After one good collection in opposition to the Houston Astros, the Red Sox went again to enjoying dropping baseball this weekend in Kansas City.
Facing a Royals lineup that featured six rookies on Sunday afternoon, Kutter Crawford received knocked round for 5 runs in 5 innings and the bullpen seemed even worse within the Sox’ 13-5 loss at Kauffman Stadium.
The Red Sox misplaced three of 4 within the collection in opposition to the Royals, who’re in the midst of a rebuild and in fourth place within the American League Central.
The powerful stretch despatched the Sox again to 4-1/2 video games behind the Mariners for the third A.L. Wild Card spot.
The takeaways:
1. Jarren Duran is making a large number in middle subject.
The Red Sox can’t catch the ball, and that is nothing new.
They tried addressing their points at first base on Tuesday, once they acquired former Gold Glover Eric Hosmer to take over from Franchy Cordero and Bobby Dalbec.
But in middle subject, they received worse. They launched Jackie Bradley Jr. and dedicated to Duran in middle, the place he continues to look misplaced however retains getting despatched again on the market.
He made a nasty learn on a ball that changed into a triple off the bat of Kyle Isbel in Friday evening’s win, then made three extra errors on Sunday.
The first was within the fifth inning, when he made a nasty learn on a ball hit to deep middle and couldn’t run it down, main on to a double off the bat of Nate Eaton. Two batters later, Eaton scored on a homer by M.J. Melendez.
Things received actually ugly within the seventh, when Duran misplaced one other ball within the solar. Eaton hit a shallow fly to middle and Duran camped beneath it, however by no means had his glove shielding his eyes and misplaced observe of the ball. The ball bounced round as Eaton slid into third base with a triple.
He scored on the very subsequent play, when Duran took one other unhealthy learn on one other lengthy flyball to right-center off the bat of Isbel. Duran made his leap too early on the warning observe and had loads of room to work with, however the ball bounced off his glove and agian rolled round for a triple.
To make issues worse, Duran was seen yelling at Royals followers in middle subject. He informed reporters in Kansas City it was as a result of they had been throwing bottle caps at him.
It was an altogether catastrophe for the Sox, who scored two runs within the prime of the seventh on a homer by Tommy Pham that lower the Royals’ result in 5-3. But Duran’s errors led to a two-run seventh, then Darwinzon Hernandez issued 4 walks in a five-run eighth inning because the Sox had been laughed out of Kansas City.
After the sport, supervisor Alex Cora ignored Duran’s errors aside from the ball he misplaced within the solar, which Cora excused.
“Been there done that,” Cora stated on NESN. “You try to get the angle, you saw that right away. The only thing is, it’s not urgency, but it’s like, when you are in danger you scream for help so your teammates go to help him. But there’s nothing he can do there. He turned around and put his hand up and didn’t catch it.”
Duran ranks as one of many worst middle fielders within the massive leagues, getting into Sunday with negative-six defensive runs saved in comparison with the common defender. But with Kiké Hernandez nonetheless on the injured record and Bradley not on the roster, Cora dedicated to Duran.
“He’s our center fielder right now,” he stated on NESN. “We trust him. This is a kid that’s part of what we’re trying to accomplish and we’re going to keep rolling with him.”
2. Crawford’s good run involves an finish.
Entering Sunday, Crawford hadn’t allowed greater than three runs in a recreation in six consecutive appearances since July 4, posting a 2.52 ERA with 32 strikeouts to only 5 walks in 34 innings in that span.
But the aggressive Royals rookies had been throughout him on this one, resulting in a nasty mistake by Crawford within the third inning. With runners on the corners, he tried to throw to 3rd base to carry the runner, however Rafael Devers wasn’t near the bag and Crawford was known as for a balk that pushed dwelling the Royals’ first run.
They scored one other on a single by Melendez, then added three extra on Melendez’s homer within the fifth.
3. Nice day from the brand new guys.
Pham and Hosmer are simply getting settled on their new group, however till Sunday, they’d hardly made an affect.
Pham, the 34-year-old acquired from the Reds for a participant to be named later, entered the weekend 3-for-21 with 9 strikeouts in a Red Sox uniform whereas Hosmer, the 32-year-old acquired from the Padres for prospect Jay Groome, was 1-for-7 in his first two video games.
In the seventh, Pham wallopped a fastball down the pipe for a no-doubter to drive in Christian Arroyo and convey the Sox inside two. Pham was on base twice out of the leadoff spot on Sunday.
Hosmer was on base twice as effectively. He began the ninth inning with a double and later scored, but it surely was too little, too late because the Sox misplaced one more collection to a dropping group.
Source: www.bostonherald.com