The Boston Red Sox lost the final game of the series against the New York Yankees on Sunday. Despite that, the Sox were still able to win the series 2-1 and improve to 6-3 on the year against the Yankees. The Red Sox still remain 2 games back of first place in the AL East, behind the Baltimore Orioles. However coming out of this series there were many problems that will need to be addressed.
First off David Price needs to step up. If he is your ace heading into the playoffs, there are going to be no playoffs. He went 5 and 2/3 innings on Sunday night and he struggled though the 4th inning getting himself out of jams all night. Despite that his pitch count was way to high. He was already up around 80 pitches heading into the fifth inning. You can’t go deep into games like that, and you over work the bullpen down the stretch. While Price ERA has dropped to 4.36 that is not a number you should be seeing from your number 1. Hopefully he catches fire and improves upon his 9-7 record.
Other problem with last night, 3 hits. Only 3 hits. While Tanaka is the Yankees ace, and a very solid pitcher, a solo home run from Dustin Pedroia in in the top of the first inning, and for that to be your only offense of the game. You can’t win like that.
On the positive side, Eduardo Rodriguez first start back after begin sent down to the minors, was a success as he went 7 innings only allowing 1 run to come across. A quality start, and a win. On the back end of the bullpen, Ueharra has not blown up in Kimbrel absence, which is good to see. Sunny Leon also hit a home run in a 5-2 victory on Saturday night. While I have made myself clear Christian Vazquez is not only the best catcher on the roster, he is the only catcher on the roster to quote Moneyball. Still good to see Leon hit something, as he by far the worst offensive catcher the Sox have.
In game 1 on Friday, it was good to see another 5-3 victory. The pitcher who has acted like more of an ace than Price, in Steven Wright, the knuckle-baller and all-star, got the win. All of the Sox runs, came off of home runs in a more than favorable Yankee Stadium. Travis Shaw hit his 10th on the year, which is a little shocking, as the Sox signed him to be more of power threat than just 10 just after the all-star break. We will see if his bat will get going as we head into late July and the Sox worst nightmare it seems, August.
Something to look forward to this week, and that everyone will be watching, as the Sox get an off day than head home to face the first place San Francisco Giants, at Fenway and as newly acquired Drew Pomeranz makes his first start in a Sox uniform.
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