It was the first night back at
Fenway for Jacoby Ellsbury and the Red Sox first look at the Japanese import
Mashiro Tanaka. Unfortunately the Sox
threw up a stinker last night as Lester was terrible and the offense could do
very little against Tanaka as the Yanks rout the Sox 9-3 in the series opener.
Jacoby Ellsbury was met with a
quite crowd, mostly boos but some applause when he came to bat in the top of
the 1st inning. Helped by the
fact that it was a cold rainy night and attendance wasn’t nearly as much as was
stated (37,041), Ellsbury came to the plate and promptly hit a triple to start
off the game. It was a sign of things to
come as Ellsbury went 2 for 5 on the night with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored and
made a hell of a grab in center to steal a hit away from Grady Sizemore.
My first impressions of Mashiro
Tanaka, impressive. He has very good
command of all his pitches and throws a nasty splitter/sinker. His velocity is very good, topped out at 95
but his fastball is very straight, not much movement and it seems that’s where
he’s gotten into trouble with the long ball early on. He’s not like your typical Japanese pitcher
as he doesn’t nibble, he attacks the strike zone and it shows as he went 7 and
1/3 innings but only threw 105 pitches. If
he can limit those long balls, he’s going to have a good career in American baseball. He ended the night with 7 strikeouts allowing
only 2 runs on 7 hits while walking no one.
The ugly string of starting
pitching continued as this time Jon Lester stunk up the place. Lester allowed 8 runs, 3 earned, on 11 hits
in only 4 and 2/3 innings of work. He
got lucky only 3 were earned as they gave Mike Napoli an error on a smoked
diving line drive at first base. They called
it an error but I don’t see how as Napoli had no chance.
Lester also walked 4 and struck
out 7 but his pitch count was 118 in just 4 and 2/3. His command was off and he let up a lot of
ringing hits. No one took him deep but
there were a lot of gappers and wall balls.
Just not his night and lately it seems the starters are putting the team
in a big hole they can’t seem to get out of.
With the Yanks up 4-0 after 4,
the Sox got back into the game with back-to-back homers by David Ortiz (4) and
Mike Napoli (5). Ortiz’s shot was a bomb
to deep right center field. I haven’t
seem many balls land where Big Papi hit that one. Napoli’s blast was a laser that got out of
the park and into the Monster seats in about 3 seconds. Both were great shots. Unfortunately it would be all they could get
that inning.
With the Sox back in the game at
4-2, Lester needed a shut down top of the 5th but it didn’t
happen. After giving up a leadoff walk
and single, he struck out Solarte and Suzuki to get 2 outs but Brian Roberts
smoked that ball to 1st that was called an error for a run, then
Ellsbury ripped a double to plate two more.
Lester was lifted in favor of Chris Capuano who allowed a single to
Jeter to plate the 8th Yankees run and put the game out of reach for
the Red Sox.
The bullpen was good at keeping
the deficit where it was as Chris Capuano went 2 and 1/3 innings of 2 hit, 0
run ball. He struck out 1 and walked
none. Edward Mujica went 1 inning and
allowed a solo homer to Carlos Beltran but did strike out one. Junichi Tazawa pitched one inning and allowed
only 1 hit. It was a little, too little
too late as the bats just couldn’t get anything going yet again.
Red Sox hitters were 1 for 7 with
runners in scoring position and left 5 men on base. They simply didn’t put a lot of runners on
base as they had no walks as a team and struck out 9 times.
Mike Napoli went 2 for 4 with a
run scored, an RBI, double and homer.
Dustin Pedroia had a double, Ortiz had that homer discussed earlier,
Gomes had a double, Pierzynski a double and Xander Bogaerts went 1 for 4 with a
double and RBI. Brock Holt and Jackie
Bradley Jr. each had a hit in the loss.
It was one of those games you’d
like to forget and luckily there’s another game tonight as the Sox will face
the Yanks at 7:05. Taking the hill for
the Sox is John Lackey (2-2, 5.25). Lackey
was great in his first 2 starts of the year but his last 2 have been
dreadful. He’s allowed 12 earned runs,
20 hits and 5 homers in his last 2 starts.
One of the starting pitchers has to step up and stop this ugly start and
I hope that starter will be John Lackey.
On the bump for the Yankees is
Michael Pineda (2-1, 1.00), who’s been brilliant early this season. He pitched against Boston back on 4/10/2014
and went 6 innings allowing only 1 run on 4 hits while striking out 7 and
walking 2.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Mike Napoli. Nap continues to shine early this season
adding 2 more extra base hits in the loss.
A double and laser homer, his 5th of the year.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Grady Sizemore. Sizemore struggled again at the top of the
order going 0 for 4 with 1 strikeout. He’s
in a bit of a funk right now and I can’t tell if it’s because he’s not starting
everyday and it’s affecting his rhythm or if he’s just not all that great
anymore.
PLAY OF THE GAME
The 2-run double by Jacoby
Ellsbury in the top of the 5th to make the game 7-2 and get Lester
out of the game. It was the nail in the
coffin.
NEXT
Wednesday, April 23rd at Home vs.
the New York Yankees.
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