Red Sox Come Back Three Times Against Best Team In AL, Still Lose
I’ve got a lot of thoughts after the game tonight, so this blog is going to be somewhat of a diary of an enraged Red Sox fan.
I don’t even know where to start so let’s start off with what’s fresh in my mind. What the fuck was Mookie Betts doing when he tried to steal third base in the bottom of the eighth inning? He was already in scoring position with Xander Bogaerts, David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez due up behind him. He owned up to it after the game and said that it was totally his decision. Honestly, I was shocked to hear that because I figured either it was a failed hit-and-run, John Farrell sent him, or it was a missed sign.
Why does a 22-year-old have the green light to make decisions like that, especially in a spot as big as that one, when it didn’t even make sense in the first place? Say what you want about Betts being a good player, and he is, but he’s been picked off at first base three times, picked off a second base once, and now this. You can look at that play and say that it cost them the game, because the Red Sox would’ve had the lead and won the game if he didn’t get thrown out, but there is much of the blame pie to be dealt out here.
Just like I said about Rick Porcello and Joe Kelly before him, Justin Masterson cannot make another start for this fucking team. He just can’t. Not when you have guys like Steven Wright and Brian Johnson ready to go. Masterson had a good outing against the Rays in Tampa, but you reading this right now could throw a quality start against that shitbag lineup. They don’t want to DFA Masterson because of what they’re paying him, but get him the fuck out of this rotation immediately. Bullpen, first base coach, guy who washes the jerseys, anything. Just never let him touch the mound in a game that the Red Sox have the chance to win ever again.
In the past week or so, Wade Miley walked off the mound with two outs thinking there were three, Jackie Bradley Jr. fired home thinking there were two outs when there were three, Betts thought there were two outs when there were three on two separate occasions, and then on Friday night, Alejandro De Aza thought there were two outs, slid into third base, was out (for the fourth out) and then told the dugout to challenge the play. And that’s not even counting how Hanley Ramirez saw ball four on Friday and didn’t realize that he actually walked. What the fuck is going on here? In the grand scheme of things, none of these plays cost the Red Sox the game or anything major, but it just shows a lack of focus and it’s a really bad look. Like, a really bad look.
Not that this run even mattered, but it speaks to my point about a lack of focus. In the top of the tenth, the Astros had runners at the corners when Jon Singleton stole second base and Ryan Hanigan thought it would be a good idea to throw through to second, allowing the runner on third to do fucking cartwheels on his way home to score another run. At every level of baseball I’ve ever played, when a guy tried to steal second base with a runner on third, you either eat the ball or fake to second to try to catch the runner at third starting for home. But no, not Ryan Hanigan! Has to be a hero, and look like an asshole in the process.
And this could be its own blog, but Mike Napoli needs to go. He was 0-for-5 with 3 strikeouts on Friday and he’s now hitting .195 past the halfway point of the season. That’s not even mentioning the error that went right through his legs, that should’ve been a double play, which opened the floodgates in the tenth inning. Pablo Sandoval was taking grounders at first base before the game on Friday, so it looks like there might be a light at the end of the tunnel there with either Hanley or Brock Holt at third base in the short term. Anything but Napoli. Thanks for 2013, but watching you this year has been brutal.
The Red Sox came back not once, not twice but three fucking times against the best team in the American League, forced the game into extra innings and still lost the game by four runs because of how god awful their bullpen is. As a fan, it’s unreal that they can play with that kind of heart, and you still walk out of the ballpark wanting to put your fist through a wall. If the Red Sox are playing to contend in 2015 like they claim, then the decision-makers over there need to act like it. No more Masterson, no more Napoli, and skip Porcello’s next start to give him a mental vacation (preferably to Alaska so he stays as far away from me as fucking possible) and see what kind of results you get from the options you have internally. End rant.