FanPost

From Beginning to End, Boston Obliterates Hometown White Sox

May 24

Before the game gets started comes bad news for the White Sox: Luis Robert, their star, has gone on the COVID list and must miss both this series and the next one. Martinez, meanwhile, returns from the injured list for Boston. For the opener of the series from the South Side, Dylan Cease pitches for Chicago against Pivetta. Nick Pivetta gets quite the cushion before he takes the mound. Boston picks up right where it left off at home, as Kiké Hernández hits the first pitch of the evening out of the ballpark to give his team the 1-0 lead! This is the first indication that it will be a very, very long night for the baseball community on the Southside. The next two batters reach, followed by a fly out that puts runners at the corners with one out (Cease needed 14 pitches to get one out). After a strikeout, Trevor Story hits his eighth homer of the year into left to turn this into a 4-0 game. According to the Red Sox, it’s the eleventh time one of their players has had six fingers in his last five games. The last one was Kevin Millar on that legendary 2004 team. He’s in the broadcast booth tonight. Jim Rice did the same back in 1983. Cease throws 30 pitches in his first inning of work. These are the Red Sox we’ve been waiting for all spring.

I’m amazed when Cease comes back out for the second inning. I’m not surprised when he gives up a leadoff double to Jackie Bradley Junior in the top of the second. That’s followed up by a double to left by Hernández that brings JBJ in and makes it 5-0. With one out, Martinez continues the hit parade with a single to left to plate Hernández and make it 6-0. Supposedly, Dylan Cease is one of the best hurlers the AL has to offer, but Boston now has seven hits, with no intention of stopping. The Red Sox continue threatening in the top of the third by putting runners at the corners with one out. Bradley beats out a double play throw, thereby allowing another man to score and make it 7-0 as this game is now beyond Chicago’s control. Cease threw 30 pitches in the first inning. It takes Pivetta exactly three innings to accumulate 30 pitches as he mows down the White Sox early. Devers leads off the fourth with Boston’s third home run of the evening and his tenth of the year. It’s 8-0! After a single, Bogaerts doubles down the left-field line to put two men in scoring position. I just wish the Sox had found these bats last month or early this month. A walk loads the bases. With one out, Cordero’s sacrifice fly scores Martinez to make it 9-0. Vázquez drops a single into center to bring in Bogaerts and put the Red Sox in double digits at 10-0. Following that, the White Sox bring in their third pitcher in four innings in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding. Boston sends its entire batting order to the plate in the inning.

In the top of the fifth, now 10-2, Boston puts runners at first and second with one out for Verdugo, who gets his first hit of the evening, a double to the alley in left-center, to make it 11-2 as Martinez scores to keep the train moving. Next is a single to left by Story to get the double-digit lead back at 12-2 as Bogaerts crosses the plate. Now Boston has tied its season high in hits at 16. The team will set a new one soon enough. Cordero singles in Verdugo to make it 13-2. That’s a new season high in hits and runs. Now there’s another pitching change. Vázquez cracks another homer to left to make it 16-2. It’s his second of the year. The last time the Red Sox scored at least 15 runs was on 8/14/2021, a 16-2 beatdown of the Orioles. What’s scary is that this is only half! Vaughn hits a two-out ground-rule double to left in the bottom of the fifth, followed by a walk, and Vaughn would score on a single to left by Anderson to make it 16-3. A groundout ends the inning. Only the diehards are left when the Red Sox finish off their 16-3 walloping.