Road Trip Recap

The Sox completed their 6 game road trip at 3-3, which is exactly where I thought they'd be. They took 2 of 3 in Chicago from the first place White Sox before dropping 2 of 3 in the Bronx against the last place Yankees, which is the inverse of what I expected, but whatever.

Game 1: Red Sox 1, White Sox 4

Jose Quintana blanked the boys, allowing just one run on 4 hits over 8 innings. The Sox struggles against lefties continued, and another strong start from Steven Wright went by the wayside. The Sox knuckleballer gave up only 3 hits in 6 innings, but unfortunately 2 of those hits were a triple and a homer that gave the White Sox all the runs they needed. The most important thing for me from this game was the appearance of Carson Smith, who I expect to play a key role in the Sox bullpen this year. In his first outing since returning from the Disabled List, Smith pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout. Good start, welcome to 2016 Carson!

Game 2 Red Sox 5, White Sox 2

With another stud lefty (Carlos Rodon) on the hill against Clay Buccholz, this game previewed as another loss for Boston, and when Jose Abreu hit a Buccholz changeup to the moon in the first it looked like a long night for the visitors. However, Clay showed some very un-buccholz-ian resilience, and shut down the opposition for the ensuing 6 frames. The offense finally got things going against a lefty, led by multi-hit games from the Large Father David Ortiz and Xander Bogaerts. Its simply awesome to see the Sox win their first Buccholz game of the season; hopefully he can build on this success, but Im not holding my breath.

Also of note is the play of one Josh Rutledge, who got the start at 3B in this game and went 2-3 at the plate. He is now 7-14 on the season, and with the ability to slot in at 2B, 3B or SS, he may be earning more looks with the way he's made the most of every opportunity.

Game 3 Red Sox 7, White Sox 3

As a result of sending John Danks to the minors, the White Sox were forced to call someone up for a spot start in one of the games of this series, and game three was it. Erik Johnson has been up and down from Triple-A since 2013, with mixed results. Games like these are an opportunity for good offenses, and the Red Sox jumped all over it, scoring in each of the first 3 innings. They could have scored even more, but they left 7 men on base through 5, and frankly they were lucky it didn't bite them in the ass. Henry Owens started for the Red Sox, and couldn't find the plate from the beginning. He didn't get any help from the umpire, but when you walk 6 guys in 3 innings you can't blame the officiating. Somehow, the White Sox managed to only plate 2 runs with those walks, as Owens got two key strikeouts, against the middle of the order, with the bases loaded. After those early chances, the White Sox couldn't get much going against the bullpen, which strung together 6 innings of 1 run ball.

Game 1 Red Sox 2, Yankees 3

This game was insanely, insanely frustrating. Rick Porcello put together another solid performance, giving up 3 runs over 7 IP. The offense got 8 hits against Joel Pineda in 6 innings, but could only plate 2 of them, both on Big Papi's first inning blast (his 50th career HR against the Yankees, 2nd most of any opposing team). However, this one got really frustrating in the 9th. With the score at 3-2 Yankees, Boston loaded the bases against Andrew Miller, with Ortiz coming up. Miller ran the count to 3-1, one bad pitch away from tying the game. This is when umpire Ron Kulpa decided to step into the spotlight, calling two of the worst strikes you will ever see to wring up Ortiz. Ortiz justifiably flipped out, leading to Manager John Farrell getting ejected. Though Hanley Ramirez still had a chance to tie the game and struck out swinging, its fair to say that Kulpa's horseshit cost the Sox this game.

Game 2 Red Sox 2, Yankees 8

The story of this one is the continued struggles of David Price. The $30 million man has been a pretty serious letdown so far this season, and after allowing 6 ER in 4.2 IP his ERA has ballooned to 6.75, which is very bad. The good news is he hasn't been consistently awful, so I don't think he's injured. However, that removes the easiest explanation for his lack of performance, which stems from a worrying drop in fastball velocity since 2015. The good news is that apparently Dustin Pedroia has figured out what's wrong through studying film of Price. Im not sure whether Petey will fix the issue, or why our second baseman is finding things that apparently evaded the notice of both the manager and pitching coach, but as long as Price improves from here I will be happy. He needs to if this rotation has a chance of being playoff quality.

Game 3 Red Sox 5, Yankees 1

Steven Wright pitched another brilliant gem, holding the Yankees scoreless until Brett Gardner's solo homer with two outs in the ninth. With this complete game, Wright dropped his ERA on the season to 1.52. He appears to be on an RA Dickey-esque tear, where his knuckleball becomes basically untouchable out of nowhere. I'm still not sure how sustainable this success is, but I intend to enjoy the ride for however long it lasts.

As for the offense, all the runs came by way of the long ball, with Pedroia and Bogaerts sandwiching two Big Papi bombs to right center. Also of note is the continued hitting of Jackie Bradley Jr., who now has a hit in 14 straight games. He is batting .288/.342/.519 for the season, firmly answering the questions over whether his success at the end of last season represented a turning point or merely a fluke.

So thats it for the road trip. The Red Sox come back to Fenway at 18-13, 1/2 a game behind the Orioles for first place in the AL East. Next up is a 7 game homestand against the Athletics and Astros.