Disaster in Anaheim: Red Sox shellacked 11-1

After the rainout of last night’s Sunday Night Baseball game, the first in Anaheim since 1995, the Red Sox were in position to make a desperate plea to tie the series and return to relevance in one day. Two innings into today’s makeup game and it was already clear that the Red Sox were finished. Not just for the game, but for the season.

Eduardo Rodriguez has been a rookie sensation for the Red Sox and, with Clay Buchholz on the disabled list, “E-Rod” is the most reliable starting pitcher in Boston’s thin rotation. Through his first nine major league starts, he had posted a 3.59 ERA alongside 7.9 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9. In short, he was delivering on his promise as the best Red Sox pitching prospect since Buchholz.

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Rodriguez labored through the first inning, walking a pair of batters, but he was able to hold the Angels scoreless. In the second inning, however, he was not so lucky.

There’s really no point in working through the details here. I watched this inning unfold and, believe me, you don’t want to read about it. All you really need to know is that the Angels plated seven runs in the inning, and as is generally the case in seven-run innings, this one can’t just be chalked up to bad luck on Rodriguez’s part. Rodriguez walked a batter and allowed home runs to Kole Calhoun and Albert Pujols, allowing no shortage of hard contact as the Angels took a commanding lead.

Rodriguez didn’t even last the full two innings, exiting the ballgame after 1.2 and giving way to Noe Ramirez, who hasn’t done much to inspire the confidence of Red Sox fans. Ramirez was able to escape the second inning and worked through a scoreless third, but even though it appeared he had avoided damage in the fourth, an error kept things alive and the Angels capitalized. An RBI single by Erick Aybar recorded one more run and then a three-run blast by David Freese really pushed their lead into untouchable territory.

The Red Sox had actually inspired a bit of confidence by scoring a run in the third, with a rare Mike Napoli single scoring David Ortiz. In fact, that is Boston’s only run through three games in the second half of this season. However, neither team was able to score again after the fourth and the final score would wind up as 11-1.

It’s getting to be pretty clear that this season is over for the Red Sox. As tough as it is to watch young guys like Rodriguez struggle, it’s going to make him better in the long run and it’s time to play for the future. The Red Sox should sell at the deadline (though they don’t have much to trade away) and promote their youngsters, beginning to play for contention in 2016, since it’s out of reach this year.

Game Notes:

• With a hard line drive off the glove of Angels’ first baseman C.J. Cron, Red Sox rookie and former first-round pick Deven Marrero recorded his first major league hit.
• Shane Victorino had a couple of base knocks today as he strives to gain a bit of trade value. He won’t fetch much in a trade, and the Red Sox might need to eat a good amount of his contract, but his absence would clear a spot in Boston’s crowded outfield and that has value in and of itself.

There’s not much to say about Rodriguez’s outing today. He just wasn’t good and, for the sake of Red Sox nation’s sanity, let’s leave it at that.

Ross ability to save Boston’s bullpen was of utmost performance today in the first game of a double-header. He lasted three scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out three in an excellent outing. Ross has really proved his value as a long reliever of late and has lowered his ERA to 3.34 on the season.

Though he was one of the few to do anything productive, Bogaerts turned in a nice game at the plate as he went 2-3 with a pair of singles. He’s now hitting .306 on the season and it’s really remarkable how much of an improvement he has made since last season both at the plate and in the field.