You cannot win them all. In fact, if you have a specific weakness in your lineup, demonstrated by having to choose between Jerry Sands and Carlos Sanchez for DH, you might lose games for a specific reason at times.
1. Jose Abreu turned on and hammered a 91 mph Clay Buchholz fastball on the inner half, sending a booming shot out to left field to give the Sox an early 2-0 advantage. It also gave Abreu his first home run since May 19, and pumped happy feeling through the ballpark.
2. And then that was about it. Buchholz cruised through seven innings without allowing another run, holding the White Sox hitless after the 2nd inning. In fairness, it was because he never made a mistake pitch as egregious as the ball he threw to Abreu again, spotting his fastball on the outer edge to righties beautifully and pairing it with a wipeout curveball. Based on reports and the general level of Buchholz-related angst floating over the state of Massachusetts at any given time, he does this around once every two months. Bad luck, I suppose.
3. The Carlos Rodon experience remains more alternating burst of awe and frustration that could be expected from a 23-year-old starter who was drafted in 2014, rather a straight-line ascent to dominance. He flashed dominance with his slider and struck out six in as many innings, but lost his control at crucial moments. A slider in the dirt pushed runners to second and third on him in the third, leading to a Xander Bogaerts RBI single for Boston’s first run of the night. Two innings later, Rodon coughed up a two-out walk to Boegarts in front of David Ortiz, who got a grooved 92 mph fastball right in the kill zone to put Boston up 3-2, a lead they would not relinquish.
4. The Red Sox added a couple of insurance runs that would prove superfluous off of Zach Duke in the seventh and eighth. Brought in to face Ortiz specifically with runners on and two outs in the seventh, Duke watched the outgoing DH bounce an RBI single through the unmanned side of an extreme shift. After finishing off the inning with no further damage, Duke was brought back out to the eighth to face four consecutive righties, lead off by lefty masher Chris Young, who rocketed a double to the left field gap. Young would subsequently score on a Josh Rutledge bouncer through the middle, giving a three run cushion to the stingy Boston bullpen. Duke living as a true LOOGY that his manager had no confidence in was no fun, but Duke as a four-out guy probably is swinging the pendulum farther than it will want to go most nights.
5. He went hitless, but Brett Lawrie drew two more walks Wednesday, and is now sitting at a .389 OBP on the year. He has 16 walks this season, rapidly approaching his 2015 season total of 28 in a mere fraction of the games.
Team Record: 19-9
Next game is Thursday at 7:10pm CT vs. Boston on CSN+
Lead Image Credit: Mike Dinovo // USA Today Sports Images
Bogaerts
no more $5m per year contracts for crappy relievers please. duke is the 7th highest paid player on this team. what a joke.