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ANDREW BENINTENDI |
A TEAM THAT COULDN'T
GET THE JOB DONE ...
Andrew Benintendi has a
field day in New York
August 12, 2017 ...
Andrew Benintendi was up for the
task as he put together one of the best individual games of the
season. Led by the rookie outfielder, Boston’s offense handed New
York’s ace, Luis Severino, his worst start of the year. The Red Sox
also got yet another solid performance out of Drew Pomeranz, though
that was slightly overshadowed by the Benintendi show.
There were clearly a lot of positives with this
game, but really it was all about Benintendi. The rookie outfielder came through
with a couple of huge swings when his team desperately needed them. The first
came in the third inning with two on and the score tied at two. The Red Sox had
just tied the game on a Mookie Betts two-RBI single, but it felt like that could
be all they were going to get against Severino, who looked pretty good up to
that point. Benintendi had other ideas as he took a fastball down and in and
ripped it over the fence in right-center field. Just like that, the Red Sox had
a 5-2 lead.
The next big fly broke the
game open. The Yankees had just scored a run in the bottom half of the fourth,
pulling within two. In the top half of the fifth, Eduardo Nuñez and Betts
started with back-to-back hits to put two runners in scoring position for
Benintendi. The rookie needed to at least get the ball in the air, but he did
more than that. This time he got a hanging slider and the lefty crushed it. This
one was another ball to right-center field, though a bit deeper than the first,
and it gave the Sox a commanding 8-3 lead.
Benintendi has been
carrying the offense of late. The Red Sox lineup doesn’t have a true, David
Ortiz-like superstar to carry the group on a nightly basis, so they need one or
two guys to carry them through stretches. Nuñez and Rafael Devers had their
stretch, now it’s Benintendi’s turn. Today’s game marked the first time in Red
Sox history a rookie has had two six-RBI games and made him the youngest player
in team history to post six RBI in a game against the Yankees.
While Benintendi was clearly the star of the show, the rest
of the offense did a good job as well. It seemed like it was going to be a tough
day for the lineup considering Severino’s talent and the fact that he’s been
dominating pretty much everyone all year long. Instead, they handed him his
worst outing of the year in a big statement game for the unit. It was a group
effort, but Betts and Mitch Moreland had a couple hits each and Devers broke out
of a mini slump with a big double of his own.
On the mound, Pomeranz’ performance was
overshadowed by his offense, but was very solid in its own right. It didn’t get
off to the best of starts, as he threw a lot of pitches in a first inning that
included a home run. Of course, it wasn’t a majestic shot by any means. He threw
a two-strike, outside fastball to Gary Sanchez and the Yankees catcher put a
defensive swing on the ball. However, Sanchez is so strong and the wall is so
short out to right field that it just barely stayed fair and went for a two-run
blast. That gave New York an early 2-0 lead.
Pomeranz settled down after
that inning, though, and showed off a strong curveball and some of the better
and some of the more consistent fastball velocity we’ve seen from the lefty all
year long. He’s been such a big part of this rotation all year long, and once
again he went out and gave Boston 6 2/3 strong innings against one of the better
lineups in baseball. His ERA is now 3.39 on the season.
After Pomeranz left with a
couple outs in the seventh, Brandon Workman came out of the bullpen and pitched
well. He’d quickly end that inning, and after one batter reached in the eighth
on a Devers error, Workman retired the side. Robby Scott, who was just called up
earlier in the day, came on for the ninth. It was not his day, as he allowed
home runs to the first two batters he faced. After that shaky start — one that
forced Craig Kimbrel to start warming in the bullpen — he got three straight
outs to end the game. |
