GAME #17 - MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2023 - LOS ANGELES ANGELS @ BOSTON RED SOX

[markj]

11:10AM Eastern

Red Sox

Brayan Bello (R)

1. Raimel Tapia (L) RF
2. Rafael Devers (L) 3B
3. Rob Refsnyder (R) LF
4. Masataka Yoshida (L) DH
5. Triston Casas (L) 1B
6. Enrique Hernandez (R) SS
7. Reese McGuire (L) C
8. Christian Arroyo (R) 2B
9. Jarren Duran (L) CF

Angels

Shohei Ohtani (R)

1. Zach Neto (R) SS
2. Shohei Ohtani (L) P
3. Taylor Ward (R) LF
4. Hunter Renfroe (R) RF
5. Gio Urshela (R) 3B
6. Jake Lamb (L) 1B
7. Brandon Drury (R) 2B
8. Logan O'Hoppe (R) C
9. Brett Phillips (L) CF

Gametime Temp: 50°F
Chance of Precip: 40%

[markj]

Looks like a crappy weather day for the marathon. Probably just enough rain to make the game miserable but not enough to postpone it.

[MongoLikeSox]

So we're sending Bello out to the mound for his 1:Season Debut, 2: Match-up against Ohtani and 3: A Patriots' Day start. I'm just sort of fishing for added little bits of pressure we can put on him. Maybe he'll get Angel Hernandez behind the plate. The upside is that if he does well with all of this, he'll be ready for anything.  thumb_u

Farria DFA'd. Dalbec back to Worcester. Duran called up. Interesting to note that Duran gets called up directly after a Golden Sombrero day. That must mean he goes 3-3 against Ohtani with a HR and a pair of doubles. 

[Sea Dog 23]

As far as who they got out there today, personally I'd rather see Wong stay in the lineup, even with a righty pitching.  He had done a good job working with Whitlock on Sunday and in earlier games, getting those strikes framed properly.  I'm just not sold on McGuire handling our pitchers correctly,

[Sea Dog 23]

Bello is getting bounced around.  Like Mongo said, could he have any more pressure?  Into the 2nd they have six hits, Bello did get 3 K's.

[MongoLikeSox]

I wish I had kept my mouth shut. Add a rain delay to start things off. Add 1/2 of one later and then another full-fledged delay after a 2-2 count. 

[longgame]

What a mess, both the weather and the team.  We should be happy they didn't fall apart earlier in this series.  Poor Bello as Mongo said, maybe they could wait for a Yankees series or something to take the pressure off.  Geez.  Plus the screwy lineup again.  Devers should be 4th, Yoshida behind him at 5th.  Figure out someone to put out ahead of or in the mix with Verdugo and Turner. 

[Sea Dog 23]

Possible injury to Arroyo.  Was it a hammy?  There is some bluster that they like David Hamilton  over in Worcester.  He's been playing SS and a few games in CF. I think he's hitting about .350.  Maybe a callup closer to May.

I don't think SS is Kike's best position.  His 6th error today.

[MongoLikeSox]

Add a pair of yip errors by Crawford and Casas soft hands turning to bricks....ugly stuff.

Yeah, that Hamilton guy's next few weeks will be interesting. He came out of a massive funk last September and picked up where he left off. SoxProspects.com doesn't much of his defense, but they've said worse about folks. If he keeps up at least a rate in the .275 range, we might see him. Besides, Bloom needs a win in the worst way.  One thing for sure is he's fast as hell.

I'm thinking(Hoping) Arroyo only got a leg cramp.

[SeaBeachFred]

Bello is getting bounced around.  Like Mongo said, could he have any more pressure?  Into the 2nd they have six hits, Bello did get 3 K's.

Nothing new for Bello.  He got belted around pretty much in most of his starts last season as well.  I just hope he is not another of our failed young pitchers who we keep failing to develop, but I will wait and see how he does in his next two or three outings.  What we don't need is another Darwizon Hernandez or Matt Barnes or some of the other bums who came with promise and just shit the bed for us.

BTW, we won three of four from the Angels, coming from behind in all three of our wins and almost pulled another one out today.  The key is how we recover from our tough loss today and see how we rally against the Twins in this next series.  It would be a dandy if we could prevail in our series with Minnesota.

[MongoLikeSox]

Not lost in all of this is Cutter Crawford's game yesterday. Yes, it was a get-a-way game and a lost series for the Angels. I suppose we have to concede that 2-1/4 rain delays slowed their bats down, too. Still, he pitched 6-1/3 innings of 1-hit ball. Impressively enough, he came back out for that last inning and dialed the effort up a notch to make up for being gassed in a game that had gotten tighter.

This was not Crawford's first great outing. A lot as changed since his first stint last season. The national game with A.J. Pierzinsky(sp) railed on his lack of speed variance hit a never somewhere. He went down and came back up a few weeks later with a nasty curve-ball. The timing is too good to not wonder if A.J.'s comments woke someone up in the front office.

I think the next big hurdle for Crawford is the battle of consistency.

[Sea Dog 23]

Not lost in all of this is Cutter Crawford's game yesterday. Yes, it was a get-a-way game and a lost series for the Angels. I suppose we have to concede that 2-1/4 rain delays slowed their bats down, too. Still, he pitched 6-1/3 innings of 1-hit ball. Impressively enough, he came back out for that last inning and dialed the effort up a notch to make up for being gassed in a game that had gotten tighter.

This was not Crawford's first great outing. A lot as changed since his first stint last season. The national game with A.J. Pierzinsky(sp) railed on his lack of speed variance hit a never somewhere. He went down and came back up a few weeks later with a nasty curve-ball. The timing is too good to not wonder if A.J.'s comments woke someone up in the front office.


I think the next big hurdle for Crawford is the battle of consistency.

I saw an observation yesterday that the reset in the rotation next year will amount to Whitlock, Bello, Houck, Pivetta.  Everybody else is on a 1-year contract this year or likely traded at the deadline (example, Sale).  Caveat:  that would be a Henry/Bloom ideal.

[MongoLikeSox]

Not lost in all of this is Cutter Crawford's game yesterday. Yes, it was a get-a-way game and a lost series for the Angels. I suppose we have to concede that 2-1/4 rain delays slowed their bats down, too. Still, he pitched 6-1/3 innings of 1-hit ball. Impressively enough, he came back out for that last inning and dialed the effort up a notch to make up for being gassed in a game that had gotten tighter.

This was not Crawford's first great outing. A lot as changed since his first stint last season. The national game with A.J. Pierzinsky(sp) railed on his lack of speed variance hit a never somewhere. He went down and came back up a few weeks later with a nasty curve-ball. The timing is too good to not wonder if A.J.'s comments woke someone up in the front office.


I think the next big hurdle for Crawford is the battle of consistency.

I saw an observation yesterday that the reset in the rotation next year will amount to Whitlock, Bello, Houck, Pivetta.  Everybody else is on a 1-year contract this year or likely traded at the deadline (example, Sale).  Caveat:  that would be a Henry/Bloom ideal.

I think Sale is on for another year plus an option. He also might be getting close to that 10/5 thing. But yes, if they played their cards - period - they might be able to get something in return.

Earlier this Spring, I was looking at the roster for the mid-season trade scenarios. Not just pitching, but all around. I stopped looking almost as soon as I started because it does no good to dream of such things with our brain trust.