Can’t Buy A Run
Thursday, April 27, 2017 – Fenway Park, Section 43
Yankees 3, Red Sox 0
A rainout on Tuesday night pushed all the pitchers back a day, meaning that instead of seeing Drew Pomeranz pitch against the Yankees, I was going to get to witness the artistry of Chris Sale, who was off to a ridiculously dominant start. Coming into tonight’s game, he had made four starts, going at least seven innings in each, with an ERA of 0.91 and a league-leading 42 strikeouts. The problem had been run support. His teammates had provided only four total runs of support while he was on the mound over those four starts, and as a result he had a very unfairly pedestrian-looking 1-1 record.
(I swear I took some pictures that weren’t of Chris Sale. They’re in here somewhere…)
(OK, so not that one, but here are a few…)
(And now back to our regularly-scheduled programming…)
As awesome as Sale’s pitching was – and he really is fun to watch – the offense did nothing to help him out. He pitched just like his other starts, working very quickly, so that the end of the eighth inning came right at the two-hour mark of the game. That’s fast by any standard, but especially for a Red Sox-Yankees game. (I once went to a game between these two teams that lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes – the longest 9-inning game in MLB history!) It was unfortunate when an unearned run crossed the plate for the Yankees in the fourth (single, groundout, passed ball, sacrifice fly). Sale gave up one more run in the ninth (and was charged with another after he came out), causing his ERA to “skyrocket” all the way up to 1.19.
It ended up the third shutout for the Red Sox offense in their last seven games. It was frustrating to waste such a good start, as Sale now had a mere four total runs of support over his first five starts. At least it was so fast that the game was over at 9:30, and I was all the way back home at 10:45.
Ready for the punchline?
I’d like to buy some runs, but I guess they’re… (wait for it…) not for Sale. 🙁
— Kristen C (@Red_Sox_Diehard) April 28, 2017