J.D. Martinez was seemingly joking, however there was some fact to what he stated.
In the moments after Christian Vazquez was traded throughout the sphere on Monday shortly earlier than the Red Sox, instantly the catcher’s outdated crew, started a sequence with the Houston Astros, his new crew, Martinez famous the irony of the state of affairs.
“We were like, he just sat through all our hitters’ meetings and now he’s going over there to catch against us,” Martinez advised reporters in Houston.
Two days later, Vazquez made his first begin behind the plate for the Astros towards his former crew and the Red Sox had been promptly silenced.
Vazquez, clearly, wasn’t within the Red Sox’ hitters’ conferences on Wednesday, however his sturdy familiarity with their lineup most likely didn’t damage. And he and the Astros had been the beneficiary as starter Jose Urquidy’s sturdy run continued. He pitched seven dominant, shutout innings on a tough day for the Red Sox, whose well being points continued as they misplaced rookie pitcher Brayan Bello to an harm in a 6-1 loss at Minute Maid Park.
After back-to-back one-run victories to win their first sequence since June, the Red Sox fell again to earth as they couldn’t full the sweep and noticed their three-game profitable streak snapped.
Red Sox supervisor Alex Cora made a last-minute name to have Rich Hill — coming back from the injured record after a month away — begin as a substitute of Bello, who was initially supposed to begin. Cora deliberate to have Bello piggyback Hill in an effort to reset the bullpen. But it didn’t work out that method.
Hill was lit up over simply three innings wherein he gave up 4 runs on six hits, together with a two-run homer from Astros newcomer Trey Mancini. Bello took over within the fourth, however he solely recorded two outs earlier than trying to really feel discomfort after throwing a pitch. After a fast go to from Cora and the coach, Bello left the sport. He was later identified with a left groin pressure.
Bello lobbied to remain within the sport, however Cora didn’t let him.
“I was like, well, if I let you throw and you get really hurt, I’ll be going to Caguas,” Cora stated of dwelling in Puerto Rico. “So yeah, you’re out of the sport. …
“Hopefully it’s nothing serious. Something that is X amount of days and he can be OK.”
Without Bello, Cora went to Hirokazu Sawamura after which rookie Kaleb Ort for 3 innings. Ort was roughed up within the fifth, when Kyle Tucker hit a two-run double that put the Red Sox in a 6-0 gap. Ort’s size, nevertheless, allowed the Red Sox’ finest reduction arms to reset going into this weekend’s four-game sequence in Kansas City.
Hill was making his first begin since July 1 in Chicago, when he suffered a left knee sprain. The left-hander stated the knee held up wonderful, however he was disillusioned together with his effort.
“It was just poor execution, poor execution on the fastballs, poor execution on the breaking balls,” Hill advised reporters. “That’s what it got here right down to. I pitched like crap. That’s what it’s on the finish of the day. …
“I know the days are counting down, but we’re in a good position to go out there and to put ourselves in that spot to compete for a spot in the postseason, and it’s up to us as starters to give us more depth and length in these games to put ourselves in a position to win, and I didn’t do that today.”
It would have been powerful anyway to match Urquidy, who was dealing. The Red Sox have just lately hit Urquidy properly, chasing him for 5 runs in 1 2/3 innings in Game 3 of the ALCS final 12 months and producing 4 runs on 12 hits earlier this season. But the right-hander discovered a groove Wednesday. The Red Sox didn’t have a baserunner till one out within the fifth — when Alex Verdugo was hit by a pitch — and didn’t report a success till the sixth, when Reese McGuire — acquired on Monday from the Chicago White Sox in alternate for Jake Diekman — led the inning off with a single in his debut.
Tommy Pham adopted with a two-out double to place runners on second and third, however Rafael Devers struck out.
The Red Sox’ solely run of the day got here when Xander Bogaerts hit a solo homer to left within the ninth. Despite profitable two out of three, the Sox solely scored six runs within the sequence.
“Good pitching,” Cora stated. “I believe good fastballs. Not dangerous at-bats, however I believe they do this quite a bit to a whole lot of good lineups. Unique fastballs to sure spots they usually’re actually good at what they do. …
“Hopefully we see them again. That’s the goal here. They have a great team, they have a great program over there and have some good players but we feel like we can play with them. It’s just a matter of us picking our end of the bargain.”
After a busy three days in Houston that coincided with a busy and emotional commerce deadline, the Red Sox will get one thing of a breather earlier than beginning a winnable four-game sequence in Kansas City towards the last-place Royals.
“I think obviously it hasn’t been easy, but it’s part of the business,” Cora stated. “We got four. We have to be ready to play.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com