Red Sox Strut: Xander Bogaerts, Brian Johnson are stars of the week
By Sean Penney
Position Player Candidates
Christian Vazquez is making a compelling case for not only overtaking Sandy Leon as the primary catcher, but also for stealing his award for the best out of nowhere performance. The Sandyman shocked us all with a breakout season in 2016, while Vazquez is following suit this year. Given his track record as a lineup liability, we keep expecting a slump to come yet Vazquez won’t stop hitting. He went 4-for-7 (.571) with a double this week and is now hitting .350 for the season.
Mitch Moreland went 8-for-17 (.471) with a .994 OPS last week. The only downside to his performance at the plate was that none of those hits went for extra bases. How does a guy affectionately referred to as Mitchy Two Bags not crank out at least one double?
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This past week included the major league debut of Sam Travis, who appears to be Moreland’s platoon partner at first base for the time being. Travis beat out an infield single for his first career hit in his second trip to the plate. He would later add another base hit in his impressive debut and is 2-for-5 in his brief big league career.
The numbers for Deven Marrero won’t jump off the page, yet a .278 average last week for a guy that was supposed to be a black hole at the bottom of the lineup is nothing to scoff at. Marrero also blasted his first home run of the season – which was only the second of his career.
Dustin Pedroia continues to be a steady presence near the top of the lineup. He went 6-for-17 (.353) with three walks and a pair of doubles over the last five games. The veteran second baseman was removed early from a game last week with soreness in the left knee that cost him a few games last month and he ended up sitting out the next game. Pedroia returned to the lineup on Saturday and has racked up three hits over his last two games, showing his knee is fine.