Game 89: Athletics at Red Sox

The Twitter account @redsoxstats mused recently about the Red Sox winning against the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers but then getting swept by the Oakland Athletics. And to an extent, yeah, the Sox have struggled whether against the Chicago White Sox - expected to be bad - or the nouveau bad teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates that started out so very hot (sure would be nice to get those games as a do-over!).

With the starting rotation (not literally…yet) limping towards the All-Star Break tonight is yet another appearance by an opener. And with Kaleb Ort aka The Ort Cloud hitting the IL it’s up to Brennan Bernadino. The southpaw has quietly put up a good year out of the ‘pen with a 2.70 ERA / 3.41 FIP.

The A’s send fellow lefty Sam Long who is also an opener tonight. Usually pitching somewhere in the back third of games for Oakland he’s been summoned for his first start of the year. He’s usually good for an inning or so. Neither starter tonight will be making multiple trips through the lineup. Possibly not even multiple innings.

Masataka Yoshida has the night off and could be available to get a pitcher out of the game like Alex Cora’s Jarren Duran gambit last night. I like to call it “The Cora Manuver.”

Yu Chang is back from the IL and starting at shortstop. Kiké Hernández will play second base.

First pitch is at 7:10 PM ET on WEEI and NESN.