June 2, 2015

G52: Red Sox 1, Twins 0

Twins   - 000 000 000 - 0  3  0
Red Sox - 000 000 10x - 1  7  0
Clay Buchholz (8-3-0-2-8, 92) pitched eight shutout innings and Rusney Castillo knocked in Xander Bogaerts (2-for-3) with the night's only run with two outs in the seventh inning.

Castillo also robbed Aaron Hicks of what would have been a game-tying homer in the eighth inning with a catch at the bullpen wall in right-center.

Even though Buchholz was not feeling well, he stayed in for eight innings and 92 pitches. He has a 1.95 ERA in his last five starts and his season ERA has dropped to 3.82.
Example
Clay Buchholz / Mike Pelfrey
Pedroia, 2B
Betts, CF
Ortiz, DH
Ramirez, LF
Sandoval, 3B
Napoli, 1B
Bogaerts, SS
Leon, C
Castillo, RF
Boston has lost six of its last seven games.

The Globe's Alex Speier calls June a "pivotal month":
[T]he Sox have arrived at the "show don't tell" portion of the season. The Sox have invested heavily in this year's club, committing to a team-record payroll. But if there's no evidence that improvement is a realistic possibility, then the team isn't going to keep throwing chips atop a $200 million bet. ...

The Sox have shown they can play roughly .500 ball for a month (a 12-10 April). They've demonstrated an ability to perform at a putrid level (10-19 in May). Now, they have to show that there's something different behind Door No. 3.

3 comments:

allan said...

Elias:
Matt Holliday, who walked and singled in four trips to the plate on Monday night, has reached base (by hit, walk or HBP) in in all 45 games he's played this year, the fifth-longest streak to start a season by any major-league player since 1900. The four longer season-starting streaks of that kind in the modern era were fashioned by Derek Jeter (53 games in 1999), Frank Thomas (52 in 1996), Mark McGwire (48 in 1996) and Alvin Davis (47 in 1984).

I find it odd that no batter topped 46 games from 1900-1983, then it happened four times in the next 16 seasons.

allan said...

Elias:
Andrew Cashner of the Padres struck out 12 batters but allowed 11 hits while pitching only 4 2/3 innings on Monday. No other pitcher in the modern era (1900 to date) allowed at least 10 hits and struck out 10 or more batters while throwing fewer than five innings in one game.

Box.

allan said...

Cashner's other two non-K outs were a popup to start the game and a caught stealing.