Fact: Edwin Encarnacion hit a three-run walk-off home run in the Toronto Blue Jays‘ 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night. He became the first player since the New York Yankees‘ Aaron Boone (2003 ALCS Game 7 vs. Boston Red Sox) to hit a walk-off in a winner-take-all game.
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Source: B/R Insights
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Sometimes, the baseball gods just don’t smile down upon you.
Baltimore’s season came to a brutal end in extra innings, as Edwin Encarnacion’s three-run blast off Ubaldo Jimenez in the bottom of the 11th inning gave the Toronto Blue Jays a 5-2 victory over the Orioles, who are now 2-8 in their last 10 playoff games dating back to 2012.
It was a puzzling move for manager Buck Showalter to not turn to his All-World closer, Zach Britton, who he confirmed in his postgame press conference was indeed available, via Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com. Perhaps things would have worked out differently for the Orioles if he had.
But Britton and most of his teammates will be back at it again in 2017, though there will certainly be some changes to the roster before Opening Day.
What follows is an overview of some of the decisions that the team will have to make—and some of the players they may look to—in order to bolster the roster for a return trip to the postseason, and perhaps the Fall Classic, in 2017.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Rick Porcello loves to fly fish whenever work doesn’t get in the way. This year, he may reel in the American League Cy Young Award or baseball’s ultimate catch—a World Series ring.
Porcello’s semi-secret New England fishing spot is nearby a home he has in Vermont, located close to the Massachusetts border. He also fly fishes in both salt and fresh water near the Red Sox spring training home in Fort Myers, Florida.
Porcello (22-4) sees a real-life connection between casting for rainbow trout in his native New Jersey and pitching to Mike Trout at Fenway Park.
“The fishing carries over to baseball,” Porcello told B/R. “If I’m mentally drained and need my escape, that’s usually what I go to. It helps me clear my head. If I have an off day, or a morning where I don’t have a lot going on that day. It’s not very often. I try to mix it in.”
The daily catch varies by season and location; just as successful pitches in baseball vary based on opponent and location. Thursday, Porcello starts for the Red Sox in Game 1 of the ALDS at Cleveland.
Any mention of Red Sox and fishing allows for no more than two questions before Ted Williams enters the conversation. Williams is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Fishing Hall Fame and the Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame.
“I’m aware of the three Hall of Fames he’s in,” Porcello said.
The Marine Corps Hall of Fame is probably out of the question, but is Porcello gunning for either a spot in Cooperstown or Springfield, Missouri—where the Fishing Hall of Fame will soon be located.
“I’m gunning for a World Series, and maybe down the line, some kind of award.”
Monday, Porcello was named American League Pitcher of the Month for September. The “Comeback Player of the Year” is a strong possibility, but the honor bearing the name of the once-upon-a-time Red Sox pitcher Young would be his top individual prize in 2016.
Porcello said he’s “simply honored” to be in the Cy Young conversation. He led the American League with 22 wins, becoming the first Red Sox pitcher to reach that number in a season since Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez won 23 in 1999.
Porcello finished second in the American League with a 1.01 WHIP. Detroit’s Justin Verlander’s was lower by .01. His 3.15 ERA was fifth league-wide. Aaron Sanchez of the Blue Jays captured the ERA title (3.00), helped by his dominant performance against Boston (7 IP, 2 H, 1 ER) on Sunday.
Porcello’s consistency in delivering quality starts in 2016 was pivotal in Boston’s AL East title run. The Red Sox were coming off back-to-back last place finishes this year. Starting on July 29 this year, Porcello strung together 11 consecutive starts of seven innings or more in which he allowed three runs .
“He’s a model of consistency. He’s been so strong. He’s been so consistent. It’s a combination of multiple things: a talented guy, a well-prepared pitcher and an extremely competitive one,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said.
Porcello was traded to the Red Sox from Detroit before the 2015 season in a deal that sent Yoenis Cespedes to the Tigers. Porcello, a lean 6-foot-5, 205-pound righty, finished 2015 at 9-15 with a portly 4.92 ERA and 1.360 WHIP in only 172 innings. He landed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right triceps muscle on July 31.
His keys to finding success in 2016 were mental and mechanical.
“A lot of [my offseason] was spent working on my delivery. Something I’ve always battled in my career is trying to find the check points in my delivery, and being able to maintain that over the course of a season. That was my major focus. That was one of the big things that was off last season. That was in addition to my normal workouts and conditioning,” he said.
Porcello spoke to B/R at length in a one-on-one before the Red Sox clinched a playoff spot with a 6-4 victory here on Sept. 24.
Then Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington signed Porcello to a four-year, $82.5 million contract extension in April of 2015 that kicked in this season. That contract extension, Porcello said, brought up a lot in conversation as to why he struggled.
The contract wasn’t an added pressure point for Porcello.
“I went back and forth in my head trying to figure out why I was putting so much pressure on myself. It wasn’t the contract that was doing it. I was coming into a new environment. New coaching staff. New organization. New teammates. New city. I wanted to show them all what I could do. I ended up being my own worst enemy,” he said.
Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski told B/R he believed Porcello had “No. 1 starter” potential when he drafted Porcello out of high school in 2007 as GM of the Detroit Tigers. Drombrowski was hired by the Red Sox on Aug. 18 of last year after the team fired Cherington.
Porcello’s contract, along the $183 million combined committed to Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval, fueled much acrimony last season among citizens of Red Sox Nation and media types who report on the team.
“He was probably doing things he normally wouldn’t do,” Dombrowski said. “Rick is more of a two-seam, sinker-ball type of guy, with command of his pitches. It’s a better position than where he’s constantly using the four-seamer trying to overpower hitters. That’s what he was trying to do [last year]. A lot of time, people put those expectations on themselves because they think they need to do that in order to live up to big-dollar situations.“
Dombrowski’s hiring to command the Red Sox front office coincided with Porcello’s return off the disabled list.
“He (then) looked like the Rick Porcello that I had always seen. He lived with the two-seamer and really commanded the strike zone. The other difference, this year, is that he’s in a much more comfortable situation coming back in the second year. You can also just see the maturity in pitching, the mix of pitches and the command of the strike zone,” Dombrowski said. “But all of sudden you see him elevate the fastball a little bit more than he used to, and pitch in and out more than he used to. So I just think you see the normal, natural development and maturity of a young pitcher who is a quality pitcher, not overpowering, but has learned to pitch with his stuff and get people out.”
Porcello’s regular scouting regimen is simple yet effective. The day before each start, he breaks his opposing lineup into two parts. He will spend about an hour watching 60 to 70 pitches each batter has faced in the past week. He will scout five batters on the first day and four on the day he starts.
“I’ll be looking at what hitters have done in the past week, because they can change. Some guys have been hitting the fastball in the past couple of weeks, then they transition and start hitting a breaking ball. Or they’re covering different areas of the strike zone. So I want to be aware of what they’re feeling now. And it’s what I see in the game. So if I’m establishing my fastball, and I see that’s beating hitters or getting on guys, I’m more apt to be aggressive and stay hard with them. And vice versa,” he said. “I see what they’re doing. If they’re aggressive in the count. What counts they don’t want to be in. Take that, try to identify their weaknesses, take my strengths and try to apply it all.”
Two hours before his Sept. 24 start against the Rays, Porcello was relaxing on a couch in the visitor’s clubhouse as Latin pop music blared throughout the room. His concentration wandered between a no-stakes, two-man card game with teammate Marco Hernandez, his smartphone and a pair of TVs showing college football games, including Florida State’s victory over South Florida.
Once Porcello was left alone, he was left alone. Aaron Hill jokingly offered him a beer and Sandoval (on the DL but in town to work out with the team) flicked Porcello’s ear as he walked past. One would not know he was pitching that day unless they had seen the lineup card.
He allowed three earned runs in 6.1 innings with eight hits, nine strikeouts and only one walk in that outing. His fastball got up higher than it should have, allowing the Rays to stay in the game until a late Red Sox rally. Where a game such as that might have meant a loss in 2015, it was simply another challenge met and conquered in 2016.
“I definitely made a lot of mistakes, especially early on in the game and then after the inning where they scored those runs, I was able to settle back down and started executing my pitches better,” he said after that game. “I don’t know if it’s the mistakes or the situation. It’s every pitcher’s battle when you get into a tough situation and have some runners on base. You’ve got to make some pitches. There’s two ways you can go. You can settle down and execute a pitch. Or you make a mistake and basically play into the hitter’s hand. I’ve been doing a lot better situation of that this year.”
After more than a full calendar year with the Red Sox, Dombrowski is fully confident that the more-mature 2016 Porcello is the long-term rule, rather than the exception.
He cites evidence to back that up in Porcello’s performance.
“More changeups, breaking balls, mixing pitches much more. When he was a youngster, he was a two-pitch pitcher—fastball and change. He’s brought the curveball in recent years. He’s got the cutter, the two-seamer and four-seamer,” Dombrowski said. “Now, I think the mix of pitches and the comfort of throwing any pitch at any time, with the command that he has, when he’s behind in the count, is the maturity aspect you’re talking about. You have to have the ability to do that, and he does have the ability to do that.”
The Red Sox went 25-8 in games started by Porcello in 2016. His only loss in 16 starts at Fenway Park this season came in spite of a one-run, eight inning effort on Sept. 14. Baltimore beat Boston 1-0.
Porcello’s 2016 masterpiece, at least until now, was an 89-pitch complete-game 5-2 victory over the Orioles on Sept. 19. Sixty-five of his pitches were strikes. He struck out seven batters and allowed four hits without walking a batter. Porcello threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of 32 batters and went to a three-ball count once.
He demonstrated, at least for one night, thorough mastery of all five of his pitches: the two-seam and four-seam fastballs, the changeup, the slider and the curve.
“That’s anybody’s ideal outing—to have all your weapons working. The reality is that doesn’t happen very often. It’s really hard to do. That was a really good night for me against a good lineup. In order to beat those guys, you have to have all them going. It just happened at the right time. It’s what I’m looking for. It doesn’t always happen. If I can have my fastball command, and at least one or two off-speed pitches, then I can manage that and be OK.”
It was during that start against the Orioles on Sept. 19, when a sinker ball got up and away from Porcello, plunking the combustible Manny Machado in the back. AL home run leader Mark Trumbo was on deck.
Even though there was no obvious intent, Machado glared at Porcello and the two exchanged words. Porcello’s NSFW reply was caught by TV cameras.
“We were just walking to first base, talking — talking like human beings. Nothing much was said,” Machado told Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. “We all know, I know, he doesn’t want to hit me in that situation.”
Porcello’s name was familiar to many Red Sox fans when he joined the team. He hit then Red Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis in 2009 at Fenway Park. Youkilis charged the mound and both benches would eventually clear.
“I can honestly say in both of those situations (Youkilis or Machado) I had no intention of hitting those guys. My reaction is basically a reaction to their reaction. It is always an emotional, heat-of-the-battle type of thing. Nobody wants to get hit by a fastball. Whether it’s 88 or 98, it’s going to hurt. I can completely understand that. That would be my natural reaction, to be pissed off and I’d want to say something, too.”
Porcello said he had yet to speak with Machado since the Sept. 19 game.
“I talked to Youkilis once a couple of years ago when he was with Chicago. We happened to be walking out of the ballpark at the same time. Just briefly, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ I don’t even think he recognized me. I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to Machado. It’s really not necessary for us to talk about it afterward. We’re competing. That’s the way it should be. If I hit him in the back and everything is roses, it wouldn’t feel right. It’s not like I want to hurt him or he wants to hurt me.”
His Cy Young push, meanwhile, has won over hearts and minds across Red Sox Nation.
“Not because he’s my boy—but he’s got the inside track. He’s got better numbers than everybody else,” Red Sox DH David Ortiz told B/R/ “More wins. We are where we’re at because of his performance. I’ll leave it up to the voters, but I’d vote for him. 100 percent.”
The Red Sox paid David Price and Porcello a combined $52.5 million in salary in 2016. They totaled 39 wins in the regular season. Yet, neither has a postseason victory in nine combined starts.
“Once I found out (Price) signed here, it was awesome. He’s made a huge impact on our team. I’ve learned a lot watching him. How to maintain that even keel and demeanor, the focus and competitiveness. And the great things he brings that you don’t see on a day-to-day basis,” Porcello said.
And when Price was struggling earlier this season, Porcello kept his distance. “It’s like, the more someone tries to offer help, they can make it more frustrating. It’s like, ‘I’m really good, I can work through this.’ At least that’s the way I am. I’m a leave-me-alone sort of guy. David’s accomplished so many things in this game. What am I going to tell him that he doesn’t already know?”
Bill Speros is an award-winning journalist who covers baseball for Bleacher Report. He is a columnist for the Boston Herald and tweets @RealOBF.
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This season, the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles couldn’t have played each other closer.
In 19 games, Toronto won 10 and Baltimore nine.
Each team protected its home-field advantage. The Orioles went 5-4 at Camden Yards, while the Blue Jays were 6-4 at Rogers Centre. MLB couldn’t have hand-picked two better teams to pit against one another in the American League Wild Card Game.
Follow along as we break down one of baseball’s most hotly contested division rivalries.
The Toronto Blue Jays went 21 consecutive years without making the playoffs after winning the 1993 World Series. On Sunday, they clinched their second straight postseason spot.
The Detroit Tigers lost to the Atlanta Braves, 1-0, which locked up Toronto’s wild-card berth.
The team’s Twitter account celebrated the news:
Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet shared the celebratory team on the field:
Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet and Zwelling passed along some of the players enjoying the moment:
With their 2-1 win over the Boston Red Sox, they will host the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday in the American League‘s Wild Card Game matchup.
The Blue Jays won the American League East last year but lost in the American League Championship Series to the World Series champion Kansas City Royals. Toronto led the major leagues in total runs in 2015 by an incredible margin of 127.
Things were different as Toronto clinched a wild-card berth this year after a heated battle with the likes of the Tigers, Orioles, Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros.
The Blue Jays weren’t just offensive mashers in 2016. While they rank eighth in the big leagues in total runs (757), pitching helped carry them to the postseason. In fact, the starting rotation, which ranks fourth in the majors in ERA (3.66), has been effective despite losing last year’s second-half ace, David Price, to the Boston Red Sox during the offseason.
Marcus Stroman, J.A. Happ, Aaron Sanchez, Marco Estrada and R.A. Dickey have all proved to be durable workhorses with at least 28 starts, and Toronto acquired southpaw Francisco Liriano from the Pittsburgh Pirates during the season to bolster the group.
Any pitching staff benefits from a loaded lineup, and that’s what Toronto brings to the table as it approaches the postseason.
Six players in the order have 20 or more home runs in 2016, and an offense that features Edwin Encarnacion, Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Troy Tulowitzki, Michael Saunders and Russell Martin will be a difficult out in any playoff series.
Donaldson, the 2015 American League MVP, hasn’t even been the lineup’s most feared slugger. That title goes to Encarnacion, who has drilled 42 home runs and tallied 127 RBI as one of the best run producers in the league. Donaldson isn’t far behind, though, with 37 long balls and 99 RBI.
The Blue Jays have the pieces to make a deep postseason run for the second year in a row. However, this time they will have to play in the pressure-packed, do-or-die American League Wild Card Game, and they will not have the luxury of being able to come back after falling behind 2-0, as they did in last year’s American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers.
The sluggers and formidable pitching must deliver right away if Toronto is going to challenge for its first World Series title since 1993.
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The Baltimore Orioles are headed to the postseason for just the third time since the 1997 campaign.
Baltimore clinched a wild-card berth with a 5-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Sunday, as the team shared on Twitter:
The Boston Red Sox won the American League East, relegating the Orioles to the American League Wild Card Game.
The Seattle Mariners were eliminated from contention after a 9-8 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday, which left the Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers battling for the two wild-card spots at the start of Sunday’s schedule.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports explained the situation before the Tigers lost to the Atlanta Braves, ensuring it will be Toronto and Baltimore in the Wild Card Game:
While the scenarios were confusing, that didn’t stop the Orioles from celebrating after they knew they did their part. The team shared some of the scenes after Sunday’s win:
Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com passed along more of the celebration:
Kevin Gausman pitched 7.1 inning Sunday, allowing two earned runs. He received some run support from Matt Wieters, who drilled two home runs.
Long balls are nothing new for Baltimore’s offense. As of Sunday, it led the major leagues with 251 home runs, far ahead of the second-place St. Louis Cardinals (224). Mark Trumbo, the team’s primary slugger, was slashing .256/.316/.533 with 47 home runs and 108 RBI entering Sunday’s contest.
Elsewhere, Chris Davis has 38 homers, and Manny Machado has 37. Pedro Alvarez, Jonathan Schoop and Adam Jones also each boast more than 20 long balls on the 2016 season.
The team’s slugging was critical as the Orioles earned a trip to the playoffs with lackluster starting pitching, ranking 24th in the big leagues with a 4.74 ERA as of Sunday.
However, Chris Tillman and Gausman both have ERAs below 4.00. In shortened postseason series, they can take the mound multiple times and keep Baltimore in contention.
The Orioles also have a lights-out bullpen that should help shorten those October games. As of Sunday, it was third in the majors with a 3.41 ERA.
Closer Zach Britton, the anchor of the group, had sparkling numbers entering Sunday’s game: a 0.54 ERA, a 0.84 WHIP, 47 saves and 74 strikeouts in 67 innings. A weapon like that at the back end of the bullpen is a scary proposition for any postseason opponent.
Between the bullpen and the power, Baltimore has the pieces to challenge for its first World Series title since the 1983 season.
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The Boston Red Sox announced Sunday that they will retire David Ortiz‘s No. 34, according to Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal.
The honors for Ortiz won’t end there, as Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweeted:
Ortiz, 40, has had a legendary career. He’s a three-time World Series champion with the Red Sox, a 10-time All-Star and was the 2013 World Series MVP. In his 14 years with the Red Sox, he’s hit .290 with 483 home runs, 1,530 RBI and 1,204 runs.
Ortiz has hit 541 home runs in his 20-year career, which is the 17th-most in MLB history.
He’ll always be remembered for his performance in the 2004 American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees. With the Yankees leading the series 3-0, Ortiz hit a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the 12th inning of Game 4. In Game 5 the next night, he hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 14th.
The Red Sox won Games 6 and 7 in New York and then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series to end their 86-year title drought.
Ortiz’s impact went beyond his play on the field, though. After the Boston Marathon bombing and ensuing manhunt in 2013, Ortiz took to the microphone in Fenway Park and told the crowd, “This is our f–kin’ city. And nobody’s gonna dictate our freedom.”
He was clutch, entertaining, charitable and, ultimately, iconic. There have been better players to don the Red Sox uniform, but few have had the impact of Ortiz.
You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.
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Unlikely heroes rise in the postseason.
With the Baltimore Orioles fighting for their playoff lives, right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez is getting an early start.
Jimenez twirled 6.2 scoreless frames Thursday in the Orioles’ 4-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, allowing one hit with three walks and five strikeouts.
The win moved the O’s (87-72) into a tie with Toronto for the American League‘s top wild-card spot and 1.5 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers, the closest WC competition.
The Orioles finish the season with three games in the Bronx against the dangerous New York Yankees. The Jays get three on the road against the division-winning and possibly complacent Boston Red Sox, while the Tigers take on the cellar-dwelling Atlanta Braves.
Baltimore’s work isn’t finished, in other words. There’s a scenario where the club sits at home for most of October.
If the Orioles do flutter into the playoffs, however, Jimenez’s resurgence will be an unexpected boon—and a serious secret weapon.
His overall numbers aren’t pretty. The 32-year-old owns an 8-12 record and 5.44 ERA through 142.1 innings. He hasn’t posted a sub-4.00 ERA since 2013.
Lately, though, Jimenez has resembled the pitcher who once upon a time made the All-Star team and finished in the top five in Cy Young Award balloting with the Colorado Rockies in 2010.
Since the All-Star break, Jimenez owns a 2.82 ERA, tops among Baltimore starters.
He threw into the sixth inning or later in each of his last seven starts and mixed in a complete game Sept. 5 against the Tampa Bay Rays.
A formerly good but recently blah hurler on a mini hot streak wouldn’t grab headlines on most contenders. The Orioles, though, are so hard up for starting pitching that Jimenez’s roll counts as a revelation.
Baltimore starters own the third-worst ERA (4.77) in the AL and are easily the worst among postseason hopefuls in both leagues.
Chris Tillman has been a mixed bag since returning from the disabled list. Kevin Gausman has yielded 17 hits and nine earned runs in his last two decisions, both losses. Dylan Bundy, Yovani Gallardo and Wade Miley are all covered with warts.
There isn’t a clear—or even murky—ace in the bunch.
It’s asking a lot to expect Jimenez to become that ace. A promising half and handful of superlative starts don’t erase years of mediocrity.
But Jimenez, as Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun noted, has “found the command of his sinker and been able to effectively utilize his breaking ball off that.”
He’s harnessing his stuff, even as his velocity remains consistent with the past couple of seasons. And he’s concurrently gaining swagger.
“When things are going good, you feel confidence,” Jimenez said, per Encina. “You don’t have to get on the mound and wonder what is going to happen. Even before you get on the mound, you know you’re going to be able to compete and you feel good mentally, physically, everything is good.”
The O’s reportedly tinkered with Jimenez’s delivery in mid-August, and the stats suggest it helped, as ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark noted:
The Orioles can hit. They rank third in the AL in OPS (.760) and pace baseball with 247 home runs. The bullpen is an asset, fronted by the three-headed hydra of Mychal Givens, Brad Brach and Zach Britton.
But it’s tough, if not impossible, to make a deep run without at least a couple of reliable starters. A few months ago, the idea that Jimenez could fill that role would have seemed absurd.
Now, as the autumn leaves turn and the lights get brighter, he’s doing a credible impression of an unlikely hero.
Which is exactly what Baltimore needs.
All statistics and standings current as of Thursday and courtesy of MLB.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.
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The Boston Red Sox clinched their eighth American League East division title on Wednesday thanks to the Baltimore Orioles‘ 3-2 win over the second-place Toronto Blue Jays.
However, the celebrations were muted when the New York Yankees overcame a 3-0 ninth-inning deficit, which was capped off by a Mark Teixeira grand slam, to beat Boston 5-3.
The Red Sox still took to Twitter to confirm that they clinched their spot atop the only division in baseball featuring four teams with a record above .500:
Even though the new division champions were still playing, that didn’t mean the party wasn’t getting started early as Ryan Hannable of WEEI showed the Red Sox’s ownership group celebrating in the box seats of Yankee Stadium:
Only In Boston was just waiting for the team to join the party:
But Lil Wayne couldn’t wait:
However, SportsCenter‘s Jade McCarthy pointed out that it might have been hard to celebrate after Teixeira’s homer:
MLB Network’s Chris Rose didn’t know what to do:
It looked like the Red Sox didn’t know what to do either, as WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford caught a glimpse of the team’s dugout:
Regardless, there were new digs waiting in the visitors’ locker room, via the MLB:
And it didn’t do much to rain on the parade of the Red Sox’s Twitter page or NESN’s Emerson Lotzia Jr.:
Once they got into the locker room, the loss was shrugged off, and Boston was able to do some celebrating in the Bronx, via the Red Sox:
There was no holding back either, per NBC’s Jack Korte:
Especially when it came to Chris Young and his dance moves, via the Red Sox:
The Red Sox came into the regular season with two major storylines: the impending retirement of David Ortiz and the arrival of presumed ace David Price, who signed a seven-year, $217 million contact with the organization in December.
Big Papi looked far more like a slugger in his prime than one ready to start life after baseball. The 40-year-old designated hitter remained a force in the middle of the Sox lineup, racking up more than 30 home runs for the 10th time as he put together one of the best seasons in his Hall of Fame career.
Although his continued success at the plate raised questions about whether he’d reconsider retiring, he’s stayed steadfast in his plan to call it quits after the team’s season comes to a close. He told Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated in July that he could still hit, but his body can’t handle the 162-game grind anymore.
“Because I don’t care,” Ortiz said. “My mind is free. There is no doubt in my mind that I can hit for the next couple of years at this highest level.”
Knowing Ortiz is on the brink of playing his last game in a Red Sox uniform adds an extra layer of intrigue and pressure heading into the playoffs. Few athletes in the rich history of Boston sports have made such a major impact both on the field and in the community.
If Boston is going to capture its fourth championship since 2004, Price will likely need to elevate his level of performance after a mundane first season with the franchise.
While the 31-year-old left-hander sports a strong record, his ERA is the second-highest of his career, in part due to a new career high in homers allowed. He’s pitched better during the second half, however, which provides a silver lining heading into the playoffs.
The strength of the Red Sox is their offense, though. Along with Ortiz, Mookie Betts, Hanley Ramirez, Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Dustin Pedroia have all enjoyed great years at the plate. That’s why the club leads the AL in runs by a massive margin.
That said, rarely can a team merely mash its way to a World Series crown. The Red Sox are going to need their pitching staff to carry its fair share of the burden.
The back end of the bullpen is strong with Craig Kimbrel closing out games alongside the setup tandem of Koji Uehara and Brad Ziegler. There are some questions in the middle innings, however, which puts pressure on the starters to go six strong frames.
Ultimately, the success of Price’s entire first season will be determined by how he performs during the playoffs. But there’s just as much urgency for the likes of Rick Porcello and Drew Pomeranz to help push the city of Boston toward yet another title celebration.
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New York Yankees rookie catcher Gary Sanchez hit his 20th home run of the season (and his career) in Tuesday’s 6-4 win over the Boston Red Sox, tying Wally Berger’s record for fastest player to reach 20 career long balls, needing only 50 major league appearances to accomplish the feat, per ESPN Stats & Info.
The 23-year-old Dominican phenom did the deed in the first inning, launching a two-run shot to left field off Boston Red Sox starting pitcher David Price.
While no longer a realistic part of the wild-card chase, the Yankees did bring Boston’s impressive winning streak to an end at 11 games, putting a dent in their archrival’s bid to earn the No. 1 or 2 seed in the American League playoffs.
However, the Red Sox still enter Wednesday just one-half game behind the AL West-leading Texas Rangers for the top spot, with a one-game lead over the Cleveland Indians for the No. 2 seed.
In any case, Sanchez has been the leader of the Yankees’ impressive second-half youth movement, with the team’s combination of young talent and deep pockets providing hope for a quick return to playoff glory.
Prorated to a 150-game season, Sanchez’s incredible numbers work out to 60 home runs, 96 runs and 126 RBI, though it is worth noting that catchers rarely make 150-plus appearances in a single season these days.
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