Tag Archives: Fenway is Gimmicky but Important or Something Like That

Game 76: Minnesota @ Boston

Wide-eyed Rookie v. Reigning Cy Young Award winner

-or-

Mejia v. Porcello.

Let's hope last night's defensive lapses and poor decision-making on the base paths were simply an aberration due to the wet conditions and localized lightning strikes.

Let's hope the bullpen continues to pitch well competently.

Let's also hope that the boys bring their bats and see the early-June 2017 (5.00 ERA) Porcello because last night, they sorta made Drew Pomeranz look like circa-2016 Porcello.

Finally, let's also hope that the young "core" of Polanco, Kepler & Sanó can get their mojo back, who after good-to-great months of April & May are respectively slashing .231/.273/.308, .217/.244/.349 and .239/.309/.466 for June.

Game 107: Twins @ Red Sox

Time is running out for Ben Revere. If he's going to hit an honest-to-God over the fence homerun, you'd have to figure it'd be here or New Yankee bandbox. The problem, of course, is that in his entire career, he's only hit four balls in the air out of the infield. Things look grim, but this is the ballpark that has walls just over 300 feet from the plate (seems gimmicky, but I've been assured that it's not) If he really got into one, and the wind was blowing out at about 30 miles an hour, and the fielder Canseco'd it, he might have a shot.

Cole DeVries takes the ball for the good guys today. I've mentioned it before, but I really thought that when DeVries was sent back down that first time that he was gone for good. Instead, he's pretty much become our second best starter. I like his strikeouts, such as they are*, I love his walk rate, if he can figure out how to avoid throwing two or three BP fastballs every single game, I'd be good with him the rest of the way. Good Lord, though, those home runs... he gets grounders on fewer than a third of the balls hit in play, and a full 15.8% of those fly balls leave the playing field. If he keeps this up, I don't know how we're going to be able to rely on him come playoffs.

Clay Buchholz is also pitching, but he's a thoroughly mediocre pitcher, and no one cares about him.

* Fun Fact: At 6.2 k/9, DeVries has the highest rate of any of our starters (including injured ones), and the third highest strikeout rate of any pitchers who are still with the team who have pitched more than 15 innings this year. How is that even possible??