The Red Sox’ bullpen went unaddressed on the commerce deadline final Tuesday. Every week later, it price them once more.
On the day they misplaced one among their most vital bullpen arms, nearer Tanner Houck, to the injured record, his absence was felt instantly. The Red Sox’ lack of high quality bullpen depth confirmed up late Tuesday evening, as right-hander Kaleb Ort – freshly referred to as up from Triple-A – gave up the game-winning runs within the Eleventh inning, the distinction of their 9-7 loss to the Atlanta Braves at Fenway Park.
The shorthanded Red Sox fought valiantly, as they battled to erase 4 deficits. But after Rich Hill solely lasted 4 innings, their bullpen may solely maintain up so lengthy. Ort gave up a two-run single to Austin Riley – finishing the Braves third baseman’s five-RBI evening – and that sealed the Red Sox’ fifth loss in six video games.
Houck is out for 2 weeks with low again irritation. If the Red Sox’ bullpen already wasn’t sturdy sufficient earlier than, it’s going to be much more tough for the foreseeable future.
“It’s going to be tough but guys have to step up,” Red Sox supervisor Alex Cora stated. “(Matt) Barnes, (Hirokazu) Sawamura, the lefties. Regardless of if he was healthy or not, we have to throw the ball better.”
The bullpen was already shaky effectively earlier than extras. Jarren Duran hit a go-ahead homer within the fifth, however Barnes gave it up straight away with a two-out stroll to No. 8 hitter Orlando Arcia, adopted by giving up a game-tying double to No. 9 hitter Michael Harris II. Another stroll to Ronald Acuna Jr. ended his evening.
Sawamura extinguished that risk earlier than issuing a pair of back-to-back two-out walks himself, forcing Cora to get John Schreiber, who labored out of the jam. But then Garrett Whitlock allowed a go-ahead run within the eighth, a two-out RBI double by Dansby Swanson.
The Braves scored 5 of their first six runs with two outs. And the bullpen couldn’t get outs once they wanted them, permitting 5 runs over six innings.
Facing a Braves bullpen that options Raisel Iglesias and All-Star Kenley Jansen, Ort couldn’t match up.
But with out Houck, and having already burned Whitlock and Schreiber, Cora had no different alternative however to go along with the rookie. Ort allowed a run within the tenth, then – after the Red Sox responded with J.D. Martinez’s game-tying sac fly – the highest of Atlanta’s lineup had no bother with him.
Acuna singled, then stole second to place runners on second and third with one out. Shortly after, Riley hit a pointy single to left that simply scored Harris from the third earlier than an aggressive send-home of Acuna paid off, because the star outfielder made an unbelievable slide to evade Kevin Plawecki’s tag on the plate to offer the Braves a two-run cushion, and in the end the sport.
Houck may solely watch from the sidelines.
“Heartbreaking,” Houck stated of being harm. “Any time you go on an IL stint, it’s going to be heartbreaking no matter what. You want to be out there competing with the guys every single day. Just counting the days until I’ll hopefully be back.”
Other takeaways from Tuesday’s loss:
* After struggling in his first begin after coming off the injured record final week in opposition to the Astros, Rich Hill didn’t have it once more. Though he completed sturdy, the left-hander lasted simply 4 innings and gave up seven hits and 4 runs, together with an enormous two-run homer by Riley that cleared every part in left.
“I was terrible,” Hill stated. “I have a lot of other words for it. Made a bad pitch to Riley and still hasn’t landed. It’s frustrating. It’s really frustrating. Gonna start to work again tomorrow. We’re better than what we’re showing. I think we fought really hard tonight to come back and put ourselves in a position, came up short. But that starts with me and not giving the bullpen a chance. We had to go to the bullpen early. I couldn’t get through five innings. That doesn’t sit well with me.”
* Trevor Story began swinging a bat this week as he works his approach again from a small hairline fracture close to his proper wrist. In the meantime, Christian Arroyo is maintaining his seat heat.
Arroyo continued his scorching stretch Tuesday evening with two hits and three RBI, together with the go-ahead two-run homer to useless middle within the second inning. After the Red Sox fell again behind, Arroyo hit a game-tying RBI double within the fourth. He’s hitting .455 with a 1.183 OPS since coming off the injured record on July 30 as he’s develop into a viable substitute for Story and a major improve over Jeter Downs, who was seeing time earlier than then.
“He’s been really good,” Alex Cora stated earlier than Tuesday’s recreation. “Offensively he’s been hitting the ball hard since the get go. … I don’t know how he does it. I’ve been there as a utility guy that he misses x-amount of games, plays one in Triple A and he hits. Probably not overthinking stuff and keeping it simple.”
* In his dwelling debut with the Red Sox, Eric Hosmer left after the fourth inning with a left knee contusion. The first baseman fouled a pitch off himself in his fourth-inning at-bat and limped away, making Alex Cora and the coach come out to take a look at him. He stayed within the recreation and completed the at-bat, however was taken out to begin the fifth and changed by Bobby Dalbec.
“Sore. Very sore,” Cora stated of Hosmer. “It was on the back knee. He’s day to day. Most likely he won’t play (Wednesday). He should be OK.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com