Red Sox Finally Wake Up And Show The Indians Who The Big Swinging Dick In Major League Baseball Is

I kept getting tweets all day yesterday. “Rocket, are you gonna respond to the Ohio guy’s blog?” “Rocket, you have to retaliate to the Ohio guy’s blog ripping the Red Sox! Do it for us, Rocket!” The Rocket don’t punch down, boy. I let my team do the talking, because I knew that the pain train was about to roll into the station. Choo choo, bitch.

The Red Sox dropped the first two games of this four-game series. Big fuckin’ deal. Three-game losing streak. Big fuckin’ deal. Longest losing streak of the season. Big fuckin’ deal. They’ve already lost the first two and now Edwin Encarnacion is coming off the disabled list. Big fuckin’ deal. Have we been watching the same team for 128 games? Do I really need to convince you that the 2018 Red Sox are the best team in baseball? You think two losses changes that? Please.

It’s not like one win against the Indians changes the fact that they played poorly in the first two games, either. But, man. Some of these people were ready to jump off the bandwagon and start joining the talking heads in Boston that this is some sort of fraud team that can’t beat good teams when they’ve been handing out Stone Cold stunners to every team in the league since March (except for the A’s, but whatever). No need to name names, but there were some loyal Red Sox fans that were chalking this game up as a loss just because Brian Johnson was getting the start.

We talking about the same Brian Johnson here? The Brian Johnson that I’m talking about has a 3.38 ERA with 56 strikeouts in 64 innings since May 14. I’m not a big math guy, but that sounds pretty good to me. I dunno. He’s no ace, but he is your number five starter, and those are pretty damn good numbers for a number five starter. He’s not a guy that’s gonna go deep into an outing all that often either, so if that’s your concern, then let’s talk about that.

Johnson is gonna get you through a lineup twice, while giving you a chance to win just about every time. It’s that third time through the order that has given him problems. It feels like Alex Cora has caught on to this, because Johnson got the hook after 82 pitches in the fifth inning. The issue isn’t so much Johnson; it’s having to hand the game over to a bullpen that at times can be very good, and at times can torpedo an entire game. With an offense like Cleveland’s, it’s not the most ideal situation to ask your bullpen to get you 14 outs.

You know what helps that situation, though? Scoring a shit ton of runs, something that the Red Sox haven’t done all week. Over their season-worst three-game losing streak, the Red Sox hit zero home runs. The Red Sox are 76-32 in games that they’ve hit a home run in. That’s a .704 winning percentage, the best in the majors. In games that they haven’t homered in, which haven’t been very many, they’re 13-7, a .650 winning percentage. That’s still good, obviously, but there’s a noticeable drop-off in winning percentage when the ball doesn’t leave the yard for the good guys.

Not a problem. On Tuesday night, Xander Bogaerts hit two solo home runs, and Mitch Moreland added a two-run bomb on top of that. The big blow, though, came when Andrew Benintendi laced a bases loaded, bases-clearing, three-run double to cap off a five-run bottom of the fourth to make it 6-2, Boston. Six runs, five earned, came in to score on Carlos Carrasco’s tab, who came into this game with a 3.33 ERA, 11th best in the American League. Good pitcher.

The Red Sox banged out 10 runs on 14 hits, the 15th time the’ve scored at least 10 runs in a game this season. They were due. Teams go through slumps. The Red Sox were in one for a borderline unbearable three-game stretch. They’re not in one anymore. The trolls can go back under their bridges now. The panic in the streets can subside now. The Red Sox beat (massacred) a good team and they beat (destroyed) a good pitcher.

This, of course, doesn’t mean a whole lot if they don’t win on Thursday night. Can’t lose three of four to this team and come out of it feeling all that great. In the series finale, the Red Sox will be sending David Price to the mound against Adam Plutko. This Plutko guy, with all due respect, is somewhat of a shitbum. He’s got a 4.62 ERA, allowing 12 homers in 10 appearances over 48.2 innings. Price, on the other hand, has a 1.80 ERA with 41 strikeouts in his last 40 innings over his last six starts.

Win this one, split the series, and head down to Tampa for a weekend date with the Rays, a team that the Red Sox are 11-5 against this year.

Final score: Red Sox 10, Indians 4