But enough about the Yankees series. Let’s move right on.
The Red Sox are headed to Baltimore to play the Orioles. Baltimore is 12-13 and Boston is 9-16 and on a three-game losing streak. Things haven’t gone great for the O’s while missing Jackson Holliday, Adley Rutchman, Tyler O’Neill, Ryan Mountcastle, Zach Eflin and playing sub-.500 baseball, but they’re still close to a coin flip away from the postseason.
Shane Baz and Chris Bassitt have been bad in the rotation. Sadly they won’t be facing the Sox. Who is?
Friday night the O’s start things off with Brandon Young. Young is a 27-year old righty who made 12 starts last season for Baltimore to the tune of a 6.75 ERA / 5.35 FIP. In one appearance this year he tossed five scoreless innings, giving up two hits and two walks while striking out two. He’s a fastball/splitter/slider/sinker guy who tends to give up more ground balls than fly balls. Perfect for a team struggling for power. However, last year he allowed 12 homers in in 57.2 innings of work so, I don’t know, pencil in 1 home run. Let’s be optimistic.
Brayan Bello will oppose Young for the Red Sox. The arrival of Payton Tolle gave Alex Cora the chance to push him back a day. Bello has had good numbers against the Yankees but given his current funk who can argue with extra rest? In that 6.2 inning, 2-run outing against the Cardinals was back on 4/12 (coincidentally the last time Payton Tolle pitched before last night) he still looked like he was figuring some things out. Let’s hope he can channel that energy.
Trevor Rogers pitched like an ace last year in his short season. For 109.2 innings he posted an ERA of 1.81 (2.82 FIP) and won 9 games. Wins aren’t really meaningful this century because of baseball’s structural changes, but the O’s only won 75 games. In fact, the Orioles would win 13 of his 18 starts. He alone kept their season from becoming truly awful. For Boston, Garrett Crochet will be on the mound. What can you even say at this point? Just assume Tommy John and he’s back in 2028? Or is he really just a tweak away from being a Cy Young pitcher again? He certainly thinks this is a tweak situation and his start against Detroit looked good – still had 8 Ks, his season high – before the wheels fell off again. Bring back the War Pig!
The Sunday matinee features Kyle Bradish for the O’s. Through five starts he’s allowed two runs three times while allowing four and one, respectively, in the other outings. He’s been averaging about 5.0 innings per start. It would be nice to see the opposing starter leave the game early for a change. In 25 innings he’s allowed 31 hits plus 13 walks. The bases could be absolutely filled. Connelly Early will finish then series for the Red Sox. He was cruising through 5.0 innings against the Yankees before trouble hit. Can’t think of anyone the Sox have started you’d feel most certain about how he’ll do though. 90 pitches, 5 innings, probably 1 run. And he might do better!
Gunnar Henderson leads the O’s with 7 homers and as a team they’ve hit 26. He also leads the team with 36 strikeouts. And steals with 4. He’s pretty good.
Pete Alonso is hitting .213/.327/.372 with 3 homers and many years remaining.
Taylor Ward, acquired for frequent IL visitor Grayson Rodriguez has hit 13 doubles.
Roman Anthony should return to the lineup.
Probable Pitching Matchups
Friday, April 24: Brayan Bello (6.75 ERA / 5.77 FIP) vs. Brandon Young (0.00 ERA / 3.54 FIP)
Saturday, April 25: Garrett Crochet (7.88 ERA / 4.98 FIP) vs. Trevor Rogers (4.08 ERA / 3.87 FIP)
Sunday, April 26: Connelly Early (2.88 ERA / 4.18 FIP) vs. Kyle Bradish (3.96 ERA / 3.50 FIP)
Friday, April 24: 7:05 PM on NESN
Saturday, April 25: 4:05PM ET on NESN
Sunday, April 26: 1:35 PM ET on NESN+
