Baseball Talk

The Red Sox stand alone in first place by one game.  Since April 10, The Red Sox have remained in first place while the Rays, Blue Jays, and Yankees change places in the standings.  Thankfully enough, JD Martinez was able to hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the ninth inning Thursday night to give the Red Sox the lead over the Blue Jays and Matt Barnes to save it in a 8-7 win.  The Red Sox took 2 out of three games against the Blue jays but there are still some concerns in their active roster.  

The Red Sox are batting a .266, second in MLB behind the Houston Astros.  They are third in Home Runs and RBIs.   They are first in total bases.  It seems as though the strike outs are reasonable since they rank 16th in the league.  But, the red sox do strike out  alot.  17 games resulted in double digit strikeouts.  But the most important play in baseball is what you do when their are runners in scoring positions.  The Red Sox are batting a .248 with runners in scoring positions.  That is when the team has runners combined or either in 2B or 3B, the Red Sox seem to fail in bringing in runs to support their starting pitchers. 

Only Xander Bogaerts and JD Martinez are hitting over .300.  But Franchy Cordero is still struggling, batting a .170.  There is so much expectation for Cordero that he might find himself in a rehab assignment.  Danny Santana may receive the call to be activated and play in the Phillies series.  

Santana is another utility player that can play any position.  He is also a switch hitter.  But where does Alex Cora and the administration deal with players that are struggling at bat.   Four players, including Cordero, are batting below .250.   Despite being in first place, the organization must look at a possibility to make some trades by July if they want to stay contenders for the playoffs.  

On the mound,  the Red Sox are 13th in ERA with a 3.90.  They are sixth in strikeouts, and have given up the fewest bombers in the league.  But when you look closely, the starting pitchers look fabulous and perform well.  Once Chris Sale returns to the ball club, it would be a hard decision for Alex Cora to decide how he will place Sale in the rotation.  In the bullpen, the pitchers are being utilized a lot.  Pitchers Austin Brice, Matt Andriese, and Josh Taylor have made it difficult to shut down their opponents.  In the last seven games, Andriese has a 9.00 ERA. Andriese and Taylor have allowed opposing batters collectively bat over .300.  

The AL East is now the most competitive division by having four teams above .500.  The race is tight as you have the Rays behind 1 game, Yankees 1.5, and the Blue Jays 2.5 games behind the Red Sox.  The Orioles have slipped away as their only glory came in the opening series, sweeping the Red Sox.  Since then, the Orioles have struggled winning only 2 of their last 10 games.  

The Red Sox are going on 41 days in first place.  There is plenty of room for improvement.  The schedule is about to get tougher as they will finish their road trip this weekend against the Philadelphia Phillies.  Then they will have the Braves, Marlins, and then start the month of June against Houston Astros and the New York Yankees.  

The Red Sox will try to extend their two game winning streak against Bryce  Harper, Rhys Hoskins and the Phillies in Philadelphia.  The Red Sox have the best away record with 14-6 while the Phillies are 14-8 at home.  The Phillies have lost 6 of their last 10 games.  

For the first time since the season opener in Fenway Park, the Red Sox lost the series three games to one against the Texas rangers.   In game one in the 6th inning, Rangers catcher Jose Trevino hit a two-run homer off of Pitcher Sawamura in which the team went up 3-1.  Rangers would win 4-1. The only run Red Sox scored came in the top 6th inning when Devers doubled that allowed Verdugo to score.  The Red Sox as a team batted .100.  They only hit 3 times and went 1-for-5 in runners in scoring position.  

In game 2, JD Martinez homered twice against starting pitcher Kohei Arihara.  The Red Sox breezed through the game winning 6-1.  

In game 3, The Red Sox were in the lead at the end of 5 innings 5-4.  However, Matt Andriese could not hold the Rangers and gave up 3 earned runs.  Willie Calhoun homered off Andriese and went 3 for 4.  Rangers won 8-6.  The Red Sox offense came alive, batting a .316.  However, they could not capitalize when they had runners in scoring position.  They went 4 for 13.  Cordero, Verdugo, Devers, and Dalbec could not become clutch at the given moment.  

And in game 4, The red sox had a 3-1 lead in the 7th but Garrett Whitlock gave up a home run in the bottom of the 7th by SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa.It is the first time in this season that Whitlock gave up a run.  He completed the inning with the lead intact.  However, Adam Ottavino came in relief and only pitched ⅔ inning and gave up three runs allowing the Rangers to comeback and win.  

The Red Sox sweep the New York Mets in a two game series.  Both games were low scoring games.  I start with the first game.  Richards started for the Red Sox in which many media outlets and fans wondered how bad he would pitch in the game.  And David Peterson was the starter for the Mets.  The result was a total opposite.  The Red Sox defeated the Mets 2-1.  Richards gave up a home run in the second from Mets’ Jeff McNeil to tie the game.  But Richards kept his composure and went on to pitch 7 innings with a total of 93 pitches.  He stuck out 10 batters and gave up 7 hits for the win.  After the game, Alex Cora commended Richards for his performance. He stated, “When you see that stuff moving all over the place on the swing and misses, you've got to trust your players and this is a guy that we trust.  

Richards had his best game out of 5 starts.  It is the first time this season that he pitched past the fifth inning.  Richards would need to continue to pitch like he did against the Mets for everyone else, including me, to trust him on the mound.  

In the second game, Pivetta and Mets’ DeGrom performed well.  The only run scored in the game came in the second inning when Christian Vasquez doubled to deep right field.  Bogaerts scored the only run.  The Red Sox won 1-0. Pivetta pitched five strong innings.  He stuck out 7 batters.  Although he gave up 3 walks, Mets could not capitalize as the team went 0-4 with RISP.  Garrett Whitlock came in relief for two innings and he has not yet been scored upon in 13.1 innings.  

On the other side, DeGrom, who is the best pitcher in the NL,   pitched 6 innings and struck out 9 Red Sox batters.  Both bullpens were outstanding throughout the series.

Matt Barnes is on point.  He saved both games for a total of 6 saves.  Barnes struck out 2 batters in the first game and struck out the side in the second.  

Rafael Devers is on fire going 4-8 in the series.  

Bobby Dalbec got his first home run in the series off of Peterson.  

As a team, the Red Sox batting has decreased in average.  In the last four games, the Red Sox are batting under .200 while the pitching has improved.  I don't know about you but I would not want the Red Sox to be compared to DeGrom and the Mets.  The Red Sox have shown their utility talent and hopefully the offense can come alive in Texas.  

On April 29, 1986, Roger Clemens pitched a complete game and set a MLB record with 20 strikeouts in a game against the Seattle Mariners.  

— The Red Sox will square off against the Texas Rangers in a four game series.  Brock Holt, former Red Sox player will be playing.

Game 1 - Perez .200 vs Kyle Gibson .156  JD Martinez struggles against him.  He struck out 11 times.  But, Martinez has hit 2 HRs against him.  

Game 2 - Eovaldi only faced two batters in the roster. vs Kohei Arihara first time pitching against the Red Sox.

Game 3 - Rodriguez .298 vs Jordan Lyles has only faced five Red Sox batters in his career.  

Game 4 - Richards .225 vs Mike Foltynewics .288

The red sox are on fire as they swept the Baltimore Orioles and are on top of the American East Standings by two games.  In Game 1, E-Rod started his first game going 5 IP, striking out 7 and gave up 3 earned runs.  But it was the bats of Christian Vasquez who went 3 for 5, and Rafael Devers coming out of the slump belting his first Home run in the season.   Kike Hernandez also hit a home run off of Orioles pitcher Wells.  The Red Sox won 7 to 3.

In game 2 of the series, Rafael Devers continued to bat away as he belted his second home run off of Orioles Pitcher Zimmerman.  In the 10th inning, Orioles Dillon Tate came in relief.  With Red Sox Outfielder Chavis at 3rd base, Tate threw a wild pitch allowing Chavis to score.  Later, Christian Vasquez reached on an infield single to third that allowed Verdugo to score.  The Red Sox would win 6 to 4.  

In Game 3, Red Sox batters were on fire.  This time, the Red Sox hit 6 home runs.  JD Martinez hit 3 home runs, Rafael Devers 2 home runs and Verdugo hit one home run.  The last time the team hit that many was on June 14, 2019 in Camden Yards.  Red Sox win 14-9.

The Red Sox sweep two consecutive series and are bound to visit the Minnesota Twins in their next four game series before heading home to Fenway Park.  

After being swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the opening series, the Red Sox took on the Tampa Bay Rays.  This time, it was the Red Sox that swept the Rays and even their record to 3-3 in the American League East Division.  In Game 1, Xander Bogarts went 4 for 5 an RBI and a run scored.  JD Martinez homered in the 8th inning as the Red Sox totaled 11 Runs and 16 hits.  Nick Pivetta started for the Red Sox and earned himself a win. He threw 5 plus innings and gave up 2 hits and 4 walks.  Pivetta struck out 4 in 92 pitches.  In game 2, there were many mishaps for both the Red Sox and the Rays.  The most notable mistake came in the bottom of the 8th inning when Rafael Devers flied out to Right/Center Field.  Martinez kept running from second base believing it was the last out.  Martinez had to remain at second base.  Unfortunately, it was a double play and the end of the inning.  Matt Barnes came in relief to shut out the Rays in the ninth.  In the bottom of the ninth inning, Diego Castillo came in for the Rays to close the game.  On an 0-2 pitch, Christian Vasquez homered over the green monster to tie the game.  Eventually, the game came to the end at the bottom of the 12th inning.  JD Martinez hit the ball deep at Right Field. Ray's Randy Arozarena misjudged the ball that went over him.  That resulted in Martinez in a double that scored Renfroe and Verdugo for the win.    Lastly in game 3, the Red Sox scored 3 runs in the fourth, and 6 runs in the fifth inning on Ray's pitcher Ryan Yarbrough.  ON the other side, Eovaldi earned his first win as he went 7 strong innings, striking out 7 and giving up 1 Earned Run with 3 hits.  

The Red Sox faced their first extra inning game on Tuesday night.  The rule in extra innings is that the batter that created the last out in the previous inning, goes to second base at the start of the new inning.  This is a great way for the game to be more exciting and prevent the game from extending the time.  The game may have lasted four hours but was filled with action from both clubs.  I have seen extra inning games similar to this in the minor leagues.  MLB did have the minor league clubs practice and survey extra inning rules and it worked to perfection.  The local team, Hartford Yard Goats, an affiliation to the Colorado Rockies, spent many games in extra innings.  Managers strategize their game by executing sacrifice bunts and flies to help push the runner to third and in better scoring positions.  We all can expect the managers to practice sacrifice hits throughout the season.  
 
 Notable Red Sox Roster
JD Martinez continues his success as he has a six game hitting streak.  He hit one HR off of Chris Mazza.  Christian Vasquez hit 2 Home runs in the series.  One of them clutched to extra innings.  And Xander Boegarts going 3 for 3 in the third game.  
Nick Pivetta and Nathan Eovaldi pitched well in the series.  In 6 games, the Red Sox have not given up a home run.  

Team leaders so far through 6 games is JD Martinez batting a .440, 2 HRs, 11 RBIs, .481 On Base Percentage, and has a total of 11 Hits.  In pitching, the stats are close but Nathan Eovaldi leads the team in 11 Strikeouts.  

As a team, The Red Sox increased their batting average.  However, there is still concern about clutch hitting, particularly in the second game of the Rays when the Red Sox could have needed a guy similar to David Ortiz.  It seems as though the only players that can be counted on are JD Martinez and Christian Vasquez.  The Red Sox had struck out 27 times in the series.  That is three more than the previous series against the Orioles.  Kike Hernandez leads the team with 7 strike outs in 23 at bats.  Devers, Dalbec, Bogaerts, and Cordero each have 5 strikeouts.  

On the previous episode in this podcast, I had Joe Aguiar as a guest and had plenty of words to describe the details on why the MLB pulled the All Star game out of Atlanta.  MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred listened to the civil rights group and the MLB Players Association.  It was indeed a decision Manfred had to make as now the MLB will have the All Star game at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, Denver, Colorado.  

The MLB Standings by Division:

In the AL East, it is a tight race with Yankees and Orioles on top.  In the AL Central, Minnesota Twins are 4-2.  IN the AL West, Houston Astros are 5-1.  The Astros completed their series against the Anaheim Angels but the fans did not forget what happened two years ago with the cheating scandal.  Fans tossed an inflatable trash can and a real one onto the field.  
In the National League East, The Mets and Nationals will make up the games not played in their double headers.  But for now, the Philadelphia Phillies are leading the East.  In the NL Central, The Cincinnati Reds lead the way and in the NL West, the LA Dodgers are 5-1.  

— The Red Sox-Orioles will match up again.  This time the Red Sox will visit the Baltimore Orioles in a three game series. The game will start on Thursday, with the first pitch scheduled for 3:05 PM EST.  The projected starter for the Red Sox will be Eduardo Rodriguez, who will be making his first start versus Matt Harvey.  Harvey had no decision as he pitched 4 ⅔ innings striking out 4 and gave up 2 ER 6 hits and 1 walk.  

The second game will be on Saturday.  Garrett Richard will make his second start against Bruce Zimmerman. Zimmerman earned his first win of the season pitched 6 strong innings, striking out 5 and giving up 3 ER, 4 hits and a home run from JD Martinez.  

On Sunday, the series closes with Nick Pivetta for the Red Sox and Jorge Lopez for the Orioles.  Lopez will pitch against the Red Sox for the first time.  In his career, the Red Sox has batted a .302 against Lopez.  Rafael Devers has hit 2 HRs against him. Lopez's last start was against the New York Yankees as he only pitched 4 ⅔ innings in a 7-0 loss.  

Coming up on the BaCKSTOP pODCAST, The Red Sox completed their series with the Orioles. How well did they do?  Major League Baseball pulled the All Star game in Atlanta.  I have special guest Joe Aguiar on the show to explain more about it.  And the Red Sox get set for their next series with the Tampa Bay Rays.  

Welcome to Episode 7 on the Backstop Podcast, I'm your host Ovi Muniz.

The Red Sox completed their opening series in Fenway Park swept by the Baltimore Orioles.  In game 1, the Red Sox were held 2 hits in the game losing 3-0.  JD Martinez and Kike Hernandez were the only two batters that hit the ball.  Nathan Eovaldi Pitcher 5 ⅓ innings 4 strikeouts and charged with an earned run.  In game 2, Red Sox bats were at a slump again.  JD Martinez and Marwin Gonzalez combined went 5 for 6 with 2 RBIs.  Tanner Houck made his impressive start by  pitching 5 innings, 8 strikeouts but gave up 6 hits and 3 runs, 2 of them earned.  The Red Sox had a chance to get the third out in the fourth inning but Rafael Devers threw an error to 2Bmen Marwin Gonzalez resulting in the Orioles getting into scoring position.  The Orioles would score 2 runs in the inning and win the game 4-2.  

In Game 3, the Orioles bats pounded Garrett Richards and Josh Taylor.  Both pitchers combined pitched 2 ⅔ innings, gave up 12 hits, 10 runs, and 3 walks.  However, Richards seemed to not be able to locate his pitches.  During the Left Hander defensive shifts, Orioles batters were able to hit to the opposite field.  That was the real damage that caused early runs to be scored.  Taylor came in for relief and walked the batter with bases loaded.  It was just so terrible to see these two pitchers today.  I hope they can do better on their next appearance.  

Garrett Whitlock came in relief in the third inning to get an out.  He would continue to look awesome pitching a total of 3 ⅓ innings, 5 strikeouts and only gave up 3 hits.  

In the offense, JD Martinez continued to be successful by hitting his first home run and going 2 for 4.  Christian Vasquez also went 3 for 4 with a run scored.  The Orioles complete the sweep with a 11 to 3 victory.  

As Red Sox manager Cora noted, this has been “a rough start” for Boston in general, though Sunday’s loss was particularly difficult to take.

“It was a tough one, there’s nothing else you can say,” Cora said during his postgame video press conference. “We got beat in every aspect of the game. The first two games, we didn’t play good defense. We didn’t swing the bat. Today, I didn't pitch.”

The last time the Red Sox were swept in the opening season came in 2012.  The Red Sox lost to the Detroit Tigers.  John Lester, Josh Beckett, and Clay Buchholz were the starters in each game.  That year, Bobby Valentine was the manager as the Red Sox finished with a 69-93 record in last place.  In 2011, The Red Sox started 0-6 before winning their first game.  The last time the Red Sox were swept in Fenway Park was in 1948.  The Philadelphia Athletics defeated the Red Sox in a three game series.  However, the Red Sox would eventually reach the World Series and lose to the Cleveland Indians four games to two.  

Notable Red Sox Roster

Alex Cora had Designated Hitter JD Martinez, First Baseman Bobby Dalbec and ShortStop Xander Bogaerts in their primary positions for all three games.  Marwin Gonzalez started all three games as a Utility player.  He played LF, 2B, and 3B.  Kike Hernandez played 2B and CF.  And Alex Verdugo played all outfield positions.  

JD Martinez is by far the only Red Sox hitter who is hot with 6 hits, 3 doubles, 1 HR with 3 Runs Batted Ins. In pitching, Tanner Houck struck out 8 and Garrett Whitlock struck out 5 in relief. 

— The Red Sox-Rays series begins Monday at Fenway Park. First pitch is slated for 7:10 p.m. ET.

The projected starter for the Red Sox will be Nick Pivetta.  The Rays are batting a .048 in 10 ABs.

On Tuesday, Martin Perez will pitch.  Rays are batting a .211.  Rays’ CF Kevin Kiermaier has not done well against Perez.  However, the catcher Mike Zunino has hit 3 home runs against Perez.

And on Wednesday, Nathan Eovaldi will make his second start.  He is 0-1 with a 1.69 ERA.  He will be challenged as the Rays have done great against him, batting a .349.

Joe Aguiar, owner of ClovercrestMedia, the CMGPodcast.  He is the host of the political podcast, Divided WE Stand, and co-host of I'll Piss You Off Shortly.  

Major League baseball decided to pull the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in a swift reaction to Georgia’s new voting law that many view as voter suppression targeting minorities.  There was great influence by the civil rights group and MLB Players Association that resulted in baseball commissioner Rob Manfred to quickly make the decision.  On the other side, Manfred received a lot of backlash from the Governor of Georgia Brian P. Kemp by tweeting this statement…”Perhaps the MLB should take a look at the restrictive voting laws in their home state of New York before criticizing ours.”  

The Braves issued a statement stating that they were disappointed.

The Wall Street Journal chimed in by writing a headline  “The Biden Baseball league” and “Democratic Baseball league.”  

Welcome to Episode 6 of the Backstop Podcast with me, Ovi Muniz.  

Spring training has ended and the Red Sox finish with a 16-10 record.  

Red Sox Update:

The Red Sox announce the 2021 Roster

Infield

1B Bobby Dalbec - rookie - .263 in 23 games 8 HRs

2B Kike Hernandez - 8th season - .240

SS Xander Bogaertz - 9th season - .289 (2019) 52 doubles; nominated MVP three straight seasons.  

3B Rafael Devers - 5th season - .279 (2019) 54 doubles, led MLB; not a great spring season.

Outfield

LF Marwin Gonzalez - 10th season - .261 played with Astros and Twins

CF Alex Verdugo - 5th season - .290 voted 12th in MVP last season

RF Hunter Renfroe - 6th season - .228; Padres and last season with Rays

Catcher

Christian Vasquez 7th season - .259.  Average increases each year and his power.

Kevin Plawecki 7th season - .229 played with Mets and Indians

Designated Hitter

J.D. Martinez - 11th season - .290 led RBIs in 2018 and total bases

Starters

LH Eduardo Rodriguez  4.03  pitch count and staying ahead of batters an issue.

RH Nate Eovaldi - 10th season - 4.27 

LH Martin Perez - 10th season - 4.71

RH Garrett Richards 11th season 3.62

RH Nick Pivetta 5th season 5.40

Bullpen

RH Adam Ottavino 11th season 3.53

RH Matt Barnes 8th season 4.08 

RH Garrett Whitlock 

RH Matt Andriese   7th season 4.57

RH Hirokazu Sawamura 11th season in baseball, first time in MLB 2.82

LH Darwinzon Hernandez

LH Josh Taylor

RH Colten Brewer

RH Austin Brice

Utility

Michael Chavis

Christian Arroyo

Opening Day

April 1st 

Nathan Eovaldi .186   vs John Means  .311Bogaerts 2 HR Martinez 3 HRs

? vs Matt Harvey   .328 with Bogaerts, Gonzalez, and Renfroe.  However, Renfroe struck out 3 of 5 AB

? vs Bruce Zimmerman .278 Hunter Renfroe has a HR against him.