The Sox had some prime scoring chances early in the third After Travis Shaw reached base on a dropped-third strike and made his way to second after a wild pitch was thrown to Andrew Benintendi. That was followed up by back-to-back singles from Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley, which obviously would’ve resulted in a run without the double play.
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Josh Tomlin and Drew Pomeranz will duel on the hill during today’s curious Monday matinee. Red Sox No. 9 hitters lead the majors in batting average (.289), on base percentage (.350), slugging percentage (.438), OPS (.788), runs, hits, doubles, triples and RBIs.
Though peppered with flights that include a trip down south, the Celtics have a forgiving five games in 10 days stretch that will see them take on the underwhelming Nuggets, Wizards and Knicks to start things off, with the Nuggets and Knicks games being at home. The Tigers have two more Thursday home games scheduled after the one this week: September 15 against the Royals and September 29 against the Indians.
Gallardo was a tough-luck loser last time out on the road versus the Oakland Athletics, giving up only one run and four hits in six innings of a 1-0 defeat.
In Cincinnati, Miami’s Chris Johnson drove in two runs with a homer and a double, while former reliever David Phelps pitched into the sixth inning in his third start of the season. The Red Sox now have one of the best if not the best offenses in all of baseball, as they have a.285 team batting average (best in the MLB, ) 148 home runs (12th in the MLB, ) and 612 RBI (best in the MLB.) DH David Ortiz (.310, 26 HR, 90 RBI) is making the most of his previous year in the MLB as his 90 RBI are good for third in baseball, and he now leads everyone with 37 doubles, but the buck does not stop with him.
From there, it was relatively smooth sailing until the bottom of the eighth. He went 7 2/3 innings and retired the final five batters before Francona called on left-hander Kyle Crockett to face Ortiz in the eighth. He did record two outs in the frame, but he also allowed two doubles and Cleveland was back within one. “I kind of thought he might be looking out there and trying to ambush a heater, so I tried to get a cutter in off the plate,” Tomlin said.
Francisco Lindor doubled and Mike Napoli walked, but closer Craig Kimbrel struck out Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis and retired Abraham Almonte on a pop up for his 20th save. And what a classic 2016 Kimbrel outing it was. After Mike Napoli drew a walk, Kimbrel struck out risky Carlos Santana on a 98 miles per hour fastball, fanned pinch-hitting Kipnis with a 96 miles per hour heater and got Abraham Almonte to pop out. These two have met five times this season, with the Red Sox winning three of the five meetings.
This wasn’t the prettiest Red Sox wins, but there were plenty of positives to take away.
By the end of it, however, the Boston Red Sox were making us wonder if it might be worth reconsidering how we regard them.
Tomlin got off to a very fast start this season, but has struggled over the last month.
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LHP Drew Pomeranz makes his sixth attempt at his first victory with Boston in Monday’s start at Cleveland. After you bite off all of you fingernails, that is.
