August 21, 2016

Porcello, Pomeranz Pick up a Pair


It's official - auditions are on for the 8th inning job. After Pomeranz's fantastic, rain shortened start, Farrell wasted no time in reacquainting Heath Hembree with the high leverage winning side of things with Boston ahead 3-1. Heath obliged with a quick clean sixth and you'd think John would get him out of there feeling good about himself. But...nah. Instead, he leaves Hembree long enough for J.D Martinez to tag a moonshot of him to narrow the lead to 3-2. Ziegler then came on and saved Farrell's misguided notion, ending the seventh inning with a strikeout and groundout.

The eighth on this night belong to Matt Barnes, and it seems Farrell still may have his help wanted sign out for this juncture of the game. Barnes regressed into his erratic phase,walking two batters which forced Farrell to call on Craig Kimbrel for the 4 out save. Craig got it by the narrowest of margins as Justin Upton almost made him pay with a deep shot to dead center. The ball missed clearing the center field fence by inches putting the tying run on second. Kimbrel got Casey McGehee to chase a wicked breaking ball for his 22nd save.

It was a very nice win for Pomeranz as he seems to be turning the corner. In the month of August, Drew is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA. In four starts he has pitched 24 innings and given up 19 hits. He has struck out 20 batters and only walked 9. He is starting to shake of the "6 inning" label, and Boston will need him to pitch deeper, especially until they sort out their bullpen.
David Ortiz's two run shot last night was the last bit of scoring Boston was able to manage as Detroit pitching retired the last 15 Red Sox batters after his round tripper. David is having a terrific series in Detroit batting 6-8 with 2 HR and 4 RBI. On the road trip, he is mashing at a 10-18 clip with 3 HR and 7 RBI and is enjoying a 7 game hitting streak. The longest current hitting streak belongs to Dustin Pedroia. In the last 11 games, Dustin is 20-49 with 9 runs, 5 doubles and 8 RBI.

Below are some tweets on Rick Porcello. Rick was magnificent yet again in the 10-2 drubbing on Friday tying J.A. Happ of the Blue Jays for a shared lead in the AL in wins with 17. He snapped Boston's 4 game losing skid against the Tigers on his first start in Detroit since being dealt to the Red Sox. The Tigers had swept Boston in Fenway back in July, and they faltered in excruciating fashion thanks to the "Tazawa Teardown" in the series opener.



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