Do you smell that awful stench
coming from Chicago this morning? It’s
terrible, a stink I haven’t experienced in quite some time. Do you smell it? It’s the putrid Red Sox offense just continuing
to stink up the joint.
Another great pitching
performance wasted as terrible offense and faulty defense at the end of the
game cost Boston in game one series in frigid Chicago as the Sox lose 2-1.
Xander Bogaerts has been playing
very good shortstop so far this young season, but unfortunately he uncorked a
bad throw last night in the bottom of the ninth inning that allowed the White
Sox to walk off with the win. Bogaerts
knew right away that the misfire cost the team the game and slumped to the
ground wearing a ski mask to protect him from the elements. To his credit, after the game, he didn’t
blame the weather, blaming himself for the throw and that he should have made
the play.
With runners on 1st
and 2nd and 2 outs in the innings, Marcus Semien hit a grounder to
short that Bogaerts ranged up the middle to get, nothing crazy, a routine
ground ball, one that he makes 9 times out of 10. But this time, he uncorked it low to first
and it took a very bad hop on Mike Carp and he couldn’t scoop it. Alexie Ramirez came around from 2nd
to score the winning run and sink the Sox to 5-9 on the year.
This game can’t be blamed on
Bogaerts alone, nope, this game as with all the games as of late can be sqarely
blamed on the sputtering offense. The
Sox managed only 3 hits on the night, one being a solo homer by Daniel Nava to
give the Sox their only run.
Jonathan Herrera went 1 for 3 and
Mike Napoli went 1 for 3 with a walk but also left the game in the ninth after
advancing to 2nd base on a wild pitch. He bent is left ring finger back and it
looked like it was bad. Fortunately, it
was just a dislocation and he’s just day to day and will likely miss a couple
games and then be back. If it was
broken, he’d be looking at a DL stint.
The Sox were 0 for 5 with runners
in scoring position and left 6 men on base while striking out 12 times on the
night. Offensively, the Sox can’t get anything
going early this season. The season is
still young and there are still 148 games left but the whole team is in a funk
right now. I guess the only good thing
you can say about it is that it can’t get any worse than it is right now. With injuries in key spots, the team can and I
feel will get better but these losses could hurt in the long run.
Lost in the offense mess is just
how good the pitching has been for the Sox early on. Jake Peavy turned in another stellar
performance pitching in U.S. Cellular Field for the first time since his trade
last year. He went 6 innings, allowed
only 1 run on 3 hits while walking 4 and striking out 8. The walks caused his pitch count to climb to
113 pitches but he was able to work out of those jams and keep the Chicago bats
in check.
The bullpen was solid as well as
Junichi Tazawa went 1 inning allowing only 1 hit and striking out 1. Andrew Miller went 2/3 of an inning and
worked around a walk. Burke Badenhop
went 1 inning, gave up one hit, one walk, struck out one and the unearned run
was charged to him as he allowed the baserunners before the Bogaerts
error. It’s his 2nd loss of
the season.
That’s about 6 wasted pitching
gems to start the season. Come on
BATS!!! Wake up already.
Clay Buchholz (0-1, 6.97) will
take the hill tonight and he’s coming off a good pitching performance against
the Yankees his last time out where he went 6 innings and gave up only 2 runs
and struck out 6. He’ll be opposed by John
Danks, (1-0, 4.15) who is also coming off a good start last week against the
Indians where he got the win going 6 innings giving up 3 runs and striking out
4. Let’s hope the bats come to play
today.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Jake Peavy. Peavy continued his hot start to the season
last night giving the Sox an opportunity to win the game. He’s allowed 2 runs or less in all 3 of his
starts this season.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Xander Bogaerts. In addition to booting the ball that allowed
the winning run to score, he also went 0 for 4 at the plate with 3 strikeouts.
PLAY OF THE GAME
The ninth inning error that
allowed the White Sox to walk off for the win.
NEXT
Wednesday, April 16th in Chicago,
vs. the White Sox.
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