Too much Wei-Yin Chen, too much of the Orioles’ bullpen, too much of that second inning.
Top Play (WPA): In the bottom of the second, J.J. Hardy lined a two-out double off Rick Porcello into left field, scoring Delmon Young and giving the Orioles a 1-0 lead (+.121), one they wouldn’t relinquish.
The suddenly red-hot Brock Holt, who is now hitting .305/.395/.430 on the season, recorded the second and third highest positive WPA plays of the game, as both his third inning double (+.118) and sixth inning single (+.106) put the Red Sox in good positions to tie or take the lead, positions they would not take advantage of.
Bottom Play (WPA): After Holt’s single in the sixth put runners on the corners with no outs, Chen began to stall. A couple pick-off attempts queued Buck Showalter’s familiar stroll to the mound, and he removed Chen before further damage could be done. Good move. Tommy Hunter entered to face Hanley Ramirez, and three pitches later Ramirez checked out of the at-bat with a three-pitch strikeout (-.094).
Key Moment: Can a half inning count as a moment? (Consults dictionary.) Yeah, we’re gonna go with the top of the second inning here.
Xander Bogaerts started things off with a sure-thing double, a deep drive to center field that hit high off the wall. Adam Jones — that darn Adam Jones — played the carom perfectly, however, and delivered a one-hop strike to second. Upon further review, Bogaerts — who made it to second in around 8.6 seconds — was out.
Okay, no biggy. Good contact. We’ll get ‘em next time. Pablo Sandoval, the next batter, did just that, taking a pitch off the dirt and flipping it into left field. Then, like Bogaerts, he tried to run to second base. Travis Snider fielded the ball, spun, and, like Jones, delivered a one-hop strike to second. Sandoval, who made it to second just about as fast as Bogaerts did, was out.
Mercifully, that was the last close play at second that went against the Sox in the inning, because it ended with Jones making a spectacular lunging catch in center to rob Mookie Betts of extra bases.
Trends to watch: When will the hits start falling for Betts? He was robbed twice by Jones in center, and the second one topped the first. Betts seems like a good hitter, but his .234/.294/.364 line says otherwise. Of course, 200-some plate appearances doesn’t decide the quality of a hitter, and most of Betts’ peripherals — like his unsustainably low .253 BABiP, his walk and strikeout rates, and his batted ball velocity — indicate a turnaround is in order.
The good news: thanks to Betts’ defense and base running, he’s been a good player despite the season-long offensive slump, as Baseball Prospectus (1.5), FanGraphs (1.0), and Baseball Reference (1.7) peg him as an above average player. When the hits do start falling, there’s still an all-star caliber player here.
David Ortiz, too, has been struggling, and he’s put up an overall slash line nearly identical to Betts’. He sat on Wednesday night against the left-handed Chen, and he didn’t seem happy about it. Ortiz is hitting .114/.111/.157 against lefties this season in 72 plate appearances, with no walks and 14 strikeouts. From 2011-2014, Ortiz walked 9.7 percent and struck out 16.4 percent of the time against left handers, and he also OPSed over .890 in three of those four years vs. southpaws.
The good news: year-to-year handedness splits are notoriously quirky, especially in extra small samples, and Ortiz’s recent history vs. lefties is impressive. And if there is anything more to Ortiz’s struggles against same-sided pitching, the Red Sox don’t face another lefty, per ESPN, for seven games, which being in Atlanta might be a good rest day for Ortiz anyway.
Coming Next: The Sox look to avoid the three-game sweep against the Orioles on Thursday in a pitching matchup that features Wade Miley and Chris Tillman. After that, Boston returns home for three games against the Blue Jays, who will carry an eight-game winning streak into Friday’s contest, followed by two games against the Braves.
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