The Red Sox won their fourth straight and third against the Braves (4-17), the first two coming at Turner Field.
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ATL 5 BOS 2 – Bottom 7th: Boston squandered a chance to get back in the game, as they had runners at second and third with one out and failed to cut into their deficit. Rick Porcello is having a great turnaround year, Steven Wright has been awesome, and now if Price can fix his early problems, the Red Sox will have their ace back.
Freddie Freeman ended the Braves’ 15-game homerless stretch with a solo shot off reliever Tommy Layne – Atlanta’s fourth homer of the season and second since Opening Day. Boston sits at 11th with 70 this season and Atlanta ranks 15th with 66. 368 (21/57) with a 1.043 OPS.
The 1975 California Angels are the only other team in the expansion era – since 1961 – to have hit as few as three home runs while playing 20 or more games in April, according to STATS. Questions about how he would perform should the Red Sox get to October, however, are understandable.
Braves: RHP Bud Norris (1-4, 8.74 ERA) may come out of the rotation before his next scheduled start. He allowed just one earned run over 7 innings here at Fenway Park against the Atlanta Braves last night and lowered his ERA to 1.37. Five Rays players have three or more homers. They still lost, so some things haven’t changed.
It was the longest power outage for the franchise since the Boston Braves went 16 games without a homer in 1946. That he did not didn’t change the fact that Buchholz had offered it, and when he did more of that in the second, he was punished in a big way.
Any real concerns about Price’s start should definitely be put aside. “You lose the first nine, then win four, then lose eight in a row”, said Freeman, who has hit half of Atlanta’s homers. Many believe the knuckleballer has been the most consistent starter this season, and pitched well again tonight. It’s the start we didn’t want.
“I felt the ball just kind of bounce off the tip of my glove and I just threw my right hand at it and I was able to catch it”, Castro said through a translator. “It’s not fun right now”. He pitched 6 2/3 scoreless against Toronto in his previous outing April 18 but couldn’t build on that effort. “When you do walk guys, you try to minimize the damage”, Buchholz said.
“No disrespect to Peterson, you’re wanting to force contact”, Farrell said. You can’t just walk guys, because that usually ends up hurting you, and they hit some good off-speed pitches. Jhoulys Chacin (1-1) was effective enough over five-plus innings to get his first win since signing with Atlanta as a free agent.
They’re averaging 7 runs during their winning streak with help from Dustin Pedroia, who is batting. He has 10 doubles and is responsible for 10 of his team’s 33 extra-base hits.
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The Red Sox offense was sparked by third baseman Travis Shaw, who had a three-run homer in the first inning and a two-run double in the ninth, and shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who was 3-for-5 with one RBI. On the second double, he passed Williams and Foxx. He walked two and surrendered seven hits in Saturday’s 8-2 loss to the New York Mets. The Red Sox need to fix this issue quickly and be realistic on seeing what they can actually do with Buchholz.
