The pain and suffering of a Roman Anthony-less squad continued tonight with yet another bleak showing by Boston’s offense. It surely doesn’t help when Alex Bregman is robbed of a homer in the eighth by Blaze Alexander, or Trevor Story hits a 100-mph flyout that is a home run in 23/30 parks. It’s also not great to strike out seven times in six innings against Brandon Pfaadt (who has a 7.47 K/9 this year and a 5.33 ERA) while only scoring one run. Nor is it ideal to rack up a single hit in three innings against Jake
Woodford, Jalen Beeks (thanks for your contributions to the 2018 WS, btw), and John Curtiss — who have a combined 3.96 ERA.
But on the other side of the ball, the Sox were really never able to recover after a rare Trevor Story error in the second allowed the Diamondbacks to score three runs to take an early lead. Even with the help of yet another beautiful play by Ceddanne Rafaela in center field, as he climbed the wall in front of Chase Field’s infamous pool to reach over and rob a Corbin Carroll home run, Boston just couldn’t find its groove. Another miscommunication between Rafaela and Jarren Durran in the outfield (which, how that’s happening 143 games into the season is beyond me) cost another run in the seventh and took all of the wind out of Boston’s sails.
Lucas Giolito once again somehow had an acceptable outing with only two earned runs (four runs total scored due to Story’s error), but struggled massively with more traffic on the bases, as has been the trend since the All-Star break. As I’ve said — and will continue to say — before (and after) every Giolito start, the wheels will fall off the cart eventually, and every time he goes out there, it’s anyone’s guess if it’s bound to happen then. Another start with a WHIP well over 1.00 (actually a clean 2.00 tonight), and he somehow escaped the inevitable once again. As far as I’m concerned, these results can’t be held out through the end of the season or an incoming playoff run, but hey, they’ve largely lasted since the middle of July, so maybe they’ll keep on keeping on!
While last weekend’s series loss to the Pirates was cause for general concern, I’m willing to argue that this series against the Diamondbacks has been even more troubling. The Mariners have kind of found a groove on the back of another second-half surge by Julio Rodriguez, the Royals (somehow) continue to win and Texas has bounced back as well. All of this, and the fact that the Yankees are looking more and more like their May and early June selves, is the opposite of good news for a Boston team that’s been good, but doesn’t currently have a lineup that shows it.
Three studs
Ceddanne Rafaela
He didn’t get a hit, but his robbery was the highlight of the night. And, he only struck out once — progress is progress!
Brennan Bernardino
While it didn’t count for much, Bernie had an impressive outing from the ‘pen tonight, which is especially impressive after Alex Cora tried to kill him earlier this week. A 1.1 IP appearance with two strikeouts and only one hit allowed is something I’ll take any day of the week.
Masataka Yoshida
Leadoff Masa is here and he’s beautiful. The only RBI of the night came from the king himself, and he looked relatively solid at the plate, with his usual ground ball propensity included. I will take three hard-hit balls from a Masa Man still looking to power up.
While I debated Jarren Duran’s efficacy to be included in this category, I couldn’t justify including him just for his two hits, as his performance in the outfield continues to both befuddle and infuriate me every game. I’m just thankful he wasn’t leading off tonight — righty starter be damned.
Three duds
Lucas Giolito
This might be a bit harsh on my part, but watching Giolito consistently allow multiple hitters to reach base each inning is genuinely about to drive me crazy. I appreciate his relative limitation of damage as far as the score goes, but long innings with multiple baserunners are the exact opposite thing that a team with a struggling offense needs.
Carlos Narvaez
Right when I thought he was back, I realized it was still over. That might be a tad bit dramatic, but a 0-for-4 night with two strikeouts will land you on the duds list basically no matter what.
Alex Bregman
The almost-homer would’ve been clutch, but I unfortunately can’t give out many points for almost. No strikeouts on Bregman’s end, but as the only other 0-for-4’er, he was delegated to The List tonight.
