, 1-4, PB
Wong’s first inning passed ball led to the Twins first run of the game, and, while Slaten was wild later in the game, Wong didn’t exactly help the cause back there. He’s been producing with the bat and he’s great at controlling the running game, but Wong’s poor receiving is a problem.
Play of the Game
Unfortunately, it was the hope-rending strikeout by Devers.