Mariners 9, Red Sox 6

 

Let's start with the obvious: pitcher Jedixson Paez wasn't yet ready to be called up to the major league. Sure, Sonny Gray needed a day's rest and there were no long relievers available in the bullpen, but those conditions don't make Paez ready to move up. The Chicago White Sox used him for a few innings of relief in the very earliest days of this season, so that wasn't his first big-league rodeo, but other than that, he's been down in the minor leagues working on his craft. Last night, he made his first starting appearance in the majors, and the Red Sox left him in the game for 3⅔ excruciating innings as he gave up eight runs on ten hits, including two homers. His ERA has ballooned to 18.90 and I believe he's already been returned to the minors. Sorry, Jedixson - the Sox used you to meet their strategic needs and hopefully you're not too traumatized or discouraged to continue your development.

(Just imagine for a minute being Jedixson having to take the mound at the top of the fourth, knowing you've already given up seven runs, you're obviously out of your element, the fans are booing, and your prospects as a future major-leaguer are evaporating with each pitch. But you still go out there, take the mound, and throw your pitches. It's not only your job, but the only out of the predicament is to go through it. How much of a relief it must have been when Tracy finally came out of the dugout to take away the ball after you finally made a second out that inning.)    

Now let's look at the positive side - if you take Paez's runs out of the equation, the Red Sox actually played a pretty good game last night. The Mariners homered in the first, the only run in the opening inning, and Mickey Gasper came right back and homered in the bottom of the first to tie up the game. After Paez finally left the game with the score 8-1, the Mariners only scored once more, while the Red Sox scored five runs. Even if you included the one run in the first inning, if you remove the other runs that Paez gave up in the second, third, and fourth, the score would be Red Sox 6, Mariners 2. 

I'm not saying that the Red Sox somehow "really" won the game, I'm just saying the only weakness on the team was a minor-league pitcher who obviously shouldn't even have been in Fenway last night. And extra kudos should go to the team for continuing to hustle even in the face of an 8-1 deficit. Wilyer Abreu ran all the way home from second base on a Seattle throwing error in the sixth inning to make the score 9-2. Eli White hit a two-RBI double in the seventh to make it 9-4. Jahmai Jones hit a two-run homer in the ninth to make it 9-6, and for a minute there, you'd be excused for thinking the Sox were going to make an incredible, probably record-setting comeback and actually win the game.

The Sox fall four back from New York in the Wild Card standings but still have a 4½-game cushion above Cleveland for the number two spot. The way the Wild Card playoff games are structured, it would arguably be easier on the Sox if they were the number three Wild Card instead of the number two. As the standings are now, the number three team would have to play three games in either Chicago or Houston, while the number two team would have to play three in Yankee Stadium. I like our chances in Chicago or Houston more than in the Bronx, especially after last weekend, but no team would deliberately tank games for a lower spot and risk missing the playoffs entirely. I'm just saying that it would be far from a disaster to end the season holding the number-three card. 

The Sox can win this home series with a win this afternoon (4:10 pm). Patrick Sandoval (1-3, 4.20) will start for Boston against Seattle's Bryce Miller (4-8, 4.12). Sandoval had a good outing in Boston's 0-1 loss to the Yankees last Friday, giving up one home run but only two other, scoreless hits over 5⅓ innings with seven strikeouts. He's a career 0-5 against Seattle in nine starts but also has more K's (57) against the Mariners than any other team in the majors.  

Bryce Miller is a career 0-4 against the Sox, so that evens it up a little bit. Last June, shortly before the midseason turnaround, Miller gave up a homer to Caleb Durbin in a 6-2 Red Sox victory. Durbin will be the sixth batter in today's starting lineup.

Red Sox 9, Mariners 8 (10)

 

The bounce-back game that amerika needed.

Trevor Story, in his second game back in the lineup after a three-and-a-half month stint on the IL, singled to deep left center in the bottom of the 10th for a walk-off RBI. Story had also hit a two-RBI double in the bottom of the eighth to bring Boston back from an 8-5 deficit to within one run. Roman Anthony, also back from a long (almost four month) IL stint, went 2-for-4 with a double in the fifth and a triple in the ninth. Rafaela hit a sac fly later that ninth inning to bring Anthony home and tie the game at 8 each.

More highlights: Mickey Gasper homered in the first inning, his 6th of the season, and Jarren Duran hit a two-run homer, his 19th, in the second. Many fans are upset with Duran, focusing on his low batting average (.207) and team-leading 148 strikeouts, but ignore the fact that he leads the team in stolen bases, is second in triples, third in home rums, and fourth in RBIs. You know who doesn't disrespect him? The Seattle Mariners. They intentionally walked Duran in the 10th to load the bases with one out rather than let him hit. Last night's game ended with Duran on third when Story crossed the plate to get the go-ahead run, but if the game hadn't already ended, Duran would have have scored in that play.

Payton Tolle went 5⅔ innings with six K's and four runs on six hits, unfortunately including one homer. The bullpen went from poor to superb as the game progressed, starting with Guerrero giving up three runs on three hits and one walk in only 13 pitches, and ending with Chapman closing the game in the 10th 1-2-3 with two K's.

And guess what? The Yankees, those cheating, low-life, sons of bitches, lost last night, 10-1, to the last-place L.A. Angels. Cheaters never prosper. The Sox (75-63) are back to three games behind New York in the Wild Card standings, with the entire month of September still to go.

Sonny Gray's turn in the rotation comes up today, but the Sox announced they're resting him up before the final stretch and the post-season, and that he won't start again until Saturday. No word yet as to who will take the mound for the Sox. The team has called pitcher Jedixson Paez (spellcheck HATES that name!) up from the minors with the September roster expansion, along with infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and it appears likely that Paez will start tonight. 

The Mariners will start Bryan Woo (9-9, 4.36). Woo is 2-0 against the Sox in two career starts and has an ERA of 1.38 in games against Boston. Last year, he had a no-hitter going through four innings against the Sox in a game in Seattle on June 17, and finished with only one hit, no runs, and six Ks over seven complete innings. So Paez (or whoever) will have his hands full tonight.