Sox swept in double-dip
Hot bats go cold vs. ChiSox in second twin bill of season
After an incredible stretch of success over the last two weeks, the Red Sox finally laid a clunker.
Nothing much went right for the Red Sox on Sunday at Fenway Park, where they looked sloppy, the offense couldn’t produce any late magic and they were even dominated by one of their former prospects as they were swept in a doubleheader against the White Sox with a 5-1 loss in the nightcap. The defeats interrupted a run in which the Red Sox had won 10 of their 11 last games.
After some ugly defense and not enough hitting in a 3-2 loss in Game 1, the Red Sox’ bats continued to struggle finding life in the nightcap, thanks mostly to Michael Kopech.
Kopech, the former top Red Sox prospect who was their first-round draft pick in 2014 and later dealt to the White Sox in 2016 in the Chris Sale trade, was unbeatable over three-plus innings. After missing the 2019 and 2020 seasons due to Tommy John surgery and then sitting out during the pandemic, the White Sox have brought him back slowly early this season, but he certainly didn’t show much rust Sunday.
Kopech struck out four, relying on his overpowering fastball — which averaged 96.3 mph and topped out at 98.2 — that the Red Sox didn’t have a prayer of hitting. His first three innings were perfect before he issued a leadoff walk to Kiké Hernandez and then a single to Alex Verdugo, which ended his day.
“Good fastball. Good breaking ball,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “On the mound, he was in control. I saw him in Chicago, right? He pitched against us. It’s just, his stuff is good stuff, and he knows how to use it. He goes up in the zone for chases, uses the slider down in the zone for chases. He’s a good one.”
J.D. Martinez followed Verdugo with an RBI single, but that’s all the Red Sox could do. They scored three runs over the 14-inning day, and only drew one walk in the two games.
“Coming into this series, we know that they have stuff,” Cora said. “They’re really good. I know they lost some games with the bullpen, but stuff-wise, it’s one of the toughest staffs in the big leagues. They’ve got velo and they have good secondary pitches. They were good the whole day. They were actually good yesterday, too.”
Martin Perez allowed four runs on seven hits in 3M innings, including a mammoth 431-foot home run to Yermin Mercedes, to take the loss.
Though the Red Sox hit a funk on Sunday, Cora isn’t worried. The last week has been uneven with two postponements, two doubleheaders and strange game times, and he’s looking forward to getting back on schedule after Monday’s 11 a.m. Patriots’ Day game.
“We’re going to be OK,” Cora said. “We’ve got a chance to split the series tomorrow. That’s the way we see it. It’s a tough stretch. We went to Minnesota and the doubleheader, and then coming here and we have a doubleheader today, and yesterday, and tomorrow, the 11 a.m game. But it’s not an excuse. The way I see it, we have one more day to grind. And then it seems like from Tuesday on, as far as the timing of everything, it’s like the regular season. We’ve been playing a lot of day games . ...
“We’ve been doing a good job, but it feels like, we’re going to start playing a lot of night games, we can reset, get back to your routine of the regular season and go from there.”
Game 1
Every time the Red Sox give Tanner Houck an opportunity, they get the same response.
The rookie right-hander once again looked confident, comfortable and in control of himself on Saturday, when he was called up from Worcester to make a spot start in the first game of the doubleheader.
“It wasn’t a good allaround game for us,” Cora said. “We made a few mistakes as a group and we paid the price. We had the tying run at the plate at the end, which is good, but it wasn’t a great game for us.” Houck did his part. After allowing a homer to Tim Anderson on the first pitch of the game, Houck settled in with a 98-mph fastball, the highest of his career, and a typically-sharp slider as he handled the potent White Sox lineup with relative ease.
Houck showed improved velocity in spring training and Cora has been impressed the way he’s been able to command it.
“I think that’s the hardest I’ve been throwing in a while now,” Houck said. “I believe I hit that a few times during spring training. But for me, velo’s not really what I’m looking for. I’m looking for command. Whenever I do have the velo like that, it does help with the difference between the splitter and the fastball, but for me, I’m not really hunting velo. It’s about command and growing that way.”
Some sloppy infield defense contributed to a lot of foot traffic before Houck was pulled in the fifth inning after throwing just 58 pitches. Josh Taylor entered and allowed one of Houck’s runners to score, leaving Houck’s final line of 4L innings, three runs on six hits, no walks and two strikeouts.
“They went with the switch-hitters and lefties in the lineup and he did a good job,” Cora said. “If it’s a nine-inning game, he’s still in the game (longer than 58 pitches).”