Streaky Sox Still Cold

Bryan Bello showed some solid pitching tonight but the Sox offense didn’t back him up. Bello hit 97 MPH on the gun, went deep in the game and was efficient. His one bad habit tonight was leaving the ball over the middle of the plate a bit too often. This mistake came back to bite him twice, in the first and in the fifth, when he gave up solo HRs to Mickey Moniak and Matt Thaiss, respectively. His pitching wasn’t flawed enough to have cost the Sox the game and of course he didn’t do that all on his own.

The Sox had two hits in the game, and neither amounted to anything. To say that the Sox offense has been sleepy in this series would be unfair to Rip van Winkle. The leadoff man never got aboard until the eighth inning when Rob Refsnyder, brought in to face lefty Matt Moore (we all know that Alex Cora loves his matchups), got on with a walk. Next, Verdugo made it to first when the double play didn’t work out. For a millisecond, it felt like something might happen.

But then Joely Rodriguez entered the game in the bottom of the eighth, and the game crumbled even further.

The Angels got a lucky double when a ball by Taylor Ward hit the third base bag. It bounced and went fair, giving Mike Trout time to come alive for his first hit of series. Just our luck, that hit would be a 2-run HR, making it 4-0, Angels. Our old friend Hunter Renfroe got an easy double, but the scoring would end there for both teams.

The last three days, we haven’t done much. - Alex Cora

If that quote doesn’t sum it up, how about the interesting diversion created when Justin Garza’s Pitchcom broke in the bottom of the eighth. It was nice to take a break from the game.

Or how about this visual:

The Sox have one more crack at the Angels Wednesday in Anaheim, but the Angels have already won the series.

Studs:

Bryan Bello: 0 BB, 6 SO, 2 ER

Enmanuael Valdez with a nice stab in the short outfield and a tricky pivot-and-throw that caught the runner at second

Duds:

Sox offense: 2-28 tonight, .144 as team with one extra-base hit in last 3 games

Joely Rodriguez: 0.1 inning, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 baserunners