Red Sox 7, Cardinals 1: Small ball sees Sox sail past St. Louis
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Thank the baseball GODs for that ninth inning.
The Red Sox came into the final frame with a tenuous one-run lead, after Garrett Whitlock gave up a solo shot to Jordan Walker in the bottom of the 8th. Trevor Story led off with a walk—something that hasn’t been a big help to the Red Sox with two GIDPs in the game so far. Marcelo Mayer flies out and this looks like another ho-hum inning for the men in red tonight.
No so fast.
It wasn’t anything flashy nor did it need to be. It was just put your head down, keep the lineup rolling baseball. Six singles in a row! Narváez, Rafaela, Anthony, Durbin, Duran, Contreras. I’m not sure what Ollie Marmol was doing other than staring into the abyss letting Matt Svanson languish on the mound. Maybe he knew this was a wash for the Cardinals but this hopefully turns into much more of a momentum turner for the Red Sox.
Kudos to Alex Cora for sticking with Durbin too and not pulling the trigger on a pinch hitter—either Monasterio or Yoshida.
Not so many kudos to Greg Weissert who looks almost opposite of the Italian workhorse he was in the World Baseball Classic—everything is trouble for him right now and Danny Coulombe bailed him out.
Still, three wins in four games isn’t something to wag your finger at. None of them have been truly pretty wins but they’re wins regardless. FOX made a lot of mention that it takes 40-50 games to really see the makeup of a team. Let’s hope that first 10 was truly the worst of it and this Sox squad is starting to find its footing.
What a nice Saturday night!
Studs
Ranger Suárez (6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 K, 0 ER)
Ranger was extremely frustrated after a 20+ pitch first inning and let it show in his final five. He looked extremely comfortable the rest of the way through. If this is the Suárez we’re getting on a more consistent basis, it’s very stabilizing for the rotation.
Willson Contreras (2-for-4, 3 RBI)
Against his old club, Contreras came to play. The game-winning RBIs in the fourth and another line-moving RBI single in the ninth.
Duds
Wilyer Abreu (0-for-4, 1 K)
I actually had Trevor Story and Caleb Durbin here for a while; their production in the 9th saved their skin. Just a quiet day for Abreu who had the rest of his team pick him up!
Play of the Game
For the better part of five innings, this was going to be Willy’s two-run double in the fourth. The ninth changed my mind, we’re going with Ceddanne’s RBI single to start the chain.
