Think fast, run smart Big Papi back big
Heads-up play by Betts, Bogey
BALTIMORE — With an RBI double in the third inning of the Red Sox’ 7-2 win over the Orioles yesterday, Xander Bogaerts extended his career-best hitting streak to 23 games.
But the play he made two innings earlier drew as much attention, and might have made an even bigger impact on the game’s momentum.
And all Bogaerts had to do was run.
With Mookie Betts on second base and one out in the first inning, Bogaerts clipped a pitch straight toward the ground, clunking him in the left foot and rolling slowly in the infield. While the play should have been ruled dead, home plate umpire Laz Diaz missed the call, as Bogaerts started jetting down the first base line.
Meanwhile, Betts snuck off second and ran to third. As Orioles catcher Caleb Joseph leaped forward to field the ball and make a throw to first, Betts charged home, scoring the game’s first run from second base on a ball hit only a few feet.
“Your eyes are always trained to follow the ball but (Betts) set the tone early,” Sox manager John Farrell said. “Never broke stride, continued in a fullout gait all the way around third base. A good heads up play on his part. At the time you don’t see the squibber right at home plate but, swinging bunt, whatever it might be, a nice RBI for Bogey.”
Bogaerts only ran because he remembered a similar play last year when he mistakenly stood still at home plate.
“They threw to first, out,” Bogaerts recalled. “I told the umpire the ball hit me and he said, ‘ No you’re out.’ So this time I’m running, you know? It worked out for an RBI. I only did it because it happened the last time and I was right and they didn’t get it right.”
With his double in the third, Bogaerts pushed the lead to 2-0. His 23-game streak is the second-longest of 2016. Only Jackie Bradley Jr.’ s 29-game streak was longer. According to Elias, the Red Sox are the first team in American League history to have multiple players record hitting streaks of at least 20 games before June 1.
“He was swinging it really well,” Bogaerts said of Bradley. “He was hitting a lot of home runs, extra base hits, he has that kind of swing, that kind of power. I mean, I just try to go out there and get hits. If it happens, it happens.
“But just trying to be me, not trying to be someone who I’m not.”
Bogaerts finished 2-for4 and has an MLB-best 271 hits since the start of the 2015 season. He’s hitting .354 this season.
“What impresses you is his entire game,” Farrell said. “He’s really emerging as one of the better players in the major leagues.”
Hembree not happy
With Clay Buchholz out of the starting rotation and now a part of the bullpen, there was no longer any room for Heath Hembree.
It’s not like Hembree pitched poorly.
The 6-foot-4 righthander was optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket after yesterday’s game to make room for left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez, who will be activated off the 15-day disabled list today to make his season debut.
“I know I can pitch here,” said a disappointed Hembree, who had a 2.14 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 21 innings out of the bullpen this year. “For a long time I’ve already known that. So it’s not like it gives me confidence that I came up and did well. It just sucks. It’s (expletive) that I’m in this situation. But whatever. You have to take it how it is. I’m numb to it. It’s happened so many times before. It’s not the first time.”
Hembree finally appeared to earn himself a spot in the ’pen. He had bounced back and forth between Triple A and the majors since he was acquired from the Giants at the 2014 trade deadline that sent Jake Peavy to San Francisco.
The Sox thought the development of his offspeed pitches helped him make the jump this season as a reliable reliever. The relief corps has just been too good this season and Hembree still had minor league options available.
Farrell said he wanted to keep the extra position player on the bench.
“I know how it is, I know the situation, it just sucks,” Hembree said. “Each time I come here I try to pitch my (tail) off so I don’t have to go back down, but, I mean, it is what it is. It’s not the first time. I’m numb to it now. It is what it is, just go about my business when I go down there.”
A day after being scratched in Toronto due to a sore foot, David Ortiz returned to the lineup and went 1-for-4 with his 14th homer. Ortiz missed two games in Toronto as he skipped Friday’s game, too. He was hit on the left foot by a pitch in Saturday’s game. . . .
The Sox have lost top prospect Sam Travis for the season. The 22-year-old first baseman, a secondround pick in 2014, tore his left ACL playing for Pawtucket on Sunday. He will have surgery, keeping him out for the rest of the year.
He’s expected to be ready for 2017.
“He was in a rundown yesterday and his knee buckled on him,” Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said at Camden Yards.
A right-handed hitter, Travis finished the year with six home runs, a .272 average, .332 on-base percentage and .434 slugging percentage.