We can’t even help ourselves. This all starts yesterday with Isaiah Campbell unable to seal the game easily in the 9th, forcing Aroldis Chapman to come into the game and finish it out. That left him “unavailable” today in a game they needed him even more so in the final frame. I’m just feeling a little lost on the decision though, why would you not want to just get this game done and dusted with a fantastic closer? Really irked by the domino effect here.
My bigger concern is the offense cooling off. Aside from Duran’s double and Abreu’s homer, no extra base hits. This was a staff the Red Sox should have gotten more on. Instead, Janson Junk gave the lineup a lot of filth to swing at and it led to not a lot on the scoresheet. Having so many teams coming up out of the playoff picture, the offense has to show up more.
Did the Red Sox take this series against the Marlins? Yeah, can’t complain about it. But when the Blue Jays and the Astros are losing as of writing this and ground could have been made up in the AL East/gained in the Wildcard? Exasperating to say the least.
Garrett Crochet (7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K)
What a fantastic bounce-back outing wasted by the bullpen. Didn’t have many jams, looked very sharp aside from the homer given up.
Wilyer Abreu (2-for-3, 2 RBI, 2 runs scored)
He scored two of the Red Sox three runs today, including the most hilarious two-run homer hit in quite some time and a little baseball karma from Yoshida being robbed over the weekend. Nervous to hear about his calf tightness, hopefully it’s nothing major.
Jarren Duran (1-for-3, 1 SB, 1 BB, 1 K)
A walk and a stolen base is what ended up setting up Abreu’s homer, and a double in the 6th could have been an insurance run then. Better day for Duran.
Greg Weissert (0.1 IP, loss, blown save, 2 H, 2 ER)
Steven Matz (0.2 IP, 1 ER, 1 HR)
Combining both of these guys because the ninth inning was U G L Y. I maybe understand wanting to give Chapman a break, but there were other guys Cora could have gone to than Greg “My arm is done” Weissert. And Matz just gave up an ugly homer to seal it.
Romy Gonzalez (0-for-4, 3 Ks)
This was a rough game for Romy at the dish.
I still gotta give it to Wilyer’s two-run shot, I can’t believe this happened.
