AP Photo/Charles Krupa via ESPNBoston.com
The Red Sox won last night. They beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-4. Bucholtz got the win, Scott Downs was credited with the loss, and Koji notched save number 19. Just another night in Boston.
Admittedly, that win felt very good. I’m trying not to delude myself into thinking it means anything significant, because we all know how the narrative goes. “If you get some momentum going, anything can happen, blah, blah.” As much as I want to believe in that, there’s just no evidence that supports that theory. We saw it earlier this year, when after winning seven straight, we went on to drop seven of ten. Momentum is an elusive and impalpable specter that may or may not exist in baseball, and in the absence of certainty, we must carry on as if it does not exist.
All that being said, there was something about this game that felt like we had turned a corner. Perhaps it’s because we’re in the post-All-Star Break haze and every team feels like they have a new lease on life, but I like to think its because we played up to our potential last night. Farrell sent ten guys to the plate last night, and eight of them recorded a hit. The Sox did a tremendous job of seeing pitches tonight, as they knocked starter James Shields out of the game in less than six innings, having thrown 112 pitches. Shields, to his credit, only served up one walk, but the Red Sox had a collectively fantastic approach last night. The Red Sox didn’t swing on the first pitch once against Shields. Not a single Sox hitter swung on the first pitch until Napoli fouled one off in the bottom of the sixth. Each player showed incredible restraint and resilience at the plate. Brock Holt saw 27 pitches over 5 plate appearances last night, nearly 17% of all pitches thrown! This was a pattern throughout the game, as seven of last night’s ten batters had at least two five or more pitch at-bats. Truthfully, however, if you look at the MLB pitches per plate appearance leaderboard, you’ll see names like Bogaerts and Napoli near the top, but there have been few games this season where it has seemed like the team has decided upon a collective game plan. As individualistic as this sport is, there are certain moments where a spectator can discern and identify a team’s coordinated game plan, and when one can witness its success, it’s magical.
There was also a nice display of power from both Jonny Gomes and Xander Bogaerts. I was actually planning on addressing Gomes’ skill set this week and which contenders could benefit from it, but I was slightly worried he’d be traded and render the whole analysis moot, at least from the perspective of Red Sox fans. But if the Sox can win this series, perhaps they’ll be able to hold onto Gomes a little longer and give me time to delve into what makes him valuable and which teams could use him (hopefully the Red Sox will be among those teams).
Bucholtz didn’t look terrible last night, but he didn’t look great either. The good news is that he threw a ton of strikes and didn’t walk anyone; however, he only struck out three batters in six innings, thusly, there were a lot of balls in play. Clay’s batted ball profile for the game wasn’t terrible, though. Nearly 63% of all the balls put in play were on the ground, which is good because you can avoid the long ball that way, but balls on the ground tend to turn into base hits more often than fly balls. He didn’t allow a ton of hard contact (5 line drives and 4 fly balls), and he kept the ball in the yard. While his final line score was certainly less than impressive (6.0 innings; 10 hits; 4 earned runs; 3 strikeouts; 0 walks), it looks as if Bucholtz is continuing to build on the success he’s enjoyed in his last few outings.
No one knows how the Sox will do from here on out. Realistically, things don’t look good, but as Joe Sheehan tweeted last night, with as many flaws as the Orioles have (and the Yankees and Blue Jays, for that matter), it’d be silly to count out the Red Sox (and the Rays, ick), at this point in the season. It feels like we’ve been saying this since May, but it really feels like this next ten game stretch will tell us everything we need to know about the 2014 Red Sox. Honestly, we’ll probably keep saying that until we’re mathematically eliminated, but fanaticism dies hard.