The Red Sox and Yankees started up their second series of the season on Tuesday. Drew Pomeranz got the ball for Boston, as well as Luis Severino for New York. Luis Severino pitched for six strong innings, striking out 11 and giving up two earned runs. Drew Pomeranz, however, gave up only two earned runs as well. But here’s the catch- both runs came off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton. One solo shot to left field and one to right. Besides Stanton, Pomeranz was able to work around the lineup, going six innings strong and striking out six. 

Heath Hembree took over at the bottom of the seventh inning with the bases loaded and only one out. With Aaron Judge coming to the plate, Joe Kelly made an appearance. Amid the 45,000 + boos in Yankee Stadium, Joe Kelly got two outs to end the inning. But not before giving up a run on a base hit by Aaron Judge. Andrew Benintendi made a nice throw to nail someone at the plate to hold the damage to one run.  With the score still 3-2 in the ninth, Chapman came in. After hitting Jackie Bradley with two outs, Chapman got Christian Vasquez to ground out to second to end the game. 

It Was Just New York’s Night

Going into this game, I did not have a great feeling. I wasn’t too confident in Pomeranz on the mound. If I had known we lost the game beforehand, something around a 7-1 final would’ve been my guess. It ended up being only 3-2. Now I know losing is never fun, but when it’s all said and done, there wasn’t too much to complain about in this game. It was one of those games where the other team just got a couple more breaks than you. It was just their night. Pomeranz ended up doing a great job, much better than what I was expecting. Other than Stanton, he was able to get everybody else out, including Aaron Judge who he struck out three times. Luis Severino was great and shut our offense down.

There were also a couple of concerns in this game, mainly with Heath Hembree and Jackie Bradley Jr. As far as Hembree goes, Tyler Thornburg can’t be back soon enough. Hembree is just not somebody who you can ever trust late in a game, and he’s continued to prove that. It’s looking like he’ll be the odd man out once Thornburg is finally back.

Jackie Bradley Woes

Talking about Bradley, it’s time that the Red Sox might have to start doing something with him. Personally, I love the guy. His defense is fantastic and very valuable, no doubt. But there comes a point where you have to think about doing something with him. All year, he’s been an automatic out. He’s only ever hit over .250 once, and that was because a 29 game hit streak carried him there. It comes a time when you just have to make your lineup better, and unfortunately that happens with benching him. Maybe he’ll need to start working with the hitting coach extra, if he hasn’t already. But they are going to have to figure something out with JBJ. 

Rick Porcello will get the ball on Wednesday night to try and even up the series. David Price was originally going to start tonight, but he was scratched and sent back to Boston to see a doctor as he has continued to feel numbness in his fingertips. Eduardo Rodriguez will now pitch on Thursday.  

With the AL East heating up, this series win is huge momentum for the Red Sox.

After David Price got shelled on Thursday giving the Red Sox their 4th loss in their last 7 games, the next 3 games would be more reassuring. On Friday night, Rick Porcello would take the hill as he would be facing the 60 year old Bartolo Colon on the opposition.  Porcello would continue to roll as he went 6 innings, struck out 8 men while only giving up one earned run; a solo shot to Nomar Mazara. JD would keep on rolling as he hit another homer, along with Devers who hit 2. They would go on to win the game 5-1.

The 3rd game of the series was an impressive comeback win by the Sox. They were down 4-1 in the 5th after Erod gave up a 2 out, 3 run shot to Delino Desheilds. But they were not done yet. Mitch Moreland would hit yet another one of his homers(his 5th on the year) a 2 run shot to make it a 1 run game. Rodriguez would finish one more inning, but not before Joey Gallo would take him deep for the second time in the game, his 3rd homer given up overall. The Red Sox would once again rally in the 7th. With Mookie on first base with 1 out, Benintendi would hit a little blooper that would fall. As the fielder got to the ball, he didn’t look at Mookie, which was a bad decision. Mookie would literally steal a run as he started to run home since he wasn’t being paid attention to and would successfully score. JD Martinez would later get an RBI single up the middle to bring home Benintendi to tie the game at 5, but in the bottom of the 8th inning the Red Sox would get into trouble. With men on second and third and nobody out, Hembree would get 1 man out before Joe Kelly aka Jim Buchanan would make his appearance. With an intentionally walked batter to load the bases with 1 out, Kelly would blow away Joey Gallo, who had homered in 2 of his previous At bat’s, and get Jurickson Profar looking on 98 mph on the paint. Nasty. After a Benintendi triple in the 9th, Hanley would drive him in with a sac fly. Kimbrel would lock it down in the 9th getting the save to secure a 6-5 Red Sox win. But this was not just any save, his 300th of his career. Unbelievable.  

Sunday was a combination of great pitching and great hitting, once again. Mitch Moreland and Xander Bogearts would each drive in a run of their own. Sandy Leon, aka the only active Hall of Famer in the game would go deep for a 3 run shot that would break it open in the 6th. JD would hit yet another home run as the Sox would win finishing out a huge series win taking 3 out of 4 in Arlington.

The story of this game however was Chris Sale. Sale has clearly been not the same guy this year so far, the numbers were there but his velocity was down. It was clear he was holding it off because on Sunday, he was bringing the heat. He was throwing 97-99 with his usual nasty slider. He went 7 strong innings striking out 12 men, and only giving up 1 earned run. Be scared, MLB. Chris Sale looks like he’s back. 

The Yankees did not cool off one bit this weekend, as they swept the Cleveland Indians and capped the series off with an epic comeback. Winning this series was huge for Boston. With New York not slowing down, the Red Sox were able to keep the pace and stay in first place going into the Yankees series, which starts Tuesday. Drew Pomeranz will take the ball in game 1 to take on Luis Severino. It will be the first Sox-Yankees series since the epic brawl that broke out back in April. This time its going to be in the Bronx. With the way things are going right now, these 3 upcoming games won’t be the only intriguing games between these 2 teams in 2018. Get your popcorn ready. Its going to be a fun summer. 

It was December 4th, 2015. John Henry, Tom Werner, and Dave Dombrowski were all sitting at the press conference and made it official. David Price was now a member of the Boston Red Sox. He talked about how excited he is to win and play with such a great group of guys. Great things were ahead. Or were they?

A Turn for the Worst

Skip ahead to the beginning of 2018. Price is coming off two very disappointing seasons. Although 2016 wasn’t awful, a horrendous April left him with a 3.99 ERA. For an ace that is no good. In 2017 he only made 11 starts, as he would have an injury plagued season. The plan was to keep him in the bullpen for the rest of 2017 and to get him ready to start again in 2018.

Price went into Spring Training this year with high hopes. A new manager and a whole new coaching staff (except for Dana Levangie, the pitching coach) took over the old one. It was a good thing for Price since there were rumors of him not being the biggest John Farrell fan on the team last year. Price talked about how he was “mad at the world” last year when he got his injury that kept him from having the season he wanted. He was confident, this whole team was confident, hell even the whole fan base was confident, too. It was looking good for Price. 

The season started very well for him, as he opened the season with 14 shutout innings against the Rays. The redemption tour was starting. Or was it? It went downhill after that, as he gave up four runs in the first inning to the Yankees in his next start. The next week he threw five scoreless innings in a Red Sox blowout win. Against the Oakland A’s he was one out away from going eight innings with only allowing one run. He’s back, right? Nope. The first pitch Price threw to Khris Davis was driven into the left field seats for a three run homer. After that he took on Tampa again, and it was ugly. He gave up six runs (five earned), eight hits, and walked four men over 5.2 innings. Not what you want.

More of the Same? 

I sit here, writing this article after David Price once again wet the bed. This time against the Texas Rangers, a team that had a record of 12-20 and in the basement of the AL West going into the game. Yet somehow, this start was even worse. He gave up nine runs (seven earned) on six hits, while walking two in 3.2 innings. Price has always had struggles at Globe Life Park in Arlington, but this is not the same type of offense he faced back when the Rangers were a first place team. 

The thing that is the hardest for me about Price is the fact that I have been one of his biggest cheerleaders for the past two years. I absolutely loved when we signed him. I have rooted as hard as anyone from the moment he threw his first pitch in a Boston uniform up until now. Through all the ups and downs, I defended him, and stayed confident in him. And all of this is why it gets me so frustrated when he fails. When Price signed with Boston, he signed the largest contract ever by a pitcher ($30,000,000 every year for seven seasons). That’s a lot of dough.

Clayton Kershaw previously made the record at $215 million, but there is a difference. Kershaw was the best pitcher in baseball at the time of his contract signing. All these years later, he still is. Price, on the other hand, has struggled mightily this whole time. Now I know it has only been a couple of years, but it’s getting to the point where enough is enough. It’s going to become too late. We won’t be able to defend him anymore. We’re going to just be stuck with a washed up David Price for the next four years. 

Now can he avoid that? Yes, of course he can. If there is one man in the game of baseball who can get out of a struggle and get back to his old self, its David Price. I will keep on rooting for this guy, and cheering for him all I can, and I will still have faith in him. He used to be one of the best pitchers in the game, and there is no saying he can’t get back to that. The only problem is there is only a matter of time before it’s too late. 

Going into the weekend series against Tampa Bay, the Red Sox had Drew Pomeranz and David Price slated to start the first two games. Those were two games that they should have won. However, they did not. Pomeranz gave up three homers on Friday night’s game and only lasted five innings. Price allowed five runs while pitching 5 2/3 innings as well. The offense certainly had a tough time with runners in scoring position, but when your starters are not doing well, it’s tough to win ballgames. In comes Rick Porcello.

Rick Porcello, who has been the most consistent starter on the staff so far this year, received the nod on Sunday. The Red Sox needed a win on Sunday to avoid a three game sweep at home against the Tampa Bay Rays. Which, of course, is inexcusable.

Rick’s ERA was below 2.0 heading into Sunday’s game. The question was could he keep it going into an important game that this team needed to win badly. The answer is yes. Besides a bad pitch to Denard Span that wound up into the right field seats, Porcello was fantastic. He pitched 7 2/3 innings, walked no one, and struck out six while giving up only three runs. The Red Sox, who had struggled lately, losing five of their last eight games heading into Sunday needed a strong start. And get one they did. The offense was also able to come through and get some big runs across the board to help out Porcello, who loves pitching with run support.

After the game I saw a really interesting yet awesome stat by Porcello that @SoxNotes posted on Twitter:

The Red Sox have now won 25 consecutive games when giving Rick Porcello at least 3 runs of support. The last 36 times he has received 3+ runs of support, Porcello is 30-0 with 6 no-decisions.

— J.P. Long (@SoxNotes) April 29, 2018

Pretty good, I’d say.

Porcello has always been a guy where you really never know what you are going to get from him. And this has pretty much been a year to year thing. In 2015, his first year in Boston, he had a 4.92 ERA. In 2016, he won the Cy Young riding a 3.15 ERA. The following year? A 4.65 ERA. So going into this year, we were pretty much clueless about which Porcello was going to show up this season. But as the pattern has shown, he should be having a good year in 2018. And so far, he has been solid.

In a year where Chris Sale hasn’t been the same type of guy to start, and with Price still figuring it out, Porcello has really stepped up and done his job very well. That continued on Sunday, as he would help get the Sox their 20th win of the season. A big win as well, as they avoided getting swept by the Rays.

It is safe to say that the Red Sox are red hot right now heading into Oakland. They are coming off three game sweep against the Anaheim Angels, who were also hot going into the series. The offense and pitching did everything right, as they won the first game 10-1, the second game 9-0, and the final game of the series, 8-2. The Red Sox outscored the Angels 27-3 in this series. Pretty amazing. They now begin a three game set against the Athletics at the O.Co Coliseum.

There is one thing for certain. Although the A’s currently sit in fourth place in the AL West, they are not a team to take lightly. There are many things to talk about as far as the bullpen and the rotation go, but we’re going to talk about this lineup they have over in Oakland. To start, this lineup is extremely underrated. It might very well be the most underrated offense in the game, a big reason being that there are lots of overlooked hitters alone in that lineup. They can really kill you with the long ball, as they are third in the majors in home runs. Khris Davis, and Jed Lowrie, who is one of the hottest hitter on the planet right now, are two of the bigger power threats in that lineup.

Don’t Sleep on Oakland

Matt Chapman, who broke onto the scene last year, has had a monster start to 2018. So far, in 82 plate appearances, he is riding a .296/.390/.563 slash line with a .954 OPS. Not only is he producing greatly at the plate, but he has one of the best gloves in the game, along with one of the best arms in the game over at the hot corner. Matt Chapman is one of the more underrated players in baseball. He has shown that he can hit for power along with getting on base at a good rate, something that he’s done much better this year. He will certainly be someone to look out for.

Now back to Jed Lowrie, who I mentioned before. Lowrie, who was on two very good Oakland teams back in 2013 and 2014, went to Houston for a year. After a down year in 2016, he came back strong in 2017. He has come back even stronger in 2018. His bat is on fire right now, as he is hitting .346/.404/.605 with an OPS over 1.000. He leads all of baseball with 21 RBIs, if you’re into that sort of stat, and is tied for third in all of baseball for home runs at six.

Lowrie vs. Mookie

Who is he tied with? Mookie Betts. Pretty cool coincidence that the two possibly hottest hitters in baseball will be facing off. After a huge series against the Angels, the A’s will have to be careful pitching to Mookie. It will also be the same with the Red Sox pitching staff with Jed Lowrie. The way those two hitters are going right now, if you leave a ball over the plate to one of them, you better be praying to the heavens.

The last but not least of the honorable mentions of the scariest hitters in this underrated lineup, Khris Davis. Davis, one of the more impressive power hitters in the game, is tied with 13 people (it’s very early) with five home runs. What makes him so impressive is he plays half his games in a park that’s meant for football, and still hits 40 a year. Most of his home runs also go to left and right center as well. It’s pretty incredible.

Team Rankings

As a team, the A’s are fourth in batting average, third in On base, and second in slugging. Who else is in the top four of those three stats? Boston. The Red Sox are first in average, first in on base, and first in slugging. This is going to be another exciting series against an Oakland Athletics team that is much better than most would assume. Two very talented offenses will be facing off as the Sox will be looking to keep it rolling.