Offense goes cold as the Red Sox lose two out of three to the Blue Jays

Thoughts from the Red Sox disappointing series against the Blue Jays

After splitting a series with the Minnesota Twins, the Boston Red Sox welcomed the rival Toronto Blue Jays to town for a three-game set.

Ace Nathan Eovaldi took the ball in game one and allowed just one run over 4 2/3 innings. Yet the Red Sox could get little going against Blue Jays starter Yusei Kikuchi, and the score remained knotted at one entering the bottom of the seventh. There, the Red Sox squeezed across a run on a sacrifice fly by Connor Wong, and the Red Sox bullpen dominated over 4 1/3 scoreless innings to close out a 2-1 win.

Game two began with a ceremony to honor the late great Jerry Remy, but it turned into the worst Red Sox game of the season. The Blue Jays knocked around starter Nick Pivetta in a five-run second inning, and the Red Sox went just 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position. To top it off, J.D Martinez left the game with a injured hip, and Trevor Story got hit in the head with a Jose Berrios fastball.

The Red Sox anemic offensive performance continued into game three. Kevin Gausman absolutely dominated over eight shutout innings, striking out eight batters and walking none. The Red Sox were able to make things interesting with a ninth-inning rally but fell just short in a 3-2 loss.

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.

Game Two Thoughts: Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 1

• 1-for-14. That’s what the Red Sox hit with runners in scoring position in this one. That’s pretty much all you need to know.
• Kiké Hernández needs a day off. His poor at-bats are beginning to link together. His first two began the game with a frustrating sequence: A line out to center to lead off in the first, and a pop-up to first with first and third and one out in the second. His anger became visible in his third at-bat, when he slammed his bat on the ground on a weak popup to second. A player, especially a leadoff hitter, cannot afford to carry over the frustrations of one at-bat to the next ones. If there was ever a player who needed a mental day, it’s Hernandez.
• The best thing you can say about this game is that it could have been much worse. In a span of three batters, J.D Martinez hurt his hip running to second base and Trevor Story got hit in the head in the 93 mile-per-hour fastball. Fortunately, Story stayed in the game and Martinez is day-to-day, preventing a terrible game from becoming catastrophic.
• I mean, at least the Red Sox got 10 hits! Jackie Bradley Jr. continues to swing that bat well, Martinez had a pair of knocks before exiting, and Bogaerts is now hitting a solid .318. The Red Sox are not going to go 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position every game, and it’s only a matter of time before the Red Sox turn these baserunners into runs.
• Obviously, Nick Pivetta did not have the best outing of his life, but his last two innings were very encouraging. He struck out four batters and walked none during that span, and his velocity ticked up, regularly hitting 95 after spending the first two innings in the low 90s. Pivetta needs to show he can do it over a full game, but we should be encouraged by how he finished the game.
• Philips Valdez is became indispensable. The guy just comes in and attacks the zone. A pitcher like that is so valuable
• Let’s cool in on the Tyler Danish hype train. He may have struck out five of the seven batters he faced, but he’s still a career minor leaguer, and his fastball still clocks in around 90 miles per hour. Two mop-up innings don’t change that.

Game Three Thoughts: Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 2

• The approaches at the plate today were just terrible. It’s one thing to not put runs on the board, but it’s another thing to not even put pressure on the pitcher. Gausman threw just 88 pitches over eight innings, including an incredible 70 of them for strikes, and only one runner reached second base off the right-hander
• Rafael Devers is particular deserves some criticism. He is mired in his first slump of the season, but instead of being patient and looking for a pitch to drive, he is trying the bold maneuver of swinging at everything the pitcher throws. Of the eight pitches Gausman threw out of the zone on Thursday, Devers swung at six of them, resulting in three fouls and three weak ground balls. Devers has the bat-to-ball skills to make contact on any pitch, but even he can’t drive a pitch in the dirt.
• Travis Shaw isn’t a major league player anymore. Again, it’s not just that he 0 for his first 13. It’s that he has yet to give a Red Sox a single quality at-bat. The fact that he bunted while ahead in the count 2-0 tells you everything you need to know about how things are going at the plate.
• It was at least nice to see the Red Sox put something together in the bottom of the ninth. Even though the rally fell short, it was the first time since Sunday they looked competent on offense. That should give them some momentum headed into the next series
• You can’t blame Bobby Dalbec for not getting the tying run in with a runner on third and one out. He got a pitch to drive and he hit it 103 miles per hour. He just hit it right at somebody.
• On the bright side, Xander Bogaerts had another 3-for-4 day and is now up to .354 on the season. That’s something that would have been unthinkable a couple of days ago.
• There’s no excuse for that ball dropping in the middle of the infield in the sixth inning to bring in the third Blue Jays’ run. That’s something last-place teams do. Dalbec has to call that ball.
• Tanner Houck was not nearly as sharp as he was on Saturday again the Twins, but he still gave the Sox a chance to win. The one point of criticism was his leadoff walk to rookie Gouske Katoh to start the Blue Jay’s third inning rally. You can’t walk a guy like that
• Houck’s whiff rate is also something to monitor. His swing-and-miss percentage on his fastball, slider and sinker have all significantly decreased from last year. He’s still been effective, but at a certain point the lack of swings-and-misses is going to catch up to him.