One of those lovely games where, quite frankly, you’re just never really on the edge of your seat. Uncle Charlie was working for Morton, who struck out seven in six, and nothing was working for Nick Pivetta, who yielded seven in four. Then the Braves tacked on a couple more for good measure off of a couple of relievers I’ve never heard of. But the Braves scored four in the first and the Red Sox never got any closer.
The game ball, as it so often does, went to Sean Murphy, who had two RBI singles and another RBI double, batting cleanup while catching all those strikeouts. I’m ready to say that I was wrong about my hesitancy in trading William Contreras and a few other guys for him. He’s may not keep hitting .300 with a 1.000 OPS for the next six years, but this guy is pretty incredible on both sides of the ball, and he’s on track for the home fans to start yelling “MVP” when he comes up.
Travis d’Arnaud was in the clubhouse but didn’t get called into the game, which is fine by me. I’d rather he takes over DH duties from Marcell Ozuna anyway. For health reasons, I don’t feel great about him crouching behind the plate any more. But I love having him back on the roster, for as much thump as he can offer.
Matt Olson hit another two-run homer, and got walked three times after that; Ronald Acuña got two hits and a walk and scored three runs; and Orlando Arcia, picking up where he left off, had three hits of his own.
The only two guys who remained hitless were Austin Riley and Michael Harris II. Riley got unlucky. In the fourth, he hit a 111-mph bullet directly at Rafael Devers, who looked up and squeezed and took away what would otherwise have been a booming two-RBI hit. Not to worry, as Murphy knocked them in on the next pitch. Harris’s ohfer must have been a little frustrating, after the highs of his walkoff hit. He’ll come around. As I wrote in the offseason: “Money Mike’s sophomore campaign is likely to be a grind, but if he can learn what to spit on, the sky is the limit.” Still true.
The seventh, eighth, and ninth were handled by Kirby Yates, A.J. Minter, and Danny Young, who’s up for Fried. Minter yielded two hits, a walk, and a run, raising his ERA to 7.13. Snitker clearly wants to get him his work, as he hadn’t pitched since May 6, but let’s hope he’s just scuffling and not hurt. Young and Yates each punched out two Red Sox, which had to make their manager happy. Tomorrow’s pitcher is the ever-popular “TBD,” so a whole lot of their mates may get a crack at it before Thursday’s off day. Could be hair-raising. But with this offense, I bet it’ll still be fun.
25-11. I’m no mathematician, but that sounds pretty good to me.
So I was inspired to do some research. If my preliminary search is correct, there has only been one major league player with the initials TBD: Tyler Blinn Duffey, currently toiling in AAA for the Iowa Cubs, has a career record pretty much what you’d expect from TBD: a 29-27 lifetime record with a 4.57 ERA.
Even more than the hitting, I’ve been pretty astounded at some of the throws Murphy has made to catch basestealers. Considering our recent history of great catching tandems that couldn’t throw out basestealers, this is a huge boon. Considering our pitching situation, having Murphy behind the plate is a nice assist to have.
AA is looking pretty smart for not giving out a lot of long term contracts to pitchers vice position players. At any point some teams might have given long term extensions to Soroka, Ian Anderson, Fried, If Strider can stay healthy AA will look like a real genius. Even look what’s going on with Scherzer and deGrom.
I mean, someone still has to pitch. I find it difficult to square the circle of “we’re geniuses; we didn’t extend any of our risky pitchers to expensive deals” with “we’re doing bullpen games two days out of five because our risky pitchers got hurt; no one could have foreseen this.”
If we lose our top two starters we’re probably not going to win this year. I’m not sure how extending them versus letting them get to free-agency changes the injury equation – they’re going to get hurt and miss time. In general it seems like AA’s approach is consistent with the reality that pitchers are unreliable. You can criticize our lack of quality depth, but I think the overall strategy is sound.
We’re in good shape as long as this crew keeps bashing & the bullpen doesn’t cough up too many of the close games. Of course, the rest of the division is helping at the moment.
Moving forward, yeah, looks like we’ll have to rent at least one SP. While Lucas Giolito & LHPs like Jordan Montgomery (effective guys on teams that don’t look playoff-worthy) might be most desirable, I suspect guys like Lance Lynn & Zach Greinke (older guys having tough starts) are the ones most attainable.
We’ll see. For the moment, let’s just rack up the victories & get more distance in the division.
I would really like Lance Lynn. Never much of a prospect, but boy he’s been a real good pitcher for a real long time, even as his stuff has changed. Velo is down, but he’s still got a lot of spin and still getting whiffs.
AA needs to acquire at least one starter.
Pretty good indeed