A wild game at Fenway confirmed two unmistakable truths about this Red Sox team.
Wow! That felt like an old school Red Sox vs. Yankees game!
For over three hours, the two teams exchanged blows before a packed house amid an electric atmosphere at Fenway. The excitement peaked in the bottom of the eighth inning when the Sox carved out the final three runs of the seesaw slugfest.
Rob Refsnyder started the inning with a single, his third hit of the night, and then Connor Wong followed that up with a ballsy (four of them to be exact) walk on nine pitches.
This set the stage for Wilyer Abreu, who pinch hit for Tyler O’Neill to get the platoon advantage.
Everything about this moment was golden! The hit itself, the euphoric crowd, O’Neill up at the top step of the dugout cheering it on, the Yankee bullpen woes continuing, and Alex Cora having the Midas Touch in the first home game after inking that three year extension.
Moments later, things got even better when for the second time this month, Masataka Yoshida burned Clay Holmes with a clutch two run hit late in a Friday night game.
The Yankees did try to punch back in the top of the ninth as they got two men aboard, but Kenley Jansen was able to shut things down for his 440th career save, tying him for the fourth most all time.
This comeback, after being kicked in the teeth during the middle innings, exemplified the first unmistakable truth about this Red Sox team: They’re a refreshingly resilient group who fight like hell every out and are extremely hard to kill. Whatever “it” is when it comes to sports teams. They seem to have “it!”
Tonight’s comeback by the offense is made even more impressive when you consider they gave the pitching staff three different leads early in the game, and still were left in a position where they had to come from three runs down to pull things out.
All of this brings us to the second unmistakable truth reinforced during tonight’s game: This bullpen desperately needs help!
Below are the Red Sox peak win probabilities in the first four games out of the All-Star Break (all of which were losses):
Game 1 vs. the Dodgers: 77 percent
Game 2 vs. the Dodgers: 89 percent
Game 3 vs. the Dodgers (after Duran’s early HR): 70 percent
Game 1 vs. the Rockies (after coming back from down four runs early to lead late): 88 percent
Tonight, the Sox had a win probability of 78 percent in the fourth inning before it dipped to as low as 12 percent three frames later.
While this mess started with Brayan Bello coughing up a pair of early leads, the shortcomings in the bullpen really stood out after the next five guys took the mound. Cam Booser, Josh Winckowski, Brennan Bernardino, Zack Kelly, and Bailey Horn combined to face 17 batters and didn’t strike a single one of them out!
As an added bonus, Kelly gave up this bomb to Aaron Judge that I’m pretty sure got sent into orbit!
Obviously some of the problems are going to be alleviated when guys come off the IL. Chris Martin, Justin Slaten, and even Liam Hendriks could all pitch meaningful innings down the stretch, but the front office needs to do more to rebuild the depth. The rest of this squad has earned it!
Five Studs
A five star game from the offense deserves five studs! They go to the five guys in the lineup who all posted a WPA of at least .120 (added at least a 12 percent win probability with their bat).
Rob Refsnyder: 3-4 with a .228 WPA
Connor Wong: 2-4 with an enormous walk, good for a .140 WPA
Wilyer Abreu: 1-1 with the big pinch hit double that gave him a .354 WPA
Masataka Yoshida: 1-3 with a .128 WPA
Ceddanne Rafaela: 1-4 with a .122 WPA, and this two-run HR in the seventh that started the rally:
Speaking of Rafaela, I also absolutely loved this play he made from short to cut down a run in the sixth.
Three Duds
To keep with the theme, we’ll go with the three bullpen guys with the worst WPA.
Zack Kelly: Got just two out, gave up three hits including the Judge moonball, and ended up with a -.468 WPA. To quote the great Dennis Eckersley, “YUCK!”
Cam Booser: Made a mess for Winckowski and Rafaela’s defense to clean up, -.134 WPA
Brennan Bernardino: Faced three batters, got just one of them out, -.070 WPA
Lastly, here are a couple of fun facts:
1) There were 28 combined hits in this game. Juan Soto came to the plate five times and didn’t have any of them. Baseball is weird!
2) After the Alex Verdugo revenge game on June 14th, the Yankees were 14 games ahead of the Red Sox. Now, if Boston can take the final two games of this series, they will be tied in the loss column! Get it done!