The Red Sox fell to the Mariners 2-1 losing in the bottom of the 9th.
Clay Buchholz showed up tonight, pitching 8 innings of 1 run ball while striking out 11 Mariners. At one point in the game, Buchholz retired 17 batters in a row. His only blemish was a homerun by Seth Smith in the 6th inning.
However, the Red Sox offense was once again unable to get anything going, only scoring one run. The team did have 7 hits but were only able to drive one of them home. Shanve Victorino showed he is back in full swing, providing most of the teams offense.
Tommy Layne took the loss after allowing Brad Miller to reach on an infield single. Junichi Tazawa however was the one that surrendered the game winning hit to Nelson Cruz on a 3-2 count with 2 outs. Brad Miller was on 2nd base and first base was open so I was kind of surprised the team didn’t elect to pitch around a guy as hot as Cruz has been.
Game Notes
- The Red Sox rotation finally seems to be finding it’s groove, stringing together 3 great starts in a row.
- Shane Victorino seems to be a-okay, showing his ailments are behind him with a stolen base in the 2nd inning
- David Ortiz put together a good night going 2-4
Buchholz pitched an absolute gem today. Maybe its the new hairdo? Maybe the new pitching coach? Whatever it is, Buchholz should keep doing it.
While Layne was charged with the earned run, I put this game on Tazawa and the Red Sox coaching staff. Bogaerts nearly had Miller out at first and while Layne allowed the hit, it was Tazawa that allowed the game winning hit. The bullpen is going to need to work on being more consistent when pitching in a tie game.
The bats have been lagging a bit lately, with the Red Sox luckily being able to hold their own in pitching duels. Xander Bogaerts tripled in the 2nd scoring the first run of the game and he seems to be getting more and more comfortable as the season progresses. Other than that, the team didn’t do anything of note and is going to need to hit more consistently with runners on.
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