I really have nothing to say other than this.
Top Play (WPA): Dee Gordon’s lead-off triple in the 10th inning was worth a whopping .302 WPA. The Red Sox set themselves up for disaster here. Acting manager Torey Lovullo brought in Craig Breslow for the 10th inning, which sounds okay on paper as he’d face two left-handed hitters and Martin Prado in the first three plate appearances, and another LHH in Justin Bour waited just in case the fourth PA needed to happen. Then you realize that it’s Craig Breslow pitching. He left a fastball waist-high and middle-out and Gordon whacked it into the left-center field gap. Three ABs later, Bour walked him off. That was not a very fun sequence of events.
Bottom Play (WPA): The Marlins loaded the bases with no outs in the 7th. Alexi Ogando allowed a fly ball that wasn’t a home run(!!) off the bat of J.T. Realmuto. Rusney Castillo caught it and fired an absolute rocket to home to make sure no one advanced. That was worth -.130 WPA. The feeling of relief was short-lived, as Ichiro cranked a fly ball to deep right field – also not a homer! Progress! – that Castillo could not throw back in fast enough to keep the score from changing to 4-3. The Red Sox would escape the inning with that same score which, as you probably knew and expected, wouldn’t be enough for the bullpen.
Key Moment: Hoo boy. There are quite a few to pick from, but play that wins out is Junichi Tazawa’s battle with known bad hitter Adeiny Hechavarria. With runners on 1st and 2nd, Tazawa uncorked a wild pitch that Blake Swihart could not corral. Both runners advanced a base, making it much more difficult to preserve the 4-3 lead. A few pitches later, Hechavarria tied it. In the span of just eight pitches, Tazawa added to one of the most infuriating bullpen meltdowns this season. That takes talent.
Trend To Watch: There are a couple of note.
The first and more positive of the two is productivity from the outfielders. Jackie Bradley was 2-4 with a triple, Mookie Betts was 3-5 with a double and Rusney Castillo went 1-4 with a triple as well. Oh, and JBJ did something amazing again. Ho hum. Another day in the life.
The second and more pressing is the terrible, no good, very bad bullpen. Koji Uehara was by far the best reliever to come out of that tire fire, and with him gone, you better hope your starter goes the distance every time. Tazawa was already feeling fatigue, having allowed a .315 batting average since July 1st. Ryan Cook showed why he was traded for a PTBNL, and Breslow – well, he’s Breslow. If you expected any more from him than what happened today, I don’t know what to tell you. But maybe Ramsay Bolton does.
Coming Next: The Red Sox play yet another game by National League rules, this time with Eduardo Rodriguez pitching and hitting for them!
Photo by Robert Mayer/USA Today Sports Images