Game 136: Red Sox at Rays

I don’t know what the Red Sox expected out of Michael Wacha but it probably wasn’t a 2.56 ERA/3.80 FIP in 95 innings. The Sox are 13-4 in games he started. When you consider a shutout and a seven-inning start are his only games going deeper than six innings and the troublesome bullpen in 2022 is pretty good! Chaim Bloom picking up a reclamation project abandoned by the Rays after 2021 turned out OK. Granted, the strikeouts are down and the walks are up and his FIP shows he’s been a little worse than he’s appeared. But in this season of mostly disaster, he’s been a very bright spot. Even five clean innings at a time is a welcome sign this year when good starts have been hard to come by. Of more trivia than forecasting, Wacha’s two starts against the year have been solid enough efforts: two runs over five innings in April and four runs over six innings on August 26.

Triston Casas collected his first hit yesterday in his major league debut and is heading home to Florida where he certainly will have a loud cheering section is the usually vacant Tropicana Field.

After entering September with a five-game hitless streak, Rafael Devers started to turn it back on against the Texas Rangers. He had two hits in each of the first three games before an 0-4 yesterday. The third baseman still hasn’t found his power stroke since returning from the IL with just three home runs since the beginning of August and none since August 14. He enters today a .261/.324/.412 hitter at the Trop with 5 home runs in 41 games.