Koji helps cause again
Sox get best of ex-closer
At some point this season, the Red Sox might look back and think, “We should have re-signed Koji Uehara.” But that time is not today. The former Red Sox closer and current Chicago Cubs set-up man got the weak ground ball to first base he needed to start a tie game in the eighth inning last night, but Marco Hernandez beat him to the bag. The infield single sparked a four-run inning and led to the Sox’ 6-2 win against the Cubs as they captured a juicy series victory at Fenway Park.
“I saw him slowing down,” said Hernandez, who said what the Red Sox might have been thinking when they passed on Uehara after trading for Tyler Thornburg in the offseason. “And I just ran as hard as I can.”
Uehara then tried throwing a two-strike slider off the plate to Xander Bogaerts who poked it to center for a single. Andrew Benintendi lifted one of Uehara’s splitters to the right field for another single, loading the bases and ending the reliever’s evening.
Uehara, who entered with a 1.86 ERA and 10 strikeouts in 92⁄3 innings this season, clearly had an off night.
The Red Sox kept the rally going against Pedro Strop. They scored the goahead run on a wild pitch with Hanley Ramirez at the plate and added three more on a groundout and throwing error to seal the win.
The offense bailed out Joe Kelly, who was exceptional late last season (21 strikeouts, five walks, 1.02 ERA out of the bullpen) but hasn’t had the same effectiveness this year. After walking two and allowing the tying run to score on a wild pitch last night, Kelly has eight walks to five strikeouts in 131⁄3 innings.
“At times it looked like he was trying to get a little extra velocity, particularly against left-handers,” manager John Farrell said.
Kelly relieved Eduardo Rodriguez after a brilliant start in which he started to look like the pitcher the Red Sox always hoped he could be.
Making his fourth start of the year, Rodriguez struck out National League MVP Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and World Series MVP Ben Zobrist in order in the third inning, then started the fourth by fanning Addison Russell and Jason Hayward. Rodriguez struck out nine and held the world champs to one run over six flashy innings.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re the MVP or the hitter with the lowest average in the league,” Rodriguez said. “They can still get a base hit or homer so I treat everybody the same.”
The only run Rodriguez allowed was a solo shot to Bryant, whose dad Mike played in the Red Sox minor league system in the 1980s. The younger Bryant smacked his second homer of the series in the fifth inning, connecting on a high fastball and lifting it to dead center.
Rodriguez entered the night having allowed only two hits to his last 45 batters, then allowed just five hits in his six innings of work.
“His changeup was the best changeup I’ve seen from him,” catcher Christian Vazquez said. “He pitched, I think, the best game that I’ve ever seen from him.”
Since returning from the paternity list, Rodriguez has thrown 13 innings while allowing just one run on six hits and seven walks and striking out 18.
The Cubs sent Kyle Hendricks to the mound and his soft-tossing style had the Red Sox struggling to make hard contact all evening. But the Sox got what they needed from Ramirez, who smashed a 440-foot homer over everything in left for a two-run shot in the first inning.
That blast followed Saturday’s 469-foot shot, the longest home run at Fenway since 2012.