Red Sox 11, White Sox 4: Yermín Mercedes and Danny Mendick pitched
If Lucas Giolito thought he was a morning person, the Patriots Day assignment in Fenway Park corrected him a hurry.
To say the 11 a.m. start did not agree with him would be an understatement. Giolito allowed hits to the first six Red Sox he faced during a six-run first inning that forced Tony La Russa into crisis mode one morning after a doubleheader, albeit one of a 14-inning variety.
First, he tried pushing Giolito for a second inning after a 46-pitch first in which the Red Sox notched five hits on his changeup. Alex Cora’s history invites the idea of sign-stealing, but when Giolito’s cruising, it’s not like there’s a whole lot of mystery in what he’s doing. A lack of life seemed to be the bigger issue. The fastballs didn’t get swings underneath, and the changeups didn’t get swings over the top. Outside of Enrique Hernandez’s leadoff homer, no Boston hitter really smoked Giolito’s offspeed stuff. They just kept the hands back and lined drives into the outfield, resulting in the kind of disaster that Giolito’s high-changeup approach seems to invite.
If you watched Giolito in the first and thought a second inning wouldn’t fly, the game quickly agreed. He gave up a homer to J.D. Martinez and a walk to Rafael Devers, and out came Tony La Russa to start a series of bullpen moves that ended with Yermín Mercedes pitching the seventh, and Danny Mendick handling the eighth.
While there’s usually a welcome novelty with position players on the mound, it loses its charm when they have to cover two innings. Mercedes’ inning could have been a disaster, as a line-drive double play gave Mercedes an out he sorely needed, as he needed 32 pitches to finish the inning even with the help.
Mendick also flirted with danger, as the first two men he faced reached on an HBP and a single. But Mendick’s … knuckleball … was good enough to get the job done. He made it through the inning unscathed on just 15 pitches, including a strikeout of Franchy Cordero. His final pitch was a 39.6 mph eephus that induced a fielder’s choice.
The White Sox offense would’ve been hard-pressed to make a game out of it, but besides the customary 1-0 lead they grabbed in the top of the first, they couldn’t mount an attack fast enough to pose a threat.
Here’s a case where the White Sox were effective enough with runners in scoring position. They went 3-for-11 in such situations and stranded only five, and they converted every opportunity.
First inning: Tim Anderson led off with a single, stole second on a fun slide, then scored on Luis Robert’s double.
Third inning: Nick Madrigal led off with a triple and scored on a one-out Adam Eaton double.
Fifth inning: Anderson kept the inning alive with a two-out double, then scored on an Eaton “double.” (Cordero pulled up as though the ball was going to carom off the Green Monster, and it instead bounced on the warning track.)
Seventh inning: Leury García reached on an infield single, moved to third on an Anderson single two batters later, then scored on Eaton’s groundout.
The problem was the White Sox only had one total baserunner in the five other innings. Nate Eovaldi had strong right-handed stuff and fanned 10 over 6⅓ innings without a walk, including a rare swinging strike three on Madrigal. Garrett Whitlock handled the final eight outs, as Boston had a much easier day managing its pitching staff.
Bullet points:
*García committed an error when he failed to cleanly pick up a single to left, resulting in extra bases all around. That meant that only seven of Giolito’s eight runs were earned.
*Zack Burdi gave up a pair of runs in his 2021 debut, but he threw three innings on 49 pitches, was the bigger objective.
*José Abreu seemed like he could’ve used a day off after grounding into nearly three double plays on Sunday, and an 0-for-4, three-strikeout performance reinforces that notion.
*Anderson went 3-for-4 from the leadoff spot, and provided the only real enjoyable moment of the ballgame.
Is the clip of the eephus posted? I can’t seem to find it.
Here you go:
As somebody who is known for a longstanding and non-stop sense of optimism the main takeaway from this game for me is that Nick Madrigal is one hit closer to big number 3000.
his slugging percentage also crept over .400 briefly, after that triple.
I mentioned this in the game thread. Burdi’s day was a bit better and Abreu’s day a bit worse than the box score shows because the earned run Burdi gave up in bottom of the 4th is listed as scoring on Franchy Cordero’s infield single which was a ball with an xBA of 0.090 that Abreu did not handle well at all (his glove missed it but his foot did not).
I saw somewhere that Gio’s change had way less drop and spin today than normal. I wonder if there’s something mechanical going on. It might also explain why his FB command has been spotty so far this year
Katz knows him so well, Isn’t that the kind of thing they would catch and be working on?
True, but what else can explain that kind of regression besides an injury he’s trying to hide?
He woke up on the wrong side of the bed?
I mean, it could be an injury. But it also could be he’s not used to pitching before lunch.
Some observations
I personally love the start time (5:10pm for me). But not for Gio.
Abreu looks really lost at the moment. Give the guy a day off.
Love Robert seeming to come around with better ABs. I think the ball will start flying out of the park for him soon.
Madrigal seems to be getting it too. Love watching his ABs. As for his wheels, the eye test says he’s not as fast as advertised. I could be wrong or I could be biased by seeing Robert effortlessly leg out doubles. Someone quote me his speed to first on his bunt or his speed going first to third and prove me dumb please.
I was pissed that Mercedes was pitching. If he threw his elbow out I’d want TLR fired immediately.
Finally, Eaton is just quietly playing solid baseball. I appreciate the solid baseball only slightly more than I appreciate the “quietly”.
Nick Madrigal Sprint speed: 78th percentile in 2020, 71st percentile in 2021
Take that as you may!
Thank you
I take that as, “fast, but not fast enough to cover for the dumb shit he does on the bases.”
I was similarly surprised by how he didn’t even come close to turning a good bunt into a single.
I felt like I was watching one of those cartoon characters who turn their legs really fast but don’t go anywhere.
same. he was out by two steps. i thought it was a coin flip when the pitcher threw it.
Scouts had already downgraded his speed from plus plus at draft to plus by his debut.
If someone is going to throw his arm out, let it be Jake Lamb.
I agree, 5:10pm is amazing. I can eat dinner while watching baseball and be sure that game is done before I go to bed. Too bad the kids didn’t enjoy the game and left for their computers at the end of the second inning.
Maybe I am more disappointed in Giolito than I should be. Even an ace can have a clunker. But I though this was a somewhat big game where he could look to shine – coming off a DH where the bullpen shouldn’t be relied on and with a chance to go over .500
Me checking the post-game box score.
Based on happy times:
I like that Tony moved up Robert in the lineup for good reasons as he is hitting and seeing the ball well. I wonder if Tony should do the same with Madrigal. The kid has a ridiculous %K under 2%, he is getting on base, and puts the ball in play a lot. On days where we are facing a LHP, I would put Madrigal in the 2nd spot instead of Eaton.
VS RHP
Anderson
Eaton
Robert
Abreu
Mercedes
Grandal
Madrigal
Below replacement level #1
Below replacement level #2
VVS LHP
Anderson
Madrigal
Robert
Abreu
Grandal
Mercedes
Eaton
Below replacement level #1
Below replacement level #2
Don’t forget to squeeze in Moncada. I don’t think you mean to lump in him with the below replacement guys. Despite some of the lineups lately, they should only have one “meh” spot regularly.
I totally forgot Moncada…Tony has been trotting 2 “below replacement” level players lately. He is finding it hard to sit Garcia which he should do more often. With Moncada in, the line up looks a lot more dangerous for sure.
Madrigal’s K rate surged to 3.6% after today’s strikeout.
I’d be interested in Madrigal leading off and Anderson batting 3rd for a while until Jose/Yoan/Yaz start hitting.
That could work too. Madrigal batting 9th seems wasteful like Leury batting anywhere in tge lineup
Mercedes should be batting 4th.
Right before the game, Vinnie Duber was talking with Bernstein/Rahimi and went out of his way to mention that Giolito is NOT a morning person.
I’m surprised Vaughn didn’t get an inning. IIRC, he pitches as a freshman at Cal.
Sounds like hazing. Play him everywhere on defense but 1B
Burdi threw sliders 45% of the time, got 14 swings and 11 whiffs (~80%). Curious whether that was legit or Boston just wanted to clock out for the day by the time he came in.
Last year his good sliders were great, and his bad sliders were awful. It wouldn’t surprise me if he were able to tilt the counts in his favor.
also seemed like his FB wasn’t a plus pitch, so he might lean on the slider to get more out of the FB.
I would have thought TA coming back would mean less starts from Lamb and Leury, but alas no. I knew TLR was a tinkerer, but honestly him not putting out our best lineup 4 out of 5 games is getting annoying. What makes it worse is that Yermin has made his DH decision for him. He literally only needs to rotate LF and maybe swap out Grandal for Collins every few games.
I really can’t wait for Lamb to no longer be on this team but I don’t think it’s going to happen, given how much La Russa is using him. They may not count as errors but he was…not good at third while Gio was in the game. Is Moncada knicked up a bit and that’s why he got the day off or are we going to see suboptimal lineups for the entire season?
We have to wait until his OPS+ is negative first before Lamb goes anywhere, if Nick Williams is any indication. He’s at 1 now, so……soon?
TLR is the classic guy who thinks he’s a lot smarter than he actually is. so now we see him putting his fingerprints on every aspect of a team that should largely be left alone. he’s from the school of managing means doing stuff, not just doing what needs to be done.