On Saturday, Boston’s ‘Little Engine That Possibly Could’ got here to a screeching halt.
After cruising to victory with a barrage of residence runs in Friday evening’s collection opener in opposition to the Chicago Cubs, the Red Sox discovered themselves on the receiving finish of the same offensive onslaught; a collection of questionable defensive choices and miscues coupled with an uncharacteristic collapse by James Paxton culminated in a 10-4 loss to the third-place 43-48 National League Central workforce.
Highlights had been few and much between. Justin Turner prolonged his hitting streak to 11 video games with a pair of doubles, a run and RBI, and Triston Casas homered for the second time within the collection. At 112.1 mph and 425 ft, the rookie’s eleventh residence run of the yr was the farthest and hardest-hit ball of the sport.
By sport’s finish, the Cubs had tallied 12 hits and 4 walks and held the Red Sox to 6 and three. They had been 1-for-10 with runners in scoring place and left 4 males on base. Masataka Yoshida celebrated his birthday by having his main league-leading eight-game multi-hit streak snapped.
Kiké Hernández entered the day main the Majors with 15 errors, together with 14 at shortstop (12 throwing errors), and but, he was again on the place on Saturday with a major vote of confidence from his supervisor.
“I can say with confidence that we’ve turned that page a month ago,” Alex Cora instructed reporters pregame. “He’s been playing really good shortstop for us for a month now. We move him around but I’m very confident with him playing short. He found a few things he was doing mechanically-wise, and I think it’s paying off. So I don’t have any issue with him playing shortstop today.”
The Red Sox skipper was singing a special tune earlier than the All-Star break. Asked about Hernández’s function earlier than their July 6 sport, Cora confirmed that the utility participant’s major function could be second base, and added, “probably against lefties, he’ll play somewhere.”
On Saturday, he began Hernández at shortstop in opposition to Cubs right-hander Marcus Stroman.
Hernández made a defensive blunder within the third-inning, and although it wasn’t dominated an error, it proved pricey nonetheless. At the plate, he went 0-for-2, and although he drew a stroll and scored a run, his season numbers are right down to a .219 common and career-worst .600 OPS.
With Yu Chang again from the injured checklist, there’s little justification to start out Hernández at shortstop. The Red Sox entered the day with the perfect report within the American League since June 14 and the perfect mark within the majors because the thirtieth regardless of their center infield, but when they plan to be consumers on the upcoming commerce deadline and make a Wild Card push, they’ll have to make some troublesome choices within the close to future.
With how Paxton’s afternoon started, nobody may’ve predicted the competition would finish in such deflating vogue. The veteran left-hander opened his first profession begin in opposition to the storied Chicago franchise with two excellent innings, making it all of the extra baffling when he instantly got here undone firstly of the third. He issued a leadoff stroll to Christopher Morel, then hit Miguel Amaya, and walked Patrick Wisdom to load the bases with no outs.
The Cubs took a 1-0 lead when Hernández snagged, then bobbled a Nico Hoerner ground-ball; as an alternative of getting even one out, each runner was protected. The miscue was generously dominated a single.
Rafael Devers wasn’t so fortunate throughout the next at-bat. He acquired Wisdom at third on Seiya Suzuki’s force-out, however made a throwing error as Amaya scored, extending the result in 2-0.
Things unraveled at warp pace after that. Hoerner and Suzuki accomplished a profitable double steal and Paxton walked Happ to re-load the bases, simply in time to surrender a grand slam to Cody Bellinger. The Cubs had a 6-0 lead, all earlier than making a second out.
Paxton gave up a single earlier than getting a drive out and strikeout earlier than getting out of the inning. All instructed, 10 Cubs got here to bat within the body. After getting via every of the earlier two innings on 11 pitches, Paxton wanted 41 for his third and ultimate body. Tayler Scott, Joely Rodriguez, Joe Jacques, and Brandon Walter put collectively the remaining six innings.
“That doesn’t happen very often, but he’s human, like all of us,” Cora instructed reporters.
“They did damage,” Paxton mentioned.
This specific model of battle was a critical departure from the norm for the usually-stingy southpaw. He’d solely issued as many as three walks in one in all his earlier 10 begins. His 6.4 % stroll fee and a pair of.3 BB/9 ranked second-best of his profession.
Manager and pitcher agreed that his outing was paying homage to his begin in Anaheim on the finish of May. Until Saturday, it had been his worst begin of the yr; the Angels tagged him for 5 earned runs on 4 hits and three walks. Not solely had been the Cubs the primary workforce to match or exceed these run and stroll totals, they had been the one different workforce to attain greater than three runs off the veteran lefty.
Paxton has anchored the beginning rotation since his season debut in early May. As accidents befell Chris Sale, Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock, and Corey Kluber, who pitched his approach to a demotion to the bullpen earlier than becoming a member of his fellow arms on the sidelines, Paxton was the attention within the storm.
While Paxton’s day was removed from excellent, his response to the outing was.
“It’s not my first bad game, it won’t be my last,” he mentioned. “You’re going to have these all through a season, and it’s all about what you do to get again to doing what you wish to do on the market.
“We all fail, at times. And it’s more about how you deal with failure than the failure itself.”
How will the Red Sox cope with Saturday’s failure? Tune into the collection finale on Sunday to seek out out.
Source: www.bostonherald.com