The Red Sox Pre-Cap Podcast: Recapping the Cardinals

Welcome back to another episode of The Pre-Cap Podcast, your spot on the OTM Podcast Network to hear the latest from every series as well as a preview of whatever is next to come for the Boston Red Sox. Keaton and Bayleigh reviewed the series against the St. Louis Cardinals on this episode and previewed the Detroit Tigers.

The Red Sox took on the first place St. Louis Cardinals for a three game set at Fenway. On Friday night, Michael Wacha toed the rubber against friend, and former mentor, Adam Wainwright. Wacha picked up right where he left off, and gave the Red Sox another solid outing, tossing 5 ¹⁄₃ innings, giving up one earned run, striking out six, walking one on six hits. In the first inning Jarren Duran tripled and crossed the plate on a double play ball from JD Martinez. A JD Martinez single, a Bogaerts double and a Story single scored two runs in the fourth for the Sox. Franchy Cordero doubled in the seventh and was brought home by a Bradley Jr. single. And Dalbec came up clutch with a double of his own, bringing home Bradley Jr.

The bullpen had a bit of an implosion with Austin Davis giving up three earned runs, and not being able to hold a five run lead in the ninth. The Red Sox needed to turn to de facto closer, Tanner Houck, in order to secure the 6-5 victory.

The second game of the series was downright terrible for the Red Sox pitching staff. Kutter Crawford lasted only four innings, gave up six hits, and four earned runs. The true lackluster outing came from Hansel Robles, who since returning from the IL has been anything but sharp. Robles managed to give up four earned runs in just ²⁄₃ of an inning. Sawamura followed up with an earned run of his own, and Davis capped off the night pitching giving up yet another earned run. The Red Sox would go on to lose by a score of 11-2. The offense did not go much of anything against the Cardinals pitching, and the best scoring opportunity came in the with the bases loaded in the fourth, only down by 2 runs, and Jarren Duran grounded out.

The final game in the series played out quite a bit like the first game. Pivetta, although he didn’t have the greatest command of his pitches, and walked four in his outing, he managed to grind through seven innings, allowing only a single earned run. The diamond in the rough, Schreiber lowered his ERA to 0.87 on the season and impressively struck out the side in the eighth.

The Red Sox offense got the party started with a Trevor Story solo opposite field home run in the second inning. Bradley Jr. tacked on some more, driving in Verdugo in the fifth. Rob Refsnyder since being called up has been a nice little spark, he added to the scoring with a line drive single in the seventh, but it was Vazquez’s three-run blast in the eighth that helped put the game away.

Much like on Friday night, the Red Sox bullpen could not pitch a clean ninth inning with a large lead. Danish came into the game, and it once again got dicey! Danish allowed three earned runs, including a monster blast to Juan Yepez in the 9th. Tanner Houck was once again called on to slam the door shut in what became a save situation. The Red Sox would win 6-4.

The Red Sox welcome in future Hall of Famer, Miguel Cabrera, and the underperforming Detroit Tigers next to Fenway.