Rick Porcello is gonna win the Cy Young, you guys. And he’s mostly gonna deserve it.
Top Play (WPA): You may have seen this mentioned once or twice, but Mookie Betts enjoys playing at Camden Yards. The MVP candidate drove out a two-run homer in the bottom of the third, driving in Xander Bogaerts to give the Red Sox the lead (.213 WPA). He almost homered again last in the game, which would’ve given him nine homers in seven games in Baltimore this season. Maybe he’ll get there tomorrow.
David Ortiz also hit a homer to stay in shape, driving in Dustin Pedroia with a bomb in the fifth (.136). This team is good at making baseballs go a long way.
Bottom Play (WPA): With two outs and a runner in second in the bottom of the fourth, Chris David did not strike out, homer or walk. Instead he flied out harmlessly to center field, netting in -0.44 WPA. The Orioles never really challenged the result again.
Key Moment: With a perfect game through 4.2 innings pitched, Porcello hit Manny Machado, an athletic toddler wearing permanent Mickey Mouse ears. Machado proceeded to bark at Porcello, who kindly asked Machado to shut up and take his base. Let’s be generous here and say Machado was just trying to disrupt Porcello and get in his head.
It didn’t work. Porcello did allow Machado to score on a Mark Trumbo double, but that was one of just two runs he’d allow en route to an 89-pitch complete game.
Trend to Watch: Rick Porcello is good. The Red Sox are good. They are just two games behind the Rangers for the best record in the AL, which would be good. Things are good.
Coming Next: The Red Sox probably should not be favored to win tomorrow, as Eduardo Rodriguez will face off against Kevin Gausman. Still, the Red Sox offense is good (covered above) and Ed is capable of being good, but maybe things will be good after all. We’ll see.
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