Well after last night’s embarrassment of a loss, I said some prayers to the Yellow Jersey Gods in hope of a swift turnaround for game two of this ever-important series. My prayers were, ultimately, left unanswered. I will be sure to try again tomorrow and the Sunday Sox into my prayers.
Even the marathon jerseys can’t save this team from the inexplicable funk that they fall into whenever they step foot on Fenway’s grass. Thankfully, it seemed that Arizona got the majority of its power out in last night’s thumping, and Kutter Crawford — somehow — really held his own and actually did NOT give up a home run over five innings. He allowed only three hits and two earned runs, while walking two, in what really wasn’t a bad outing compared to what we’d seen from him lately. The only runs he allowed came on a double by Eugenio Suarez in the fourth, which was the only inning that he allowed multiple hits in a single inning, to give Arizona a 2-0 lead.
Unfortunately, Boston’s offense was still as dead as it was last night — actually even moreso, somehow — as the Sox failed to get a single hit off of Zac Gallen until a Connor Wong single in the bottom of the fifth. But after this hit to break through, Jarren Duran walked to put a runner in scoring position for the first time since the first inning when Wilyer Abreu and Rafael Devers both walked to put runners on first and second with two outs. Unfortunately, both situations would have the same outcome, and the Red Sox remained scoreless through five innings.
After this unfortunately timed, and controversial, strikeout by Wilyer Abreu in the fifth, I was disappointed, but not yet annoyed. When Zack Kelly came in to relieve Crawford with a 1-2-3 sixth inning, I still avoided annoyance.
And then the top of the seventh came around, with the Sox still trailing 2-0 with dead bats at the plate. And this is when it hit: Arizona added on two more runs on four walks, NO hits, and a wild pitch (though I still greatly question what the hell Connor Wong has been doing behind the plate this year), as Lucas Sims and Brennan Bernardino each walked a pair of batters.
Then to open up the seventh, Luis Guillorme made this play to rob Masataka Yoshida of a hit. Because of course, he did.
From here Luis García gave up two hits in the eighth but prevented another run from coming home, and Joely Rodriguez came in to give Corbin Carroll a triple into a right-field corner where Romy Gonzalez had no clue what he was doing.
Then it finally happened, as it seemingly always does, when the Red Sox were down to their last three outs of the game. Rob Refsnyder decided it was the perfect time to get his first hit of the game, which inspired Yoshida to do the same after getting robbed in the seventh, to erase the big fat donut from the scoreboard. Of course, the runner at second with no outs would not come around to score, as Boston went quietly in order after that after showing us a glimmer of hope.
Today marks the first time this season that the Red Sox lost a game after losing the previous game by 10 or more runs, so that’s cool. Great time to break the streak on that one, guys.
Three studs
Rafael Devers: Devers managed to reach base in three of his four plate appearances, even though he didn’t get a hit until the sixth inning.
Kutter Crawford: I was expecting much worse on Crawford’s part, especially after seeing the power that Arizona’s offense truly has last night, but he definitely held his own and gave his team the best chance that he could to get into the game.
Masataka Yoshida: When you drive in the only run of the game and try to continue a rally in the ninth inning, you deserve the stud title.
Side note: I usually listen to Fangraphs’s judgment when it comes to studs and duds by way of WPA, but Connor Wong had the third-best WPA (-.004) and I could not justify giving him the status of “stud” when he had multiple blunders behind the plate that continue to make me ask what exactly he’s doing back there.
Three duds
Triston Casas: Casas’s afternoon golden sombrero was a hard watch, but I appreciated his credibility and candidness in his postgame media availability.
Mickey Gasper (sorry): Poor Mickey got a bit too excited with all of his friends and family in town for his first full game in Fenway and I also learned that his dad is a Yankees fan. It’s hard to redeem yourself from that one.
Ceddanne Rafaela: Without a standard eye-popping defensive play in the middle game of the series, Rafaela’s presence was sorely missed in a crucial series for the (kind of still fighting?) Red Sox.