Game One Thoughts: Red Sox 2, Blue Jays 1
- There is a clear circle of trust in the Red Sox bullpen. Hansel Robles, Matt Strahm, Garrett Whitlock, Philips Valdez and Jake Diekman have allowed just two runs in 32 1/3 innings (0.56 ERA) while the rest of the bullpen has allowed 15 runs in 19 1/3 innings (7.06 ERA). You would obviously like for every reliever in your bullpen to be effective, but having this many shutdown options significantly shortens the game.
- I want to give some love in particular to Robles. There wasn’t a lot of fanfare when he re-signed with the Red Sox this spring, but he has been nails so far in 2022, tossing five scoreless innings and allowing just one hit. The Red Sox desperately need another right-hander to complement Whitlock, and Robles looks to be that guy
- Eovaldi has another strong outing on Tuesday, allowing just 1 run in 4 2/3 innings. Yet his struggles to finish batters off continued, and he still hasn’t recorded an out in the sixth inning this season. His strikeout rate is actually higher than it was last season, but the whiff rate on four of his five pitches is lower. That inability to induce swings and misses forces Eovaldi to throw more pitches and therefore last shorter in his outings.
- This was as bad an offensive performance as you’ll see from a winning team. Their two runs came on two 89 mile per hour doubles in the third and an error, groundout and sacrifice fly in the seventh. It’s a miracle the Red Sox won this game.
- Bobby Dalbec’s at-bats just look terrible. Another 0-for-3 game dropped his batting average to .152. Yusei Kikuchi schooled him with three fastballs in the third, and his weak ground ball to the pitcher with first and third and nobody out in the fourth cost the Red Sox a scoring opportunity. Triston Casas is knocking on the door.