The Red Sox Had Every Opportunity To Take A Series From The Dodgers And They Failed

After dominating the Dodgers on Friday night, the Red Sox had two chances to claim another series victory over LA (the last one being the World Series; I don’t know if you saw that one) with two of their best pitchers on the mound.

Chris Sale gave up five earned runs for a third consecutive start, as the Dodgers proceeded to run away with the middle game. Then, the Red Sox sent David Price to the mound in the rubber match against Hyun-Jin Ryu, who just so happens to lead the majors in ERA, the only pitcher in baseball with a sub-two. Price did the Red Sox no favors in the first, walking the leadoff batter, a second batter getting aboard via a Xander Bogaerts throwing error and then a three-run homer by AJ Pollock that went approximately 214 feet.

A three-run deficit after an inning isn’t the place you want to be when Ryu is on the mound. He’s given up more than two earned runs in a start just one time in 18 starts this year. That trend continued when the lefty chucked seven innings of two-run ball against Boston, both runs scoring in the first inning on a two-run base knock by Andrew Benintendi, our guest on Section 10 this week.

Down 4-2 in the 8th, it was looking like the Red Sox were going to go down without much of a fight, but that’s when Bogaerts launched a bomb over the Green Monster, his third straight game with a home run. In his last 13 games, Bogaerts is hitting .346 with an 1.164 OPS, 6 homers, 3 doubles and 20 RBI. He had never homered in three straight games before, either. JD Martinez followed up Bogaerts’ blast with a solo shot of his own to tie it, which only prolonged the suffering in the end.

It’s great that the Red Sox fought back and tied the game on back-to-back homers. It was fun and exciting at the time, but I think fans are pretty much all set with silver linings at this point. Just win the fuckin’ game. The Red Sox had every opportunity to do that and pissed each and every chance away. In the bottom of the ninth, they had the winning run at second base with one out. In the tenth inning, they had the winning run on first base with one out. In the eleventh inning — and this is the big one — the Red Sox got a leadoff double from Jackie Bradley Jr. and did not bunt him over. I repeat — did not bunt him over. Even his own teammates were confused.

Instead, Marco Hernandez got on base via a fielder’s choice on a ground ball to short that was flipped to cut down Bradley at third. That was basically the game right there. Actually, no. That was definitively the game. You’ve got Bradley on second base with nobody out in the 11th inning; there’s no excuse to not bunt him over in that spot. Can’t happen. The longer the game goes, the lesser your chances are of winning because of how trash the bullpen is. Have to get that run in, and the Red Sox just didn’t execute Baseball 101.

Hector Velazquez came in and gave up three runs in a disaster of an inning, but I don’t think anybody really cared by that point. It was almost expected after leaving Bradley’s leadoff double just sitting out there, begging to be driven in an inning prior. The Red Sox will play the Blue Jays and Orioles after this and they’ll probably slap them both around, but when you can’t beat good teams, who cares? This has been a season of winnable games that the Red Sox simply didn’t win. They’ve been a team that’s been good enough to at least be in a position to win against good teams, but they just don’t.

And as one last kick in the balls, Joe Kelly came in to slam the door shut in the 12th. He’ll be on Section 10 next week.

Final score: Dodgers 7, Red Sox 4