I’m not sure what exactly I just watched. If that was someone’s first experience with baseball, they would either instantly fall in love with the game or give up entirely because they couldn’t follow along. Seriously, that game had everything. Ghost runners, double switches, outfielders playing infield, outfield, and then infield again.
There were several moments throughout the game where I mentally conceded, assuming defeat was imminent. Fortunately, that moment never came. I guess that’s the beauty of playing the A’s. While the game had many twists and turns and there’s plenty to talk about, the story to me is the bullpen and the defense. Greg Weissert, Isaiah Campbell, Chris Martin, Kenley Jansen, and Josh Winckowski managed to shut out Oakland for six innings while the offense struggled to scrape runs across.
The A’s threatened in the ninth, but Jansen bore down and got out of the inning with a little help from the umpire. In the tenth, with the winning run on second, Devers made a fantastic play on a sacrifice bunt for the first out. Immediately after, Winckowski fielded a comebacker and caught the runner on third in no man’s land before striking out the next hitter to end the inning. Then, as if the game didn’t have enough, in the eleventh inning, Ceddane Rafaela ran down a fly ball that most outfielders wouldn’t sniff without breaking a sweat.
It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win all the same. If you want to be a good team, you have to beat the bad teams. At the end of the day, that’s what the Red Sox did tonight. Day game tomorrow, get your brooms out.
Three Studs
Josh Winckowski (2 IP, 0 ER, 3 K)
Winckowski went toe to toe with A’s fireballer Mason Miller in extra innings. He hit his spots, showed increased velocity with his cutter, and made Brent Rooker take one of the worst swings I’ve ever seen to end the tenth inning. With the tying run on second in the eleventh, he continued to dominate, striking out two hitters while facing the minimum to close the game.
Trevor Story (3-5, 2 RBI)
Trevor Story came through in a big way tonight, singling home the tying run in the seventh inning. His bat needs to wake up if this team wants to be successful, and tonight was a step in the right direction.
Alex Cora
How about the manager tonight? This was an old-school, National League-style game on the Red Sox side. The starting lineup was a bit strange against a lefty, but Cora pulled the right levers and kept the team in the game.
Three Duds
Brayan Bello (5 IP, 5H, 4 ER, 6 K, 1 BB)
It pains me to put Bello in the duds category because this very easily could have been a great start. The stats are the stats and four earned runs against the A’s is never a good thing, but there are still positives to take away from this. His slider, the pitch everyone has been watching, was excellent, and it was actually the changeup he failed to command consistently. While the A’s putting two meatballs over the fence spoiled the evening for Bello, I think it’s fair to say he was in control of more at-bats than he wasn’t. Trust me on this one and don’t panic about Bello just yet. Keep an eye out for an Anatomy of An Inning on this start, there’s a lot more to talk about.
Connor Wong (1-5, 3 Ks)
I was hoping Connor Wong could improve with the bat this season, and while it’s early, that doesn’t seem likely. He looked overmatched in multiple plate appearances tonight and still clearly has plate discipline issues. I won’t write him off just yet, but he’ll need to continue to be a plus glove to be an impact major-league player if he continues on this path offensively.
Ryan Blakney, Home Plate Umpire
I hate to trash the umpires in my first recap of the season, but good god was this guy terrible. This pitch to Triston Casas was called strike three with runners on second and third and one out.
Overall, he probably helped the Red Sox more than he hurt due to his calls late in the game, but it’s still painful to watch these guys miss obvious calls. There needs to at least be some sort of challenge system if not fully making the switch to robot umpires.
Play of the Game
Let’s go to the eleventh inning and watch Ceddane Rafaela track down a long fly ball. Statcast has the ball at 391 feet with a 0.830 expected batting average. With Ceddane in center field, it’s a 0.000 xBA.