Why can’t I ever write about a sweep-securing win?
Well, how gross did that become, huh? The game got away from the Sox fast. It WAS good vibes at first! We were up 3-0! Wilyer was staying on fire! The bullpen was doing great! And then defensive errors on top of a regressing Greg Weissert (Get it? ReGregssion?) and a not-good-(tonight) Jordan Hicks (Get it??? Hicksups???) doomed the game completely. At least we did get the series win, but man, when the Red Sox this season aren’t good, they are bad.
Three Studs:
Wilyer Abreu: No doubt the series MVP, he smoked a ball to right field, his preferred home run location, and gave the Sox a 3-run lead with a 2-run homer. If only things had stayed that way.
The bullpen except for Greg Weissert and Jordan Hicks: We all knew it was gonna be a bullpen gameday, and Bernardino did a good job to open the game (surprising!), plus Jorge Alcala and Chris Murphy kept the Reds scoreless. Chris Murphy could be a key player in the bullpen going forward if he stays solid. After the 7th and 8th inning blowups, Cooper Criswell didn’t allow any other runs to score [for the rest of the game].
Romy Gonzalez: He got the Sox’s fourth run of the game and put us within one run (at the time) after the Reds offensive explosive in the 7th. Alas, it was nothing doing in the end. It also wasn’t great that he got himself thrown out at third when he could’ve stayed at second, but whatever.
Four Duds:
Greg Weissert: I fear he’s been slipping, and giving up a go-ahead grand slam with no outs is never, ever good. Just because Luke Weaver did that yesterday doesn’t mean anyone on the Red Sox should.
Jordan Hicks: Had a bad inning by loading the bases and then allowing an RBI single, but then the defense (cough Trevor Story) screwed him over. He got charged with 3 ER rather than 4, but I think it should’ve been more like 2. Either way, it was a bad inning that put the game out of reach for the Red Sox, and Hicks was on the bump.
The Defense: Been a minute since the Sox had more than one (or zero) errors in a game, but the errors returned tonight, with two fielder’s choices that didn’t actually result in any outs.
The Offense: Weird dud, because everyone except Roman Anthony got at least one hit today, for a total of 11 hits. It’s just that we only scored 4 runs with that. Not enough hitting for power and/or hitting with RISP. Not ideal.
Play of the Game: Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s Grand Slam(nd)
I’ve never used something that the opposing team did as the Play of the Game before, but…I mean, a grand slam is a grand slam. And that’s when things started going right for the Reds and wrong for the Sox. Side note, what kind of surname is Encarnacion-Strand?