Game 65 Recap: Braves 4, Red Sox 2

The sun came up, the day of the week ended in a ‘y’, the Red Sox lost a baseball game.

Top Play (WPA): The top three plays of the game all belonged to Braves’ hitters and all came in their three-run fourth inning against Red Sox starter Rick Porcello. With one out, Freddie Freeman singled and then stole second base. Nick Markakis then singled to score Freeman (WPA: + .108). Juan Uribe singled to right field advancing Markakis to second, who then advanced to third on a Kelly Johnson flyout to right and scored on a wild pitch (WPA: + .098). The wild pitch also allowed Uribe to move into scoring position, which proved costly as he came in to score on A.J. Pierzynski’s single to right field (WPA: + .082). All told it was a rough inning for Porcello, and especially frustrating as a couple of the hits were blooped in.

Bottom Play (WPA): The Red Sox made some noise in bottom of the ninth, and did it all with two outs. After the first two batters were retired, Pablo Sandoval doubled, and then Mike Napoli reached on an Andrelton Simmons error. Mookie Betts roped a 3-2 Jason Grilli slider back up the middle for a single, scoring Sandoval and allowing Napoli to get to third – the Red Sox’s top play of the night (WPA: + .051). The tying run came to the plate in the form of Alejandro De Aza, who was inserted as a pinch hitter for Sandy Leon. But De Aza, who as far as I can tell is only on this team because he is a better hitter than Jackie Bradley Jr., grounded out to Grilli to end the game (WPA: – .093).

Key Moment: This game, while a loss, could have been much worse. The Braves loaded the bases in the seventh inning against Porcello. With the game still in reach at 3-0, John Farrell summoned Robbie Ross Jr. from the bullpen to get the team out of the jam. Yes, you read that right. Robbie Ross Jr.. After allowing a single to Jace Peterson, the first batter he faced, Ross Jr. managed to get Cameron Maybin to ground into an inning-ending double play, extinguishing any chance for further damage.

A second key moment came from Sandoval, who connected for his first extra-base hit against a left-handed pitcher. He did so hitting left-handed, as it appears he will abandon switch-hitting for the foreseeable future. Coming into the game he had gone 62 plate appearances against lefties without an extra-base hit (13 as a LHB, 49 as a RHB). The double was the 200^th of his career, which he was well aware of, as he immediately asked for the baseball upon sliding into second base safely. His second double of the night, in the ninth off Grilli, was Pablo’s 1000^th career hit. It was quite a night of milestones for the Panda.

Trend to Watch: Player/team meetings. Players meet with their teammates and manager many, many times throughout the season, so it is not necessarily a big deal when a team meets and makes a point of telling the media a team meeting was held. But, after yesterday’s team meeting, the Red Sox have now had (by my count) four such meetings after ugly losses. Each time players and coaches have reported that the meeting was aimed at getting focused on the right things and moving in a positive direction. Here is a table with information related to performance around the dates of the meetings this season:

I am sure that if the Red Sox turn things around yesterday’s meeting will be held up as an important turning point. But the available evidence from the previous three times shows that the meetings approach has not been the boon it was intended to be. Perhaps the effect of the meetings is actually additive and had not yet crossed the critical threshold until now. Yes, that must be it. Not at all grasping at straws.

Coming next: The Red Sox continue their home-and-home, four-game series with the Braves tonight at Fenway. Wade Miley will be on the mound for the Red Sox. Miley, the center of some clubhouse controversy after his last start, will have an opportunity to get things back on track against the Braves, who have not hit left-handed pitching very well (71 wRC+). The Braves counter with young Julio Teheran, who is in the midst of his worst big league season statistically (4.78 ERA, 5.08 FIP). His strikeout rate is down, walk rate is up, and he has had trouble keeping the ball in the yard. He has already allowed 13 home runs this season, which is only nine fewer than the total he allowed in each of the previous two seasons. But, much of that issue stems from a ridiculous 17.3% HR/FB rate. Hopefully the Red Sox can jump on him early and maybe knock a few over the fence.

Photo by Mark L. Baer/USA Today Sports Images