Betts batters Baltimore again
BALTIMORE — Here’s another way to look at
Mookie Betts’ breakout season: He’s taking casualties.
The Baltimore Orioles have been victims of Betts’ potent bat in their home park. Last night, Betts hammered his 31st home run to open the scoring in the Red Sox’ 5-2 win.
In seven games at Camden Yards, Betts has gone 13-for-26 with eight homers and 15 RBI. He also has six walks to go against one strikeout.
“I have no idea,” Betts said when asked why he’s tormented the Orioles this season. “I try to do it everywhere, but it seems like it only works here.”
Might he be seeing the ball better with the Baltimore skyline in the background?
“No,” he said. “Nothing like that. It’s no different than any other park. Just somehow it’s going over the fence.”
Does it feel like home in Baltimore?
“Only feel like home when I’m in Nashville,” he said. “That’s the only place.”
Betts has three more games at Camden Yards to add to his American League MVP resume. The right fielder owns a .314 average, .897 OPS, 31 homers, 108 RBI and 24 stolen bases. He ranks second in the American League with 7.0 WAR behind only Los Angeles Angels center fielder
Mike Trout (8.4).
Going against Betts could be the fact that he has another MVP candidate on his team in David Ortiz, who hit his 35th homer in the series opener and has 118 RBI. Ortiz has a .317 average and leads the majors with a 1.033 OPS, but he’s 21st in the AL with 4.1 WAR because of his standing as the designated hitter.
“I don’t talk about it with (Betts),” Ortiz said. “We just try to win ballgames. You start talking about MVP, that’s personal numbers. We don’t talk about it. It doesn’t come into conversation. I hope he finishes the year strong. We’ll see what happens. We’ve got a couple of more weeks, and hopefully I would see my boy win something like that.”
Betts, too, had no interest in talking about the MVP race.
“Trying to win a World Series, not win an MVP,” Betts said.
Honor for Hanley
Nobody in the majors is hotter than Hanley
Ramirez, who apparently doesn’t realize it.
As recently as Friday, Ramirez said, “I haven’t gotten hot yet.”
Ramirez was honored as a co-American League Player of the Week yesterday after he hit .563 (9-for16) with nine RBI in the Red Sox’ four-game sweep of the New York Yankees at Fenway Park. He had four homers, including a walkoff, three-run shot in the series opener and two in the finale to lead the way in a come-from-behind win.
The first baseman, who shared the award with Oakland A’s outfielder
Khris Davis, has been even hotter at least once before in his career.
Teammate Brad Ziegler, a longtime National League reliever for the Arizona Diamondbacks, remembers facing Ramirez in 2013, when the then-shortstop played only 86 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers and still finished eighth in the NL MVP voting.
“You could see in those 86 games how much better the Dodgers were than when he wasn’t playing,” Ziegler said. “There are guys who are special talents, special athletes to begin with. And then when they get locked in, you see them go to a different level that other guys don’t have, even on their best days. And he’s one of them. He’s so gifted athletically. He works his tail off. And when everything comes together and he knows his swing is right and he’s seeing the ball well, special things are going to happen.”
Ramirez was 1-for-4 last night. For the season, he’s hitting .293 with 28 doubles, 28 homers, 106 RBI and an .878 OPS.
Pomeranz stays put
Maybe the Red Sox are playing with fire as they continue to send Drew
Pomeranz to the mound and push his career high in innings higher and higher, but they don’t have any other options.
Manager John Farrell said there will be no changes to the starting rotation. Pomeranz will start on Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays.
“We’re in a dogfight,” Farrell said. “We’re staying the course right now. With him it’s been command. Is that a direct correlation to the innings workload to date? That’s quite possible. I thought (Sunday) night his velocity was consistent or similar to previous starts. The command from pitch to pitch was not there. And it cost him. That’s something we monitor close. He’s going to start Friday in Tampa. We continue on.”
Pomeranz, whose hidden medical documents led to San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller getting suspended by Major League Baseball for 30 days just two months after the pitcher was traded to the Sox, allowed four runs in 3 2⁄3 innings Sunday night against the Yankees. He has a 2-5 record and a 4.90 ERA with the Red Sox.
For the season, he’s thrown 16 4 1⁄3 innings, after tossing 86 working primarily as a reliever for Oakland in 2015. . . . Steven Wright (shoulder bursitis) flew to Fort Myers, and the Red Sox have the knuckleballer on “an escalated plan,” according to Farrell. Last week, however, Wright said he wasn’t planning on rushing back this time after speeding up his recovery hurt his first comeback attempt.
It remains unlikely that Wright will return this year, but “this is day to day right now,” Farrell said.