Red Sox 6, Orioles 1: Deja Vu

Chaim Bloom promised last offseason that the Red Sox would be better this season. He wasn’t right. But he barely wasn’t.

The Boston Red Sox finished the season with a 78-84 record, the exact same measure as last year.

I’ll talk a little about the baseball today, but with a heavy heart. Rest in peace, Wake.

Maybe it was fitting to see the pitching step up today, with Tanner Houck carrying a no-hitter through 5.2 innings. He ended up tossing a one-hitter through six frames. Brennan Bernardino, John Schreiber and Nick Robertson carried the rest of the way, giving up just one run and one more hit.

Rafael Devers nabbed his 100th RBI of this season when he reached on a fielding error in the third inning to let Alex Verdugo score. A four-run seventh is all else the team needed.

FanGraphs

Three Studs

Tanner Houck (6.0 IP, 1 H, 3 BB, 6 K, win)

That’s certainly a confident way to end your season. He’ll project to be in back-end of the starting rotation once again. An offseason of good work and more outings like today would certainly help.

Pablo Reyes (0-for-1, 2 BB, 1 run scored)

Nice to see the bench get emptied and get one more solid appearance from Reyes. While no hits, he worked two walks and came home in the seventh.

Brennan Bernardino (1.0 IP, 1 K)

Bernardino finishes his season on a high note as well. Notably this season, when the Red Sox get a lead, the bullpen can seem to implode. A one-two-three seventh instills some sort of confidence to get the job done. He also crosses the 50 IP season threshold for the first time with his frame of work.

Three Duds

Bobby Dalbec (0-for-4, 4 K)

Trevor Story (1-for-4, 1 RBI, 3 K)

Connor Wong (0-for-4, 2 K)

Yes, Trevor Story drove in a run in the seventh, but combining for one hit and nine strikeouts do not make a productive game.

Play of the Game

Game-wise, it’s the Enmanuel Valdez “double steal” on the double steal with Alex Verdugo that got the run-scoring off to a good start. Valdez scampered home on a throwing error by James McCann that didn’t even leave the infield, but he still managed to score.