Red Sox fall 7-2 to Twins in Memorial Day to forget

As far as Memorial Days go, this was one the Red Sox will not want to remember.

As NESN announcer Don Orsillo so aptly put it during the broadcast, this was not Joe Kelly’s day. Kelly took the mound for the Red Sox with a 5.13 ERA and did not look sharp from the beginning. Literally the very beginning: he gave up a double to Dozier on his very first pitch of the game… and it only got worse from there. Dozier eventually scored on a Joe Mauer sac fly to center. That was nothing compared to the second inning, in which the Twins put together a touchdown’s worth of runs. After Kelly finished his stinker of an outing, Matt Barnes relieved him and finished off the second inning without further damage.

Facing Minnesota’s Ricky Nolasco, the Red Sox offense got off to a promising start in the first, but, as they are wont to do, left men on base were unable to score. Dustin Pedroia led off with a base hit and Mookie Betts followed with one of his own. David Ortiz’s fly out combined with Hanley Ramirez’s double play ended any chance of Boston taking an early lead.

Down by seven, the Red Sox chipped away at their deficit in the third inning. They scored two runs on singles from Blake Swihart, Pedroia, and Ramirez. However, that was the extent of their offensive production. By the time “God Bless America” was sung in the middle of the seventh, Nolasco had retired the previous thirteen consecutive Red Sox batters.

Game notes:

-Joe Kelly will probably not win the Cy Young Award this year, as he predicted.
-Napoli is still mildly caliente after crushing two home runs yesterday coming off a considerable slump. He continued to rake in this one with a single in the first and another in the ninth to prove his bat is alive and well.
-Pedroia saved a run in the first inning with an impressive diving stop to nab Torii Hunter at first.
-Both teams wore camouflage-accented uniforms and some accessories in honor of Memorial Day.
-Nolasco performed as the antithesis of Kelly: he dominated through eight innings, giving up only two runs with five strikeouts on 103 pitches.
–Heath Hembree took the mound for the Red Sox in the eighth with a 40.50 ERA.

Grades:

”F”. . ”Game. ”Joe. ”STARTING ””

Yikes. Not even pitching coach

Carl Willis

was able to turn this disaster around. Kelly looked atrocious on the mound in this outing and put the bullpen to work early. After 52 pitches, he left the game unable to finish the second inning.

B. . Game Ball. Matt Barnes. RELIEF PITCHING

Entering the game after the starting rotation’s easiest act to follow, Matt Barnes was able to stop the bleeding and get the third out of the second inning. He continued his 58-pitch, five-hit outing through the fifth inning and the Twins scored zero runs on his watch.

C-. . Game Ball. Dustin Pedroia. OFFENSE

Pedroia led off the bottom of the first with a base hit to spark what would be some short-lived optimism He also singled in the third and scored one of his team’s two runs. Overall, the offense was pretty weak against Nolasco. “Meh” at best.

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