Red Sox fall again to Blue Jays, appear poised for roster shake up
Take a look around the league with Big League Stew’s daily wrap up. We’ll hit on all of the biggest moments from the day that you may have missed, while providing highlights, photos and interesting stats.
The Boston Red Sox are in a serious funk to begin the season and it appears they’re going to be proactive in finding solutions.
On Thursday, the first shoe dropped when they fired pitching coach Juan Nieves, who was overseeing the 30th ranked pitching staff in MLB.
Immediately following Saturday’s 7-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, their 14th loss in 20 games, another team meeting was held and afterward it became clear that more changes were coming.
According to the Boston Globe, the first step will be optioning outfielder Allen Craig to Triple-A. After going 0-for-4 on Saturday, the one time St. Louis Cardinals standout is hitting just .145 on the season. Craig was even an NL MVP candidate and postseason hero for St. Louis less than two years ago, but he’s struggling to find his way in Boston.
At 30, Craig is still due $25.5 million in guaranteed money over the next three seasons, so finding a trade might be difficult. It’s expected that Jackie Bradley Jr. will be in line to take his roster spot on Sunday. The Red Sox are also due to get Shane Victorino back from the disabled list on Monday.
Late Saturday, general manager Ben Cherington completed a trade with Billy Beane, sending reliever Edward Mujica to Oakland.
Those two moves could be the shake up, or they could just be the beginning. Either way, the frustration has clearly set in, and the Red Sox season may already be on the brink.
HIT PARADE FOR PAREDES
Who’s the hottest hitter you probably don’t know about? That would be Baltimore Orioles designated hitter Jimmy Paredes, who on Saturday finished a double shy of the cycle in the O’s 6-2 win against the New York Yankees.
In the third inning, Paredes hit the first of three Orioles’ home runs off Yankees starter Chase Whitley. Chris Davis and Alejandro De Aza would follow with solo shots in the fourth. In the seventh, he tripled and later scored on Delmon Young’s double. In the ninth, he singled to complete his three-hit day, but another chance for the double was not in the cards as Baltimore failed to bat around.
Since coming off the disabled list on April 18, Paredes is hitting .347 with five homers and 15 RBIs. He’s provided a boost to an offense that lost Nelson Cruz to free agency, is still without Matt Wieters due to injury, and has so far received little consistent production from hitters not named Adam Jones and Delmon Young.
The Orioles win on Saturday snapped a four-game losing streak. It’s obvious they still need more from other sources, but it seems safe to pencil Paredes in as an offensive force they can rely on going forward.
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GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS FOR RAYS
The good news, the Rays were victorious on Saturday, 7-2, against the Texas Rangers. Evan Longoria and Steven Souza each hit a three-run homer in support of the Rays bullpen, which was called upon in emergency duty with scheduled starter Jake Odorizzi coming down with the flu
Matt Andriese pitched 3 2/3 innings of two-run ball in a spot start. From there, Brandon Gomes, Steve Geltz, Andrew Bellatti and Brad Boxberger allowed nothing on three hits. For Bellatti, it was his major-league debut. He ended up getting the victory following 3 1/3 innings of work. Boxberger earned his eighth save.
Now, the bad news. According to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, left-hander Drew Smyly is headed for an MRI on his shoulder on Monday and it’s expected he’ll be forced to undergo season-ending surgery. Smyly was placed on the DL for the second time on Friday. In three starts covering 16 2/3 innings this season, he was pretty effective, posting a 2.70 ERA with a 21/3 K/BB ratio.
If his season is over, he’ll join Alex Cobb, who underwent Tommy John surgery. It’s damaging to their depth, but the silver lining news is that they should be getting Matt Moore back soon from his Tommy John surgery.
Indeed, the war of attrition continues in MLB.
ASTROS FASTEST AL TEAM TO 20 WINS
While expected like Boston and Cleveland continue struggling, the Houston Astros keep on winning. With Saturday’s 6-5 triumph against the Los Angeles Angels, Houston became the first AL team to notch 20 victories.
Houston has found a lot of their success behind a man named Dallas. That was true again here. Left-hander Dallas Keuchel, who’s making a strong bid for early All-Star consideration, improved to 4-0 with 6 2/3 innings of four-run ball. It wasn’t his best outing, but the fact his ERA only jumped from 0.80 to 1.39 indicates just how awesome he’s been. The Astros are 6-1 in games Keuchel has started.
On offense, the Astros received home runs in each of the first three innings. Those were supplied by Jose Altuve, Chris Carter and Colby Rasmus.
The Astros will take a six-game lead over Los Angeles in the AL West into Sunday’s series finale.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
