So the Red Sox could barely hit, but their pitching did well enough to grind out a win over Sonny Gray. No, I didn’t think I’d be typing this sentence 12 hours ago.
Top Play (WPA): Marcus Semien’s error in the 7th that allowed the second Boston run to score earned this award with a .126 WPA. That gave the Sox a crucial insurance run in a game that seemingly had an issue with men on base every inning.
http://m.mlb.com/video/v113673083/?query=&game_pk=414150
The A’s truly made some stellar plays in the field before that errant throw, but that one error was the difference here as it gave the Sox some breathing room in a game that was very close until the bitter end.
Bottom Play (WPA): Marcus Semien, come on down! He grounded into a double play in the 5th inning to erase Coco Crisp and himself, which resulted in a -.113 WPA. Semien certainly didn’t seem like the worst player out there, but these two plays really grounded any value he had today. He did have a leadoff triple, which isn’t awful, but Miley summoned some devil magic and kept him there for the rest of the inning.
Key Moment: It’ll probably be glossed over when it’s all said and done, but Junichi Tazawa’s outing today was simply amazing. Eleven pitches, 10 strikes, two strikeouts and four outs total. While the first out in the 7th inning was to preserve a one-run lead, Tazawa had the 8th inning all to himself, and proceeded to completely shut down Josh Reddick, Billy Butler and Brett Lawrie on his way to protecting a two-run lead. For a game that close, having a shutdown inning like that after extending a lead is invaluable.
Trend to Watch: Wade Miley’s tendency to get out of every jam imaginable. The southpaw had a 52.8% LOB% coming into this game, and yeah, he was probably due for some improvement, but no one expected it to happen all at once. Now it’s at 61.5%, all because Miley got out of these crises:
- 1st inning – Miley walked the first two batters, then got two groundouts and a lineout to center.
- 2nd inning – Miley issued a one-out walk then gave up a single, then got a lineout and induced a groundout.
- 3rd inning – Marcus Semien tripled to lead off the inning. Next three batters popped out, flied out and grounded out.
- 4th inning – Josh Phegley hit a one-out double. Miley got a groundout from Billy Burns and Eric Sogard popped out.
- 5th inning – Coco Crisp reached on an infield single. Miley induced a Semien double play ball then works a flyout out of Josh Reddick.
- 6th inning – Miley gave up a leadoff single to Butler and walked Lawrie immediately after. He then proceeded to register a popout, a strikeout and a groundout.
- 7th inning – Actually, this inning was oddly “normal”. Miley got two quick outs, then was yanked for Junichi Tazawa, who got the third out with just one pitch.
Where were you when Wade Miley openly defied the baseball gods?
Coming Next: The Red Sox continue their first West Coast road trip of the season as they head north to Seattle for a four-game series against the Mariners. Roenis Elias is the starter in Thursday’s series opener, and he’ll oppose Joe Kelly. In the last three games that Elias has started, the Mariners have suffered a loss, but Elias pitched decently enough to give them a fighting chance – the last two losses were each by one run.
Photo by Kelley L. Cox/USA Today Sports Images