Friday, July 13, 2018 | 7:10 pm
Fenway Park | Boston, MA
Ryan Borucki (0-1, 2.25, 1.25) vs. Rick Porcello (11-3, 3.58, 1.17)
PREAMBLE:That's quite a proper initiation to the big leagues for Borucki (a.k.a. Showrucki) as he will have now faced the top three highest-scoring offences (HOU, NYY, BOS) in his first four starts as a major-leaguer. Now, how about some actual runs for him, huh? He deserves better than a total of 3 runs of support in his three starts.
After losing the series opener, 6-4, the Blue Jays are looking to get back on the winning track and also looking to end the Red Sox's ten-game winning streak. Showrucki goes up against 2016 Cy Young winner (barf) Rick Porcello.
Not only have the Red Sox won their last ten games in a row, but they've also set a record for most wins (66) prior to the All-Star break. As well, they're 37 games above .500 for the first time since 1946 -- think about that... they haven't been that many games above in 72 years even over a full season, and they've done it before the break this year.
NOTES:
Well... my last game thread for a while. It's been a blast doing them, digging up facts and figures to post on here.
Marco Estrada has been placed on the 10-day DL with a left glute strain. Dwight Smith Jr. has been called up to take his spot on the roster -- mildly surprising to me as I'd have thought they would want a fresh arm with two short starts in a row from Happ and Gaviglio.
Some tidbits from around baseball:
- The Kansas Shitty Royals have had losing streaks of 9, 9 and 10 games this season.
- Daniel Descalso (a position player) served up a HR to German Marquez (a pitcher) the other day. A pitcher hitting a HR off a position player has only happened once in the last 58 years.
- Alex Bregman has had two walk-offs this season that traveled a total of 47 feet. The first was a pop-up that went 38 feet and Eric Hosmer overran it for a walk-off. The second was the other night when Jonathan Lucroy handled a squibbler 9 feet off the plate like a hot potato and then clonked the ball off Bregman's helmet.
- The Reds went down 17-0 in the fourth inning the other night. This was the third time since 1920 that a team had been down by 17 runs by the fourth inning - and all three times, it was the Reds. Then later on, the D-Backs went down 18-1 to the Rockies by the fourth inning. So... it happened twice in 98 years and then twice in a span of two hours.
LINEUPS:
This is your "bon voyage" game thread.
