Red Sox 4, Twins 5 F/10: (T)win Streak Snapped

The Ort Cloud space brain must have seeped into everyone’s minds in the bottom of the 10th inning.

An intentional walk of Christian Vazquez leads to a Michael A. Taylor sacrifice bunt, but Ort misplays the whole shebang at first base, and a challenge from Minnesota looked like it would have overturned the original out call. Somehow, the call stood, and there was one down, then Cora takes a mound visit and calls Jarren Duran all the way in from center? Now we’re all confused if we have a five-man infield, it ended up being all three infielders played shallow, but that made no difference.

It’s the first walk-off loss of the season for the Red Sox, and even with a loss in the standings, there were some good things to glean from this one:

• For the second time in two days, a Red Sox has hit a 447-foot homer. Last night, it was Masataka Yoshida. Tonight, it was Justin Turner who absolutely mashed one to the third deck in left field. Turner’s bat is absolutely exploding, which is great in giving Adam Duvall a chance to catch up to speed.
• Speaking of hot bats, Christian Arroyo continues to get on base. Another two-hit game as he finally looks awake following his return from injury.
• Reese McGuire left tonight’s game with a right oblique injury. Not great, chief. With Jorge Alfaro’s release on June 3rd, there’s no other catcher on the 40-man roster. Either Ronaldo Hernandez needs to get added, or the Sox need to add someone from outside the organization before tomorrow’s 1:10 getaway day.
• Lots of lead changes in this one. Sox get on the board first, give the lead up in the bottom of the second, tie it back up the next frame, give it back up the next frame, it was very up and down.
• Can Bill Burr be a permanent member of the NESN booth? His annual appearances never cease to be the absolute best television to watch.

FanGraphs

Three Studs

Justin Turner (.280 WPA, 2-for-4, 2 runs scored, 2 RBIs, 1 BB)

Old red beard man can mash, hit, run, do whatever. Justin Turner is en fuego. This is a showcase of why we signed him over J.D. Martinez (whom I wish no ill will and seems to be having his own success in a change of scenery).

Triston Casas (.156 WPA, 2-for-5, 1 RBI, 1 K)

Look at this, Triston Casas doing good things! His strikeout in the 10th is brutal on what’s most likely a ball, but I can see the wheels turning in his head, he’s making better contact, and he’s being more patient. It’s all coming together at the right time.

Kenley Jansen (.131 WPA, 1.0 IP, 1 K)

A very clean 9th for Jansen, whom I might have rather pitched the 10th, but no matter.

Three Duds

Kaleb Ort (-.369 WPA, 0.1 IP, 1 BB, loss)

Kaleb Ort is the new Ryan Brasier. Fire him into the sun.

Garrett Whitlock (-.194 WPA, 7.0 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 6 K)

Look, I go by who had the lowest WPA, but my baseball eyes have to say Whitlock actually had a great outing and doesn’t deserve to be in here. Yeah, he gave up four runs, but he settled down and gave the Sox every chance to keep themselves in this. It might hurt his ERA, but I wouldn’t be disappointed in this start.

Connor Wong (-.172 WPA, 0-for-2, 1 K)

I almost don’t blame Wong either, coming in cold after McGuire gets hurt. Still, it is what it is.

Play of the Game

Amazingly by WPA, it’s not the walk-off single by Kyle Farmer. With a WPA of .254, it’s Triston Casas’ game-tying RBI double in the 8th inning.