Much Like He Has Done All Season Long, Rick Porcello Gets The Red Sox Back On Track With A Complete Game
It’s still too soon to dance on Felger’s grave for our Rick Porcello debate, but his day of reckoning is coming.
The Red Sox were losers of six of their last seven games heading into last night in Anaheim, and they sent Porcello to the mound to put an end to this fuckery. If it feels like Porcello hasn’t thrown a nine-inning complete game with the Red Sox, it’s because he hasn’t. He threw three of them in 2014, his final year with the Detroit Tigers, which I’m sure was one of the reasons why the Red Sox gave up Yoenis Cespedes in order to acquire him in the first place. This is what he’s capable of when he’s at his best.
This is not hyperbole or an over exaggeration — Porcello has been for the Red Sox this year what David Price was supposed to be. Not from a dominance, ace-like standpoint, but in regards to all the things in between. After last night’s complete game victory over the Angels in which Porcello retired the last 21 of 23 batters he faced, including the last 11 batters in a row, Porcello improved to 6-0 when he pitches following a Red Sox loss. He has been their stopper all year long when things looked like they were about to spiral out of control. With the win last night, the Red Sox improved to 16-5 when he takes the mound this year. That means they’re an even 40-40 when anybody but Porcello gets the start.
Porcello improved to 14-2 on the season after his complete game, becoming the first Red Sox starter since Daisuke Matsuzaka in 2008 to win 14 of their first 16 decisions, according to ESPN Stats & Info. He’s made 21 starts this year, which means that he’s on pace for 34 starts. If he stays healthy — knock on wood — he has 13 chances to win six games in order to become Boston’s first 20-game winner since Josh Beckett in 2007.
Coming off arguably their worst loss of the season, the Red Sox got all the offense they needed from Jackie Bradley Jr. and Xander Bogaerts, who both went deep on Friday. For Bogaerts, that set a new career high in home runs, surpassing his mark of 12 in 2014. If he continues at this pace, he’ll end up with 21 homers and 106 RBI. Although it’s going to be exciting as hell to see Bogaerts finally reach the offensive numbers that we all thought he would, when he arrived at the big league level three years ago, let’s talk about JBJ for a second.
That dude, nobody knew what he was going to be this year. From what we knew of Bradley prior to 2016, he was either the hottest hitter on the planet or the coldest hitter in the universe, and his hot streaks were few and far between. He’s still kind of like that in terms of his streakiness, but he is finally achieving consistency at the majors now that Boston has committed to him as an everyday player. After his 17th home run of the season last night, Bradley is on pace to hit 27 home runs and drive in 99 runs. Tell me you saw that coming back in February so I can slap you in the face and call you a liar.
Final score: Red Sox 6, Angels 2