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Red Sox Strut: Hanley Ramirez, Craig Kimbrel finish out the month strong

By Matthew Loper

Apr 30, 2017; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel (46) pitches during the ninth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 30, 2017; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel (46) pitches during the ninth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports /
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Apr 28, 2017; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi (16) is congratulated by right fielder Mookie Betts (50) after hitting a home run during the first inning against the Chicago Cubs at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 28, 2017; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi (16) is congratulated by right fielder Mookie Betts (50) after hitting a home run during the first inning against the Chicago Cubs at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports /

Strutting Candidates: A Recap of the Red Sox offense last week

Boston’s offense was just never clicking in the two games against the Yankees, and that’s putting it mildly. They only managed to cross the plate one time. They ended up picking it up a bit against Chicago scoring 15 runs in the three game series.

Clearly, no one was really hitting in the NY series besides Hanley Ramirez. There were a bunch of “0-for” nights throughout the order. The team overall was 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position for the series.

Pedroia did not play in the first game of the series after John Farrell decided to give him an extra day after the Machado slide forced him to miss some games with a sore knee. After going 0-for-4 the night after, John Farrell decided to move Pedroia down in the order for the first time in forever and he batted sixth in the Cubs series. He ended up with six hits and two walks so this may continue this week.

However, I don’t think that Xander Bogaerts is getting on base enough to warrant hitting him in the lead-off spot. He finished the week with just four hits and three walks. If this experiment is going to work, he’s going to need to be on base much more.

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The last couple offensive Strutters struggled this week. While Mookie Betts was the only Sox player to hit two doubles this week, he was only 4-for-18 with four strikeouts. Mitch Moreland was even worse. He had just one hit total on the week going 1-for-15 with four strikeouts of his own. Boston really needs these guys to get back on track.

Jackie Bradley Jr. wasn’t much better. I know he only returned to the lineup recently, but he clearly has not hit that stride that he hit last when he absolutely caught fire in the middle of the season. JBJ had just two hits for the week with a couple RBI and five strikeouts.

The catching duo of Sandy Leon and Christian Vazquez has been awful at the plate. Sure, these guys are great defensively, but Leon has completely lost his way with the bat going for 0-for-6 against the Yanks. Vasquez did have an OK game on Friday versus the Cubs going 2-for-4 with an RBI but only added one more hit the rest of the weekend.

Beside the actual Strut winner this week, the only bright spot in the lineup was Andrew Benintendi. He showed some perseverance after not getting a hit the NY series and then going 4-for-11 against Chicago with two homeruns and three RBI. Benintendi surely looks like he’s the real deal and is ready for the spotlight.

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