Just not good enough
Pomeranz better, but Sox lose to Verlander’s Tigers
Drew Pomeranz bounced back in his second start with the Red Sox, but he was outdueled by Justin Verlander in a 4-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers last night at Fenway Park.
Verlander, the 2011 American League MVP and Cy Young Award winner, had a throwback outing, keeping baseball’s best offense off balance for much of the evening.
‘He came out and did his job, we just didn’t score any runs today. He had a really good outing.’ — MOOKIE BETTS On Drew Pomeranz
As far as Pomeranz goes, last night certainly was a step in the right direction. The recently acquired All-Star gave up two runs over six innings, and Mookie Betts thought his new teammate deserved better.
“He came out and did his job, we just didn’t score any runs today,” Betts said. “He had a really solid outing. You can’t argue with that at all.”
Pomeranz cruised through the first five scoreless frames.
“I had a good curveball,” he said. “I was locating the fastball a lot better. I really made one bad pitch that hurt us.”
That pitch came in the sixth. With one on and one out, Pomeranz threw a fastball that light-hitting Jose Iglesias drove it into the Monster Seats for a two-run homer against his former team and a 2-1 Detroit lead.
“I was trying to elevate, but it kind of leaked back down a little too far over the plate,” Pomeranz said. “Not where I wanted it to be.”
Pomeranz followed with a walk to Miguel Cabrera, but where he wilted in his debut last week against the San Francisco Giants, he solidified this time around. The inning ended on backto-back strikeouts of Victor Martinez and Nick Castellanos, on swings and misses at curveballs.
Pomeranz’ quality start was keyed by the re-emergence of the curve. After his underwhelming debut, he told the Herald that he didn’t utilize the pitch enough.
Last night, 53 of Pomeranz’ 99 pitches were curveballs, per PITCH f/x. He finished with seven strikeouts — six on whiffs with the curve.
“He pitched as we had anticipated at the time of the trade (with the San Diego Padres).” Farrell said. “He was very good, I thought, for the six innings of work.”
The Sox’ lone run off of Verlander came in the second inning, when Travis Shaw hit a double into the right field corner and Jackie Bradley Jr. got on his horse to score from first base.
Verlander wound up going six innings, and maintained his velocity throughout. His 110th and final pitch was a fastball at 97 mph that he blew past Shaw.
In the seventh inning, Joe Kelly made his relief debut for the Sox. He had a fastball north of 100 mph, but the Tigers didn’t have much trouble catching up to it. Justin Upton led the inning off with a rocket into the triangle for a triple, and he scored on a James McCann single for a 3-1 Tigers lead.
Detroit added a run against Clay Buchholz in the eighth to increase its advantage to 4-1.
In their half of the eighth, the Sox loaded the bases with nobody out on three singles against Tigers reliever Justin Wilson, but only one run came across on a Sandy Leon single. Detroit closer Francisco Rodriguez came on with two outs and got Betts to ground out to end the inning.
Rodriguez slammed the door on the Sox in the ninth for his 414th career save.
“He’s been around for a long time for a reason,” Betts said.
With the loss, the Red Sox fell to 55-42. They trail division-leading Baltimore by 2 1⁄2 games in the American League East but sit atop the AL wild card standings.
After back-to-back lastplace finishes, if Betts had been told in spring training that this is where the Sox would be on July 26, would he be satisfied?
“Yeah. I mean, anytime you’re in striking distance you can’t ask for more,” Betts said. “I think we can make a push.”