Get the brooms out for a fantastic weekend!
Are the Red Sox the Yankees’ daddy? After this weekend’s sweep, the Pinstripes might as well wear bibs and diapers.
A walk-off victory on Friday, followed up by a one-run win last night. How would this team follow up on already what has been awesome momentum building? How about five-hitting and shutting out your rivals, your starter dominating once again, and making Fenway as loud as I’ve heard it all season? Yeah, that’ll do.
Three Studs
Brayan Bello (7.0 IP, 114 pitches, 3 H, 3 BB, 8 K, 0 ER)
This undoubtedly is the best outing Bello has had all season, bar none. I even have a hard time nitpicking as his trouble with 0-2 counts because he was an absolute force on the bump this afternoon. After lettting Crochet try for the complete game Friday, he let Bello try for the full seven frames despite being high enough in pitch count. Cora admitted it was on a batter-by-batter basis in that frame. and getting that called K on J.C. Escarra was just the cherry on top of a spectacular afternoon.
Alex Cora
Look at what happens when you encourage confidence and not make arbitrary moves? Pulling Dobbins last night felt like one of those moves and almost backfired on him, letting Bello do his thing, he had every right to be as fired up as he was dapping up Andrew Bailey in the dugout. Putting Rob Refsnyder and Romy Gonzalez in against a lefty and having Rob lead-off has paid dividends so far in its very small sample size. Having Whit ready for when Bernardino got in trouble and pulling him at the right time was also very much a welcome decision. A much better managed game for Cora,
Trevor Story (1-for-4, 3 Ks, 1 RBI)
I’ll ignore three strikeouts for his early RBI single to get the offense going and his stumbling catch in the first inning to keep the Yankees off the board. It feels like how Story goes, the Red Sox go, and he certainly has confidence right now.
Three Duds
Brennan Bernardino (0.1 IP, 2 H, 1 K)
The dot to strike out Lemahieu was gorgeous but two singles to get yourself in a hell of a jam with no outs isn’t it.
That’s All
Honestly everyone else showed up enough for me to not have any other duds. Yeah, KC had another error, but it didn’t affect the game.
Play of the Game
Bello absolutely steals the show in this one, between his pickoff, his strikeouts, his overall demeanor on the mound.