Game three: Not as much fun as game two.
Then Sunday happened. David Price allowed not one, not two, but five home runs over 3 1/3 innings. To add insult to injury he gave up eight runs, all earned, on nine hits to the Yankees.
David Price is ranked 125th of 126 Red Sox starting pitchers (min 5 GS) in career ERA vs the NYY
— Boston Sports Info (@bostonsportsinf) July 2, 2018
126th - Bob Kline - (1931-33) - 9.10 ERA
125th - David Price - (2016-18) - 8.43 ERA
Bob Kline made $8,250 in his 3 years
David price made more than that
details pic.twitter.com/4H3tV31u7I
Once again the Red Sox offense was virtually nonexistent. They went 4-31 as a team at the plate as they couldn’t solve Luis Severino all night. Severino allowed two hits over 6 2/3 innings in a masterful performance.
While the series could’ve gone better, there are some good things to take away. However, there are also a lot of bad things to take away.
What can we take away from the series?
First off, Sale was masterful against the Yankees on Saturday. According to his history, that performance was no surprise.
Chris Sale has a 1.03 ERA in his last 5 starts.
— J.P. Long (@SoxNotes) July 1, 2018
Among the 500+ pitchers who have made at least 10 starts vs. NYY in the Live Ball Era (1920-pres.), Sale owns the lowest career ERA (1.61) against the Yankees, as well as the highest SO/9.0 IP ratio (11.62).
However, look at this game from the Yankees perspective. Gray, who has clearly struggled all season, was his opponent. As a result the Red Sox were able to provide Sale with run support. Now, picture a few months down the road come playoff time.
If these two teams are to meet the chances of Sale facing Gray are slim to none. His counterpart would most likely be Severino. Which, based off of his last two performances against the Red Sox, will be a tough task for the Sox lineup.
Therefore, Sale can pitch as great as he wants. However, it won’t mean a thing if the Sox can’t get to Severino.
Although it happened once in the series, the Sox were able to put up runs against the Yankees bullpen. On Saturday the Yankees pen allowed five earned runs against the Sox. There’s a couple things to keep in mind while taking this in.