Sox Wake Up, Slaughter Jays
9/6/11: Red Sox 14, Blue Jays 0
After losing four out of their last five games and watching the divisional lead begin to slip away, the Red Sox took out their angst and frustration on a hapless Canadian baseball club, mashing the Toronto Blue Jays into paste in front of a horrified Rogers Centre crowd.
I think we’ve been waiting for a game like this for quite some time. The Sox had just about everything working right last night.
Key Players:
- Hero of the Game: Adrian Gonzalez (3 for 5 with a double, 3 runs, 3 RBI, 15.8% WPA)
- Goat of the Game: Luis Perez (8 runs allowed before getting yanked, -41.0% WPA)
While some other hitters might have more impressive lines in the box score, Gonzalez had big hits early in the game before things had gotten completely out of hand, and thus had a bigger impact on the result. Also, massacres like this one tend to leave the winning starting pitcher with a low WPA, regardless of how great their performance was (in this case, Jon Lester had one of his best starts on the season)
Top 3 Plays:
- Adrian Gonzales gets the party started with an RBI double in the 1st (9.3% WPA)
- Carl Crawford hits another RBI double in the 1st (8.2% WPA).
- David Ortiz singles in the first to score Gonzalez (6.2% WPA).
Quote of the Day:
“I think we’ve found a new six-hole hitter on the team”
- Marco Scutaro, having a little fun after going 4 for 5
Other Notes:
- According to Pete Abraham, Jon Lester is 4-0 with a 1.16 ERA in his last 5 starts.
- The diagnosis on Josh Beckett is a bad ankle sprain, no surgery required. He’ll miss 1 start at least. Obligatory worthless non-athlete anecdotal tidbit: a bad ankle sprain had me useless for a month back in my “prime” basketball days (by “prime”, I mean playing in a co-ed league with a bunch of hipsters).
- The AAA Pawtucket Red Sox begin their playoff series against the Iron Pigs of Lehigh Valley tonight.
