Red Sox reactions: Mike Yastrzemski walks off hometown team, ruins Marcelo Mayer’s heroics
· Yahoo Sports
ATLANTA — Instant reactions as the Red Sox (18-26) claw back but lose to the ascendant Braves, 3-2, in extra innings as Mike Yastrzemski walks off his hometown team:
1) For the sixth game in a row, the Red Sox showed some fight in a close game. For the fourth time in those six, they lost.
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Mike Yastrzemski walked off the Red Sox in the 10th, ripping an opposite-field liner into the gap off Tyler Samaniego that plated the automatic runner and was ruled a double. The Andover native — and grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski — entered as a sub and delivered his team a win after the Braves blew a 2-0 lead.
Boston had chances to take the lead in the ninth and 10th but Andruw Monasterio (struck out in the ninth with two men on) and Mickey Gasper (lined out in the 10th with runners on the corners) couldn’t get runs across.
2) The Red Sox have had few clutch homers so far this season and Marcelo Mayer now has two of them. With two outs in the seventh and the club trailing by a run, Mayer took reliever Tyler Kinley deep to tie the game, 2-2. The 101.9 mph, 378-foot blast was Mayer’s second of the year, joining his clutch three-run shot in the home opener. It put the Red Sox back in the game.
3) Atlanta’s red-hot lineup built a 2-0 lead with two homers off starter Connelly Early. In the first, Drake Baldwin took Early deep to dead center, barely clearing the wall (and Ceddanne Rafaela’s glove on a robbery attempt) on Early’s seventh offering. To lead off the fourth, Michael Harris II won a left-on-left battle by crushing a 419-foot blast for his eighth of the year.
4) The Red Sox offense found a new avenue of frustration: running into outs. It happened on three occasions early against talented righty Spencer Strider, erasing some early scoring threats.
In the first inning, Jarren Duran worked a leadoff walk, then was picked off first base. In the fourth, Gasper’s leadoff single was erased when he tried to steal second and was easily thrown out (by multiple steps) by former Red Sox catcher Sandy León. The third instance came when Ceddanne Rafaela ripped a leadoff double in the fifth, then was gunned down trying to steal third.
The Red Sox clearly went into the game with a plan to be aggressive on the basepaths and it backfired greatly.
5) Outside of leadoff hitters getting on base, it was more of the same from the stagnant Red Sox offense, which has now scored two or fewer runs in 20 of 44 (45.5%) games. The only damage before Mayer’s homer? No. 2 hitter (and sparkplug) Gasper scored Carlos Narváez with an RBI single off lefty Dylan Lee in the sixth.
6) Homers have been an issue for Early in recent weeks. After starting his major league career by not allowing a home run in his first 39 ⅓ innings, Early has now allowed seven in his last 35 frames (six starts).
Early was effective outside of the two blasts, allowing five hits and striking out six batters in five innings. He has been very good this season — as a 3.21 ERA through nine starts would suggest. But he has only gone more than 5 ⅓ innings in four of those outings.
7) A particularly ugly sequence on a tough night? Right after Gasper was thrown out by León in the fourth, a dejected Willson Contreras grounded out to third and barely ran to first as the Braves recorded the final out of the inning. He was out by about half the baseline.
8) With Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock each having pitched on back-to-back days at home, Chad Tracy had to cobble together the late part of the game. First was Greg Weissert, who retired all four batters he faced. Then came Jovaní Morán, who got five outs (and had three strikeouts).
Aroldis Chapman preserved the tie in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning. For the second straight day, Samaniego took the loss. The lefty threw only five pitches.
9) Duran’s offensive woes continued with an 0-for-3 night that extended his hitless streak to 18 at-bats (0-for-18). Going back a few more days, he is 3-for-37 (.081) with 12 strikeouts and two walks in a nine-game stretch dating back to May 5.
10) Third baseman Caleb Durbin had an eventful night on defense, making a series of impressive defensive plays and committing an error on a José Azócar single in the fourth. Durbin’s unconventional-yet-effective way of playing his position remains one of the more entertaining parts of the Red Sox season to this point.
11)When Trevor Story isn’t in the starting lineup, the Red Sox clearly prefer he doesn’t play at all. Boston inserted Isiah Kiner-Falefa late in the game while Story stayed on the bench (and didn’t hit for Kiner-Falefa in the 10th). He has not come in as a sub any of the three times he has been out of the lineup.
12) The Braves have the best record in baseball at 31-14 and are now 15-7 at home. If the Red Sox were going to steal a game in the series, it might have been Friday’s. Now, they’ll look to avoid losing the series with one more loss.
Any good feelings from last week’s three-game sweep in Detroit have been erased by a 2-5 record since.
13) Left-hander Payton Tolle (1-2, 2.78 ERA) will be tasked with snapping Boston’s two-game losing streak Saturday night with first pitch set for 7:15 p.m. ET. The Braves will send breakout star Bryce Elder (4-1, 1.81 ERA) to the mound.
More Red Sox coverage
- Chad Tracy: Red Sox’ ‘careless mistakes’ on basepaths were ‘big thing’ in one-run loss
- Red Sox’ Roman Anthony gives injury update after cortisone shot, big rehab step Friday
- Why are Red Sox sitting Trevor Story, Masataka Yoshida vs. righty? Chad Tracy explains
- Red Sox lineup has no Trevor Story, no Masataka Yoshida vs. tough righty Friday night
- Former Red Sox leader still playing in Tijuana at 41, won’t retire until ‘someone rips a jersey off me’
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