The Red Sox opened their important three-game series with the Miami Marlins by getting blown out 10-1. The Red Sox are now 1-5 in their last six games since their six-game win streak. Tonight, the Red Sox gave up 19 hits, 11 of which came against Whitlock. Of Miami’s 19 hits, two of them left the yard, and four of them went for extra bases. Luckily for the Red Sox, the Blue Jays and Astros both lost, meaning the Sox will not lose too much ground in both the division standings and the wild card standings. The Red Sox will still sit three games back of the Blue Jays for fourth place in the AL East and the third wild card spot.
It was clear from the start that Garrett Whitlock did not have his stuff tonight. After Arraez struck out to begin the game, the next four Marlins would reach. First, Soler would single on a 105.6 MPH missile up the middle. The next batter, Bryan De La Cruz, would then hit it 395 feet into the Red Sox bullpen. Jazz Chisholm would follow that up with a double hitting off the wall in center field. The next batter, Garrett Cooper, would line a base hit to right field, scoring Chisholm and extending the early Marlin lead to 3-0. Whitlock would give up seven more hits before his night came to a close, and his final pitching line is not a pretty one. In 4 2/3 innings, Whitlock gave up six runs on 11 hits, with no walks and seven strikeouts. Tonight, the Sox righty clearly didn’t have any feel for his changeup. While on the season, Garrett throws his changeup 26% of the time, tonight he only threw that pitch 11% of the time. On the season, opponents are swinging and missing at his changeup 32% of the time, tonight he only got one swing and miss on eight changeups. To succeed in the MLB as a starting pitcher, you need at least a three-pitch mix. Tonight, Garrett for the most part, was limited to just two: the slider and the sinker. Without the third pitch, which is usually his best pitch, Whitlock was asking for trouble.
Tonight, the Red Sox continued to display sloppy defense. This has been a weakness of this team all year; however, recently, fans had hoped they were starting to see a turnaround. During the Red Sox’s six-game win streak between June 14th and June 21st, they played excellent defense. During that stretch of games, they only made two errors, which is a rate of 0.28 errors per game. On the season, the Sox make 0.66 errors per game, which is worse than only the Giants. In almost every important defensive stat, the Red Sox find themselves near the bottom. In DRS, the Sox are 23rd with -19. Their fielding percentage of .982 ranks 29th in baseball. After tonight’s game, Cora talked about the importance of the defense. He said, “When we play good defense, we win games. And when we give the opposition an extra 90 (feet), we don’t make plays, we don’t make double plays, we put ourselves in a bad spot.” Another thing that Cora mentioned is that the Sox pitching staff isn’t a strikeout staff. Therefore, the importance of the defense around them is huge. The Red Sox have only the 15th-most strikeouts in the MLB. The number of balls put in play against the Sox is the 7th highest. If the Sox are going to turn their season around, their defense needs to improve dramatically.
One of the only positive things we can take away from tonight’s game is how Triston Casas continues to improve at the plate. Casas had a three-hit night, raising his batting average to .228. While that number looks mediocre, if you consider how bad Triston started in April, .228 shows massive improvement. In April, Casas had a slash line of .133/.293/.576. Among first basemen, Triston had the lowest batting average and the third-highest strikeout rate. However, since then, Casas has been a totally different hitter. Since May 1st, he has a slash line of .275/.463/.826. His batting average and slugging percentage rank 11th among first basemen, and his hard-hit percentage ranks fourth. In only the month of June, Casas has been one of the Red Sox’s best hitters. This month, he has the Sox’s highest wRC+ with 141, only behind Justin Turner and Alex Verdugo. After Triston’s rough start, most Red Sox fans were tired of seeing him in the lineup; however, the patience the manager showed with him is now paying off.
The Red Sox will look to get back on track tomorrow night and even up the series. The Sox will have a bullpen game started by Caleb Ort. The Marlins will go to the left-hander Braxton Garrett. Garrett will come into Fenway with a 3.64 ERA; however, the Sox hope they can raise that and get back in the win column.
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