Some close plays, an injury replacement, but a dub nonetheless!
Are we breathing? Are we good? Man, that was a butt clenching, edge of your seat game for the most part.
Walker Buehler just can’t get out of his own ways, which is frustrating and hopefully illuminating to Craig Breslow as he has big decisions to make this week. If there’s any glaring place to address, it has to be the rotation. Five walks for him, and frankly nine total for the staff in the game, is a big problem. It could have ended a lot more disastrous than the actual result.
It only took one counterpunch of a frame to finalize the run scoring in this one. What a hustle triple for Roman Anthony, and then Alex Bregman only having to trot around the bases certainly helps keep his quad healthy. What a nice blast that was.
The 8th was as tenuous a frame as they come. Aroldis comes in, gives up two walks, his fastball velocity is only at 95 MPH, and he comes out. Thank the baseball gods Cora says it’s only back tightness, though an X report says he was throwing up in the bullpen before coming in. Either the hurling created the back tightness or the back tightness was that bad it induced the puke? Who knows. In any case, Jordan Hicks comes in as the fireman and gets as lucky as humanly possible to get out of the inherited jam. Seriously Ceddanne, how does he keep doing this?
A little squeeze in the 9th but a completed ballgame and a victory. Unfortunately the Yankees won so we stay a game back of them, but the Blue Jays lost so we climb a game in the standings overall. We still hold a half game lead for the final wild card spot but the Texas Rangers are on a tear as of late. These are the games that matter. This week is about to be as nervous feeling for the fanbase as it gets for the regular season. We can only watch what this team does, but a win like todays for the Boston Red Sox there’s something worth investing in.
Three Studs
Alex Bregman (1-for-3, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 K)
He said postgame he was sitting on a fastball, not a sweeper. How lucky must he be that he stayed back as much as he did. He certainly got a hold of that one and it proved to be the difference.
Ceddanne Rafaela (1-for-3)
His lone hit did nothing of importance, but his defense basically saved this game. Well, maybe more-so his athleticism but man, what a guy.
Jordan Hicks (1.2 IP, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K)
This might be the toughest outing he’ll face all season. Coming in completely cold in a jam, having to work around that, the closing the 9th against the defending champions. Big kudos to Hicks for figuring that one out.
Three Duds
Walker Buehler (4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 4 Ks)
So Buehler should only go three innings and then we should put in a different starter to close games out, right? His ERA in the 4th inning is over 14.00, that’s insane. He gets the second time around and fights through just about every time.
Masataka Yoshida (0-for-3)
Can we…package him in a deal somewhere? Please?
Carlos Narváez (0-for-4, 2 Ks, GIDP)
Just not his day at the plate, including a double play late when maybe an insurance run would have been a breath of fresh air. He did almost catch Esteury Ruiz in the 9th, but man is that dude fast.
Play of the Game
This could very easily have been Breggy’s go-ahead, two-run shot. I still think that unassisted double play by Ceddanne in the 8th had so much more impact closing this one out.