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Bogaerts

It’s Time To Appoint Xander Bogaerts As Captain Of The Red Sox

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The Boston Red Sox in 2018 are a machine. It seems as if they can do no wrong, even though some may point out there are (few) vulnerabilities in this team. However, there is one thing missing from this team, and has been since David Ortiz’s departure. The Red Sox are missing a true voice of leadership. Who could fill the void – Xander Bogaerts, Dustin Pedroia, or another candidate?

The Red Sox are running rampant on opposing teams. They are young, athletic, and their talent is proving to be almost unmatched every time they step on the diamond. Their inevitable trip into the postseason is backed by having two of the best players in baseball, and a record that is currently seven wins better than the defending World Series champions. A certain presence has always been absent since David Ortiz left and even though the Sox replaced the power presence with JD Martinez, something is still missing. A clubhouse leader is almost as important as anything else; think of it as a 10th position, at times.

Tek: The Last Captain

The last official captain for the Red Sox was the beloved Jason Varitek, who spent his entire career with the club and won two World Series titles in the process. He proudly donned the “C” over his heart on his jersey from the historic 2004 season until his retirement in 2011. He was one of three captains in baseball at the time of the appointment, along with Derek Jeter and Paul Konerko. This is a tradition that Red Sox nation would love to see continued, and this is the perfect time to do exactly that.

Varitek

Courtesy of the Boston Herald

Looking Ahead

Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Andrew Benintendi and Christian Vazquez are the faces of the team today. This is a new generation of players that will be around for a long time – an untouched core that has been through nearly everything together, comparable to the “Core Four” the Yankees had years ago. Even then, Derek Jeter was appointed captain and took this extra role about as serious as he did his shortstop post.

The shortstop position is seen as the captain of the infield, even by MLB itself. It is the most athletically demanding position and the most pivotal when it comes to calling plays or defensive shifts. Now, I understand that Jason Varitek was a catcher and the catcher may take the role of calling plays or shifts as well. However, with the platoon of Christian Vazquez, Sandy Leon and (as of late) Blake Swihart, there is too much inconsistency in appearances. The captain of the team needs to be someone on the field every game, as long as they are healthy.

Why Not Dustin?

This leads us down another rabbit hole: many people will be saying “Well the team has Dustin Pedroia!” Not so fast, buddy. Dustin Pedroia is the longest tenured player on the Red Sox roster currently, true. However, he has downplayed this role multiple times. Dustin has the mentality of the team having more than one voice, and leading together towards success. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with this mentality, but it can’t last forever. This team will eventually go through rough patches, being this season or after. Having a multitude of voices without one to settle the clubhouse could be worrisome.

Dustin Pedroia has even pointed to Xander being the one to bring up the clubhouse’s spirits most of the time.

“I was sitting in the [batting] cage by myself and I was hurting, and Bogey comes in — he’s the happiest kid ever — and he said, ‘Hey, what’s wrong?'” Pedroia said. “I’m like, ‘Man, Bogey, I don’t know if I can. I mean, I’m going to be fine to play, but I hope they throw it right down the middle. You know what I mean? And he goes, ‘Oh man, you’re gonna be fine.’ And I go, ‘Bogey, see that’s what I’m talking about. There are some days when I come in and I need you and we all need each other. So it’s OK to be that guy. Let it come out.’

Bogaerts is the Perfect Candidate

Xander Bogaerts came up late in the 2013 regular season before helping the team win a World Series. He was a breath of fresh air for a team that needed some young, refreshing talent. As far as this core goes, he was second only to Jackie Bradley to come up in the same season. Xander has more of a liking in Boston and a “been there, done that” identity with this club. He’s won a championship, lost in the playoffs, made pivotal plays, and has been on the wrong side of success. As quick as Xander has turned into a young veteran of the club, it’s time to reward him. Being that he is still only 25 years old with 5 years of experience under his belt, he is very relatable to his young teammates.

Mookie, Benintendi and the others can learn a lot about what it’s like to play in a World Series game. Xander is the perfect candidate to impart that knowledge.

@ELJGON

Boston Red Sox vs Oakland Athletics Series Recap

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The Red Sox will be back home in Boston after their 11 day road trip. Facing the Oakland Athletics are Rick Porcello, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Chris Sale. The Sox have won the last seven out of 13 games, while Oakland won five out the last 12 games. The Red Sox will face pitcher Sean Manaea for the first time since his no hitter game in April. The Sox hope that being on Fenway soil will help them defeat the Athletics. This series will also be the last time that the Red Sox will face the Athletics during the regular season.

Porcello vs. Manaea

 

Sean Manaea pitched a no hitter to the Red Sox last month. J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers each hit a solo home run for the Red Sox. Porcello let up five runs and nine hits over six innings, and struck out five. Trailing in the fourth inning, the Athletics grasped the lead with three runs. Lucroy had a two-run double into the left-field corner before Fowler tripled off the Monster. The Red Sox caught up 4-3 in the fifth, when Hanley Ramirez scored a run with a ground ball. J.D. Martinez hit straight out to the Sox bullpen in the eighth to score. Benintendi and Ramirez got back to back RBI singles. Unfortunately, it was not enough, and Oakland won Monday night’s game 6-5.

“We talked about not expanding down in the zone,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “Overall, we did a good job of it. His stuff is still good.”

“2B Dustin Pedroia (recovering from offseason left knee surgery) started a rehab assignment with Triple-A Pawtucket. He singled and scored a run in three at-bats while playing five innings at second base.”

Rodriguez vs. Mengden

Due to the weather, the 7:10 start time moved to 8:50 on Tuesday night. As a result, Oakland beat the Sox in nine innings. Rodriguez took his first loss of the season after Oakland had six hits through the first three innings, starting with back-to-back singles by Semien and Pinder to start the game. Piscotty hit a monster home run out of Fenway Park in his first at-bat against Rodriguez. Piscotty’s home run was the first he had hit since his mother’s death on May 6th. Andrew Benintendi hit a homer and Mitch Moreland hit two doubles.

“It was pure joy. It’s been an emotional week,” said Piscotty, whose mother, Gretchen, died May 6 after a one-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. She was 55.”

“We haven’t been able to put them away,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “They’re young and it seems like they’re turning a corner. Whatever they’re doing over there is pretty good.”

 

Sale vs. Cahill – A Sale Day Win to Avoid an Athletics Series Sweep

In Rafael Devers’s 100th major league game, the Sox came out with a win. Xander Bogaerts hit a three run homer, and J.D. Martinez hit a two run homer. Chris Sale gave up two runs and two hits in five innings. Sale also struck out nine and walked four. Trevor Cahill gave up three runs out of the first four batters he faced. After Sale’s career high 15 strikouts in his last outing, he struggled, but hung on long enough to keep the Sox up over the Athletics. Craig Kimbrel grasped his 12th save of the season and avoided the Sox meeting their season high losing streak. The Sox beat the Athletics 6-4 after Xander and J.D. had quite the night.

“It’s pretty impressive what he does when you’re behind looking at him,” Bogaerts said. “Normally I’m a guy who gets to the on-deck circle a little bit later. I’ve got to get there early if he swings at the first pitch and gets a hit. He hits some bombs on the first pitch.”

“Four walks, that’s not my game,” Sale said. “That’s not who I am. Obviously, you want to be better than that. Anytime your bullpen throws almost as many innings as you do, that’s not what you’re looking for.”

 

Up Next

The Red Sox will be at home again to face the Orioles for a four game series starting Thursday. David Price will be up first for his Fenway return. Dustin Pedroia will play another game in Pawtucket by the end of the week as Tuesday night’s game was postponed due to the weather. Jackie Bradley Jr. is still spending an immense amount of time on the bench as he has constantly had bad games. Cora is hoping that Bradley Jr. will come out of his slump soon, as he has been working on improving both his defense and his offense.

Sources

Statcast

MLB

Red Sox Twitter

NESN

ESPN

Don’t Worry About Xander Bogaerts’s Injury

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The Red Sox’ is off to a season has started off great start so far. The offense and pitching are firing on all cylinders. There is just one problem: Xander Bogaerts suffered an ankle injury sliding into the Rays’ dugout during Sunday’s game.

The Injury

It was the top of the seventh and Joey Wendle was up. Wendle hit a ball high in the air that ended up off of the monster. J.D. Martinez fielded the ball and made a throw that landed off the line to Bogaerts. But Xander, who thought someone was nearby to help, made the mistake of flipping the ball to third base; where nobody was at the moment. The ball rolled into the dugout. If the ball went into the dugout, a run would be granted to the Rays. So Xander, not letting that happen, slid into the dugout while getting the baseball. While he did save a run that ended up being crucial, he hurt himself.

He was be taken out of the game right away and was replaced by Brock Holt. Holt ended up making a nice play over at short to end the game and preserve a Sox win.

The problem was that nobody really knew how serious Bogaerts’s injury was. On Monday, it was announced that he would be heading to the DL with a “small crack” in his Talus bone. A bone in his foot. This will knock him out for about 10-14 days, so two weeks at the most.

The Effects

The thing that frustrates me the most about this injury is the fact that he was the hottest hitter on the team at the moment. He was hitting .368 with an OPS of 1.111. Pretty good if I had any say in it. But now that guy is gone for about two weeks. It isn’t the biggest deal in the world, but there is just one thing that worries me.

Last year, Bogaerts was hitting above .300 until he got hit in the hand during a game in Tampa. That ended up screwing him up for the rest of the year, as he would hit .230 the rest of the way. The injury clearly affected him. However, I am not saying that this new injury will make him flat-out stink for the rest of the season. I was on the Bogaerts train before the season started, and am proud to say that I still am. I very much believe that Xander Bogaerts can be one of, if not THE best hitter (batting average wise), in baseball when he is fully healthy. So let him rest, and come back better than ever. In the meantime, the Red Sox will have Tzu Wei Lin over at short along with Brock Holt.

And one more thing: if Bogaerts was going to get injured at all, it’s much better to have him get this injury early on than around when he got it last year. By the time he comes back, it will still be April. So let’s just sit back, relax and enjoy the Tzunami show. The X man will be back in no time.

 

Cover image courtesy of USA Latest News.

Which Joe Kelly Will We See This Season?

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Red Sox fans don’t have much to complain about right now. The Sox are 6-1 out of the gate and have taken an early division lead. Starting pitching has been sensational, Xander’s on pace for 138 doubles, and Benintendi seems to be snapping out of the honeymoon phase. Things are looking good, but the Sox should be undefeated. Joe Kelly can’t be giving up leads like he did on Opening Day. He has the skill set to be an elite pitcher in the Major Leagues, but he’s always struggled with consistency.  He’s had a roller coaster of a career, but he can be a key piece of the Sox bullpen if all goes well.

Kelly began his Major League career in St. Louis back in 2012, and immediately made a name for himself.  His triple-digit fastball was overpowering, even as a rookie.  He posted a 5-7 record to go with a solid 3.53 ERA, while pitching mostly as a starter.  He consistently alternated between the starting rotation and the bullpen throughout the following year, but it didn’t seem to bother him.  Kelly finished his second season with a 10-5 record along with a 2.69 ERA and helped carry the Cardinals to an NL pennant.  Luckily, David Ortiz and the Red Sox made sure it stopped at that, and took home the World Series title.  The Sox ironically snagged Kelly at the trade deadline the very next season, and this is where the inconsistency started to become an issue.

THE RED SOX YEARS

He wasn’t terrible during his first year in Boston, but didn’t come close to the numbers he put up in St. Louis.  Farrell opted to slot him in a starting role and Kelly went 4-2 with a 4.11 ERA through ten starts.  After a mediocre first season with the Sox, Kelly was determined for redemption.

He was so anxious to prove his worth to the Fenway Faithful that he even guaranteed a 2015 Cy Young victory prior to the season. This gave the fans something to talk about, but Kelly set the bar too high for his own good.  He put up a 10-6 record through 25 starts but this didn’t correspond with his overall performance.  He posted a sub-par 4.82 ERA and the Red Sox finished the season at dead last in the AL East.  This was the second lowest ERA in the rotation, and far from a Cy Young caliber season.

(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

The 2016 campaign was even more of a train wreck.  Kelly suffered an early right shoulder impingement and was sidelined until mid-May.  He wasn’t the same when he returned and struggled consistently.  This landed him a spot in Pawtucket for a good portion of the season, but Kelly returned as a reliever for the tail end of the year.  He only logged 40 innings and put up a dismal 5.18 ERA, but finished off strong by throwing three and 2/3 scoreless innings in the ALDS.

 

Kelly was able to carry the momentum into 2017 where he solidified himself as a reliever.  He threw 58 innings over 54 appearances and nearly cut his ERA in half from 2016, finishing at 2.79.  He held hitters to a minuscule .202 average and began to look like the 2013 version of himself. Kelly even threw the hardest pitch of the entire 2017 MLB season during an at-bat against Aaron Judge.  The pitch was originally clocked at 103.5 mph but was later estimated to be just over 102, which was still the hardest pitch of the year.

AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The inconsistency is frustrating, but Kelly has true potential.  We saw how he helped propel St. Louis to an NL pennant in just his second season, and his numbers from last year weren’t far off.  He has a next-level fastball to go with a sinker, slider, curveball, and change-up, but needs to learn how to harness his velocity.  You’d expect more strikeouts out of a guy who can hit 102 on the gun.

If Kelly can perform like he did last season, the Red Sox will have one of the best 8th- 9th inning tandems in the Major Leagues.

 

Cover image courtesy of CBS St. Louis.

Red Sox vs. Blue Jays (Series Recap)

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After an extremely disappointing series with the Baltimore Orioles, the Red Sox jumped back on the winning train and swept their division rivals, the Toronto Blue Jays.  Combining to score a total of 16 runs in the three game series, the Sox now have a comfortable 5.5 game lead over the second-place New York Yankees.

GAME ONE

Game one ended in a 6-5 victory for the Red Sox on August 28th, and featured vintage Drew Pomeranz doing what he does best: win games.  The opposing pitcher, Marcus Stroman was the on the bump.  Stroman looked comfortable in this outing.  With a 2-1 lead, Eduardo Nunez changed that momentum by hitting a laser-beam home run to left field to tie the game at 2.  However, after that home run, Stroman sat down six consecutive Red Sox batters including two strikeouts.

Bats fire up after 7th stretch

The Blue Jays then called for a pitching change in the seventh inning and it all went downhill from there. With a one-run Blue Jays lead, Christian Vazquez hit a two-run homer to left field off of Danny Barnes. Mitch Moreland knocked in Nunez on a weak hit ground back to the middle of second and first off of Aaron Loup, and Ryan Tepera walked Xander Bogaerts for a bases loaded RBI.  The Red Sox then took a 6-3 lead.

The Blue Jays scored the remaining two runs off, surprisingly, Craig Kimbrel, from a two- run home run by Justin Smoak on an 0-1 count with two outs.  You never see that happen, especially this year!

Strong series

The Red Sox offense looked good in the first game of the series. They combined for a total of 12 hits, four of those coming from Vazquez, who also tacked in two RBIs.  Nunez, Benintendi, Moreland and Ramirez combined for eight hits and two RBIs.

Drew Pomeranz pitched well, earning his 14th victory of the year and ranking him second in the MLB with wins behind Greinke, Kershaw, Sale and Davies.  His 3.23 ERA now ranks him 11th in the MLB.

GAME TWO

Game two was a fun one to watch.  Chris Sale put on one of the best pitching performances I’ve ever seen.  I could not stop watching the game because I was so mesmerized.  Sale dealt his absolute best.  He ended his night pitching 7.0 innings, allowed three hits with no runs and struck out 11 Blue Jays.  He decreased his ERA to a 2.77, 5th best in the MLB and 2nd in the American League behind Corey Kluber of the Indians.

Sales first strike out victim was Steve Peace and it was a beauty.  In the second inning he struck out Jose Bautista and Kevin Pillar.  He then struck out the side in the third inning, sending Miguel Montero, Ryan Goins, and Steve Peace back to the dugout.  He struck out Bautista again in the fourth and again in the seventh.  What can Chris Sale not do?

Chris Sale dealing against the Blue Jays

The Sox offense finally did something in the sixth inning, which honestly seemed like an eternity waiting for a run to score.  Nunez scored in Rajai Davis on his double to right field and Ramirez capitalized on that by hitting a solo shot to center field in the seventh inning.  Benintendi then wanted to join the action and he hit an RBI single to right field to drive in Davis.  The Sox went on to win 3-0 and take two games away from the Blue Jays in the three-game series.

After acquiring Rajai Davis on August 23rd from the Oakland Athletics, he’s been a quiet player.  So far he is batting .250 through five games with the Sox and even has two stolen bases.  This game accounted for two of the nine hits that game and also had a stolen base.  Nunez and Benintendi also had two hits that game as well.

GAME THREE

This is the game we all needed.  Rick Porcello facing off against J.A. Happ.  Let me start off by saying Porcello redeemed himself after his last outing. That was by far the worst thing I’ve ever seen.  Eleven runs in 4.2 innings and just four of those runs were “earned.”  He got shelled.  But I’m sure I can speak for Red Sox Nation and say we are happy with this last game.  He pitched 6.2 innings and only allowed one earned run off six hits.  He also managed to pick up his 9th win of the season, struck out seven and lowered his ERA from a 4.57 to a 4.45.

Happ looked sharp as well.   He pitched 6.0 innings and only allowed just one run off of four hits.  Happy received a no decision this game.  In the month of August, Happ is where he pitches his best.  Lifetime he is 21-15 (most wins amongst any months) with a 3.71 ERA (second lowest amongst any months).  Against the Sox, he is 5-3, third best record against any of the teams he has faced in his career.

Mitch Moreland came, saw and conquered.  Coming in a pinch hitter for Chris Young (DH), he went 2-2 with a home run and four RBI’s to help secure a 7-1 Sox victory.  The three other RBI came from Betts, Bogaerts and Ramirez.  Nunez, Betts, Bogaerts, and Hanley all had doubles and Bogaerts and Devers recorded stolen bases.  The Sox offense crawled all over the Jays pitching.

Rajai Davis and Mookie Betts surround Mitch Moreland after hitting a 7th inning home run

SERIES NOTES

  • Sox are now 335-275 lifetime against the Toronto Blue Jays
  • Benintendi went 4-12 with an RBI and double (.333 average)
  • Nunez went 5-12 with three doubles, a home run and two RBI (.417 average)
  • Ramirez went 5-12 with two doubles, five runs, two home runs and two RBI (.417 average)
  • Vazquez batted .625 with five hits, a double, a home run, two RBI
  • Moreland went 4-7 with a home runs and five RBI[contact-form][contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”true” /][contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”true” /][contact-field label=”Website” type=”url” /][contact-field label=”Message” type=”textarea” /][/contact-form]

    (.571 average)

  • Reed pitched 2.0 innings striking out three and had a 0.00 ERA while facing seven batters
  • Sale is 2-0 against the Jays this season with a 0.00 ERA and striking out 106 in 77.1 innings
  • Pomeranz is 3-1 lifetime against the Jays with a 2.63 ERA