The Red Sox Got Their Dicks Kicked In By A Team On An 11-Game Losing Streak With A Lineup That Had 5 Hitters Batting Under .200
Is this rock bottom? It feels like rock bottom, but sadly, I feel like this team is capable of worse right now.
It’s a very strange position to be in, because I’ve gotta think think that the Red Sox getting their doors blown off by the worst team in the division, who had lost 11 straight games coming into Monday night, who also featured five hitters in their lineup that were hitting under .200, that’s gotta be the low point of the season, no? But the “strange” aspect of it is that as hopeless as this team looks right now, they still hold a playoff spot. For now.
And I say “for now”, because they’re not going to hold onto that playoff spot for much longer if this continues. Not only that, but a lot of hope was riding on the return of Eduardo Rodriguez to this Red Sox rotation, and the 25th worst hitting team in the majors just kicked his ass so bad that they sent him back to Pawtucket. Rodriguez was only able to make it through 2.2 innings, allowing 9 earned runs on 11 hits. It’s fucking pathetic.
The highlight of the game wasn’t even a play on the field. It was when Dustin Pedroia came out to the mound and chewed Rodriguez out in the first inning after the left-hander had allowed five runs to start the game. After the game, Pedroia opted to keep the conversation private, but you can read his lips at the end saying, “Let’s fucking go,” while being quite visibly pissed off. Rightfully so.
If I had to guess, I’m assuming that the gist of Pedroia’s message was to figure it the fuck out, have the balls to actually compete out there, and keep the Red Sox in the game, because Boston’s offense is capable of bailing him out of a 5-0 hole. And he was completely right. If Rodriguez were able to hold the Rays to five runs, the Red Sox ended up scoring seven runs after that, and who knows how the bullpen is handled from there?
Instead, Rodriguez rolled over and died, the Red Sox got smoked, and now he’s back in good ol’ Pawtucket. The first question here, is can Rodriguez be fixed? Yes. It’s a somewhat easy fix, really. The guy only has two pitches — fastball/changeup. He has a slider, but it sucks. Rodriguez threw 13 sliders last night, 5 were balls and one was crushed for a home run. He doesn’t feature it enough to give hitters something else to think about, and when he does, he can’t throw it for a strike so they’re still not thinking about it. And if, by chance, it makes its way into the strike zone, it gets crushed into the 30th row. That’s what Rodriguez needs to work on in Pawtucket, and don’t come back until you have a third pitch. It doesn’t even need to be a slider. Just give me SOMEthing.
Last night, I was venting about how it feels like the Red Sox are always playing from behind. Well, now we have the statistic to back up that feeling. The Red Sox have the highest first inning ERA in all of baseball at 6.28. They’ve allowed 54 first inning runs in 76 games. Also, the league average ERA in the first inning is 4.58, just to give you an idea of how much worse they are than the rest of the pack. Over their last 15 games, the Red Sox have been outscored 22-0 in the first inning, which equates to a 13.20 ERA in the first, and they’ve lost 10 out of those 15 games.
This tweet from Nick Cafardo says it all:
When the Red Sox score first this year, they’re 26-13. And when they don’t? They’re 15-22. That’s how crucial it is for the Red Sox to get out to early leads, but how can they possibly do that when they don’t have a single starting pitcher within their entire organization who pitches well early in games? I feel bad for the poor son of a bitch that Dave Dombrowski brings in here, if he ever does, because everyone is going to look to this poor bastard to save the entire season, and it’s going to take more than one body to do that at this point. They need the guys who are already here to figure it the fuck out. Until then, I guess we’ll just have to sit back and watch this team get their shit rocked by the friggin’ Tampa Bay Rays, one of the worst hitting teams in the MLB.
By the way, this was the eleventh time this season that the Red Sox have scored five runs or more and lost.
Final score: Rays 13, Red Sox 7