Red Sox 4, Cubs 2: The Red Sox won and avoided disaster with Rafael Devers

The Red Sox picked up another win on Monday in their second-to-last contest of the spring, but honestly this was an outing in which we pretty much just held our breaths the entire time. Rafael Devers left early after a collision at the plate. Xander Bogaerts slipped awkwardly. J.D. Martinez was hit in the forearm by a pitch. Our pets heads fell off. Let’s just get through one more game, and probably go ahead and put everyone in a bubble for Tuesday’s game. Yeah? Yeah.

Rafael Devers leaves early

We’ll get to the performances from this game in a second, but the young third baseman leaving early was the biggest story from Monday’s game. Devers scored a run when Cubs catcher Victor Caratini made a bad throw back to the mound, but he made an awkward head-first slide into the plate that led to a collision with the Cubs backstop. Devers was clearly shaken up after the play, but fortunately he was diagnosed with a knee contusion and is day-to-day. He said after the game that he expects he’ll be able to play on Thursday, which is good. But someone needs to let him know that while it’s nice to show that kind of effort all the time we don’t need to be doing that in spring training.

Rick Porcello leads solid day for pitching

On Monday, the Red Sox announced what their bullpen would look like in the regular season, and we got to see a few of the major-league relievers in this game. As has been the case for most of the spring, they all performed well. It was Rick Porcello who got the first start, though, and while he did that thing where he allowed a whole lot of hits, he limited damage fairly well. Overall, the righty went six innings in which he allowed a pair of runs on seven hits, six of which were singles. This propensity to allow so many singles can work out like it did today, but it sure would be nice if Porcello could find a way to stop doing that every time out. Him moving back closer to his 2016 form would be a huge boost for this Red Sox roster. After he was lifted from the game, it was an inning apiece for all the relievers. Joe Kelly had a perfect outing with one strikeout while Heath Hembree and Carson Smith each allowed a single in scoreless innings of their own. Smith also had a strikeout in his outing. Minor league righty Ryan Brasier finished the game off with a scoreless ninth that included two strikeouts. It’s only spring training but it’s hard not to be excited about these relievers right now.

Mitch Moreland leads the offense

It wasn’t a great day for Red Sox hitters, but they did what they had to do and made the most of some opportunities. There weren’t a ton of big swings for the Red Sox on Monday, though, with just one extra-base hit. Mitch Moreland got that one with a double to leadoff the sixth, though he was stranded at second base. Moreland also had a single in this game and drove in a run. Hanley Ramirez joined him in the multi-hit club, smacking a pair of singles. Also getting singles in his game were Mookie Betts, Josh Ockimey, Ivan De Jesus and Sandy Leon.

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