Red Sox Strut: Mitch Moreland and Chris Sale lead the pack
The weekly article series where we examine the two players who deserve to strut their stuff for the Boston Red Sox. This week — Mitch Moreland and Chris Sale.
If you want to fully understand what the Red Sox Strut is, it means to have reason to walk with a confident, proud air around you. Some people mistake it for vanity, arrogance, or being pompous. This incorrect assumption is not what we mean. The Strut is about knowing that your deeds showed off your amazing skills to the baseball-loving public.
After the second week of the season, the Red Sox still seem to be trying to get their bearings and are still figuring some things out.
The team is a bit up-and-down to start the year, finding themselves in the middle of the AL East at 7-5. The bats have gone quiet for long stretches as Boston looks for a couple players to step as the reality of life after Big Papi sets in.
Still, with solid starting pitching and a true ace in Chris Sale leading the attack, the Red Sox clearly remain one of the favorites to go for it all this year. Let’s take a look at who was contributing this week and who has earned the right to Strut.
Strutting Candidates: A Recap of the Red Sox offense last week
With 32 total runs scored over the course of the week, the Red Sox averaged about 4.5 runs per game. This isn’t lighting it up by any means, but should be enough to get some victories with good pitching in the mix. And that is basically what they did – they earned “some” victories and had an average week with a record of 4-and-3.
Many beat reporters and fans assumed that if anyone was ready to take over the reins from a retired David Ortiz, that player would have to the electric Mookie Betts. That hasn’t quite come to fruition as of yet in 2017. While Betts had a couple big games against the Rays going 7-for-9 with two RBI, he also had a tough 0-for-4 performance on Saturday. In fact, that is the problem with Betts thus far. Too many games without a hit or getting on base. Betts had three games last week without a hit.
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Andrew Benintendi is also going through some growing pains with a few “0-for” performances of his own. He did add a few RBI as well though. Ideally, it would be great to afford John Farrell the ability to move Benintendi down in the lineup this early in the season but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards right now. His 3-for-4/2 RBI performance on Marathon Monday was crucial however.
Pablo Sandoval’s struggles continue. Farrell even decided to have the Panda take a seat on Thursday to clear his head and again on Monday. Farrell has talked about how Sandoval maybe trying a bit too hard in order to redeem himself after a couple rough seasons in Boston. Perhaps the great Miguel Cabrera will have a lasting effect on Sandoval in order to get him out of this funk, as ESPN’s Scott Lauber recently noted. Ironically, despite his problems at the plate, he seems to be the only Sox player who can hit a homerun at this point. He had two last week to give him three total on the year so far.
Xander Bogaerts and Hanley Ramirez are both starting to come along. They missed last Monday’s game, but returned to the lineup on Tuesday. They began the week slowly, but came around. Bogaerts had an 8-for-13 stretch over three games with four RBI. Hanley is still getting over the shoulder injury and is really just adding a hit here or there but added five big RBI last week.
We can’t forget about ol’ trusty Dustin Pedroia who continues to be a leader and a solid top-of-the-lineup guy for Boston. He did have a couple tough games going 0-for-3 with a strikeout against Baltimore and 0-for-5 on Sunday against Tampa. Pedroia had eigh hits total for the week, and the Sox would probably like to see even more out of Pedey going forward to get this lineup going.
And this week’s offensive Strutter is…Mitch Moreland
When the Red Sox brought in the 31-year old Mitch Moreland as a free agent this offseason, most fans weren’t expecting much out of him. They were just hoping to get an average hitter that could help platoon first base with Hanley Ramirez. Boston has been getting way more out of Moreland than they could have ever imagined.
Moreland’s career batting average is .255. He is currently hitting a whopping .356 in 45 at-bats this year. And the guys is just a doubles machine! Moreland cracked six doubles just last week and also clobbered a home run. On a team that is struggling with power numbers, those doubles really come in handy and have provided a spark for the rest of the offense. NESN noted that Moreland even set a record for the most doubles through just 12 games.
His average last week was an amazing .407 (11-for-27) and he’s striking out a lot less than he has previously in his career. Not only is on fire at the moment, but timely hitting has been crucial for Moreland.
He wasn’t able to get one of his signature doubles on Sunday, but he decided to contribute in a different way with two huge singles and three big-time RBI including the a two-run single that proved to be the game-winner.
I’m not expecting Moreland to keep this pace up for the whole year, but the Red Sox need to take advantage of it while they can and while their go-to guys like Betts, Bogaerts and Hanley get back on track in 2017. Perhaps a change of scenery has reenergized Moreland. Whatever it is, I hope it keeps up because it has led to him strutting his stuff this week!
Strutting Candidates: A recap of the Red Sox pitching staff last week
With Chris Sale at the top of the rotation and David Price on the DL, it was obvious that Boston would need someone else to step up in 2017. Many fans hoped that Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello would continue his run right into this year and be that clear number two in the rotation. Unfortunately, that hasn’t quite been the case thus far. Porcello seems to be laboring a bit more this season, and he got clobbered on Friday night by the Rays. He wasn’t able to keep the ball down and paid for it going only 4.1 innings and giving up eight runs on eight hits. He also allowed a ridiculous four homeruns.
Steven Wright still doesn’t look like the same guy that many were clamoring for to start the All-Star game last year. He couldn’t get out of the second inning against Baltimore Wednesday night and also gave up four home runs. Sure, he regrouped with a better performance on Marathon Monday but it’s tough to get that awful taste from the Orioles game out of my mouth.
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Eduardo Rodriguez is starting to cement himself as a solid middle of the rotation arm. It would be nice to see him extend his outings beyond the fifth or sixth inning, but allowing just two runs with eight strikeouts is a very good start for the lefty.
The bullpen has been better in week two for Boston. They didn’t have any major meltdowns, although they did get hit around by the Orioles in Wright’s start which is to be expected when you have to go to the pen in the second inning. Craig Kimbrel now has six saves on the season and has looked pretty good, even dominant at times versus the Rays over the weekend.
The strut runner-up this week is definitely Drew Pomeranz. In fact, I almost was ready to award him the honors, but I just couldn’t get passed allowing two home runs and only getting through 4.1 innings on Sunday against Tampa. He did have ten K’s though. And last Tuesday against Baltimore he had a great showing going six innings and allowing just one run on four hits with a walk and six strikeouts. You can’t ask for much more from Pomeranz, except to last a bit longer in the game on Sunday like Maureen Mullen notes on MLB.com. That is very close to strut-worthy, but it just wasn’t quite enough.
Chris Sale gets to strut once again
It’s the second week of the season and it’s the second time that Chris Sale has been honored with the chance to strut. What else is there to say about this guy – he’s a machine. Sale has come as advertised if not even better than what Sox fans expected. Every outing so far has been a pleasure to watch. He works quickly, deliberately and understands what he needs to do to get each batter out.
He was involved it two great pitching duels this week. He lost the first one on Monday to Justin Verlander and the Tigers, although reliever Justin Wilson actually got the official victory. Sale was great though – 7.2 innings and just five hits and two runs allowed with ten strikeouts and one walk. That’s a tough way to lose, but he would find redemption on Saturday.
With the Rays in town, this time Sale would be the beneficiary of the 2-1 win. He shut the Rays down too allowing just three hits and three walks to go with another big time number of strikeout with twelve.
He’s not allowing the long ball to be hit off of him and he’s not really allowing many baserunners at all for that matter. When someone does get on base, Sale doesn’t allow it to alter his approach and he shuts the door on opposing batters before they can get any momentum. The pace at which he pitches also comes into play here in keeping batters guessing.
Next: Eduardo Rodriguez on paternity leave
It’s truly an event every time he pitches and one I’m looking forward to all season. In fact, he’s already being compared to the best pitcher I’ve ever seen in a Red Sox uniform in my life – the great Pedro Martinez. I’m not sure who on the Boston staff is going to be able to dethrone the reigning strutter for two weeks straight now.