Game 1: Red Sox 10-Braves 8
My main take away in this game is to always keep grinding. The Red Sox had to keep regaining the lead throughout the game. The game was 5-1 after the third inning, but quickly turned to 5-4 after the fourth & also 7-4 after the fifth, but 7-7 after the sixth. It was a great day for the long ball, with the Red Sox hitting four homeruns in the game. Rafael Devers hit a 444-foot shot to center in the first, Hunter Renfroe hit a 435-foot blast to left-center in the first, Xander Bogaerts hit a 424-foot rocket to left in the fifth, and most importantly, Alex Verdugo hit a 409- foot moon shot in the eighth inning. Verdugo hit it on a high, 2-0 changeup by Braves righty Chris Martin. It was Verdugo’s ninth homer of the season, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Now we get to the bad parts… The Red Sox defense in this game was straight out bad. Garrett Whitlock got betrayed in the 6th inning with a throwing error by Hunter Renfroe and a passed ball by Christian Vázquez. The Red Sox made two more errors earlier in the game with Hernández in the fourth and Renfroe in the third. The bullpen, more specifically Matt Barnes is getting taxed and over worked, in my opinion. Although he picked up his 15th save of the year, he gave up a run again. I think the Red Sox are being too cute on how many times they use Barnes. You could have used Adam Ottavino or Josh Taylor there. Barnes has already appeared in 29 times in 68 games, which is too much in the first 2ish months of the season, if you want him to be lights out in September, October, and the playoffs.
Eduardo Rodriguez has been in the middle of all of the Red Sox pitching concerns for more than a month now. His ERA after this game sits at 6.21. In the fourth, a three-run frame for Atlanta, Rodriguez didn’t take care of business when he walked pinch-hitter Ehire Adrianza with two outs. Over four innings, Rodriguez generated 17 swings and misses and had eight strikeouts. But he also gave up six hits and four runs. In four of his last five starts, Rodriguez hasn’t been able to pitch five innings. He has a 9.13 ERA during that span. E-Rod has given up four runs or more in six of his last seven starts. The Red Sox are sitting at 41-27 but the projected ace coming into the year has not done them any favors in that win column for awhile now…
Game 2: Redsox 10-Braves 8
The main takeaway of this game is Alex Cora, once again, always knows who to go to in key pinch-hitting situations. Time and time again in the 2018 World Series run, Cora made the right decision to pinch-hit Pearce or Moreland and the Red Sox would get rewarded with a game tying or go ahead homerun. This time it was with Christian Arroyo hitting the Red Sox’s first grandslam of the year in the top of the 7th inning to take the lead 10-7. Braves relief pitcher, A.J. Minter got ahead 1-2 but Arroyo hammered his 1-2 cutter for a no-doubter that went a Statcast-projected 467 feet to left. It was the fourth longest home run by a Boston player since Statcast started tracking them in 2015.
Once again the defense didn’t play so hot with two errors in this game by Bogaerts & Renfroe, and Garrett Richards did not do well in this game either. This was a game the Red Sox led 4-1 and 6-3. Garrett Richards served up a game-tying, three-run homer to Dansby Swanson in the fifth. Freddie Freeman took Hirokazu Sawamura deep in the bottom of the sixth to put Atlanta in front, 7-6. His hot few starts are past him going 14.1 innings, while giving up 26 hits and 1 3 runs (11 earned). I believe that he might have been on the list for “spider tack” because his spin rate has dropped almost 600 points from the starts before June 4th. Not saying Richards cheated but this is a story to monitor in the coming weeks...
After this game I believe that Christian Arroyo has shown enough to be the every day 2B. You can send Marwin González, Danny Santana, or Bobby Dalbec to 1B and then send Santana or Dalbec down to Worcester. I didn’t understand why Arroyo was not starting in this game in the first place, but maybe after this game showed Cora why Arroyo should be the starter going forward. The Red Sox have their first off-day of the month today (Thursday) after a grueling schedule in which they played 17 straight days, going 10-7 during that stretch, and with all but one of the contests coming against teams that made the playoffs last year. At 42-27, the Sox are one game back in the American League East with the Tampa Bay Rays losing to the Chicago White Sox last night 8-7.