Boston Red Sox: Successful weekend series ends on bad note

Despite a series win, the Boston Red Sox ended the weekend with a bad taste in their mouth after a 6-5 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday afternoon.

After winning the first two games of the series, the first being won on the back of a two-run Bobby Dalbec blast, and the second being a 9-0 thrashing, the Red Sox allowed the series sweep to slip through their fingers.

Starter Nate Eovaldi put the Sox in a tough spot early on, giving up four runs in the top of the second inning to give the Angels an early and comfortable lead. However, Eovaldi was effective after, keeping the Red Sox within reach.

The Red Sox squandered a huge scoring chance in the bottom of the third, with runners on second and third with one out, and the top of the lineup at the plate. Chavis struck out (of course), Devers struck out, and JD Martinez popped out to first to end the inning and kill any momentum the Sox could have had.

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However, Devers and the Red Sox made up for their missed opportunity in the bottom of the fifth. The Sox started a good, old fashioned hit parade. Plawecki homered. Arauz singled. Chavis singled. Then Devers stepped up to the plate and absolutely mashed a fastball into the right field bleachers to give the Red Sox their first lead of the afternoon.

The Red Sox held onto a 5-4 lead before the top of the ninth. With two outs, Matt Barnes gave up a fluke bloop single to Mike Trout, and Shohei Ohtani made him pay for it with a ball that wrapped around the Pesky Pole.

It was a series win that the Red Sox needed after dropping three in a row before the series finale with Oakland, but it’s hard to feel satisfied with that when the Sox know they should’ve had all three games.

Boston Red Sox bullpen woes

Let’s talk about the bullpen for a minute. In today’s game, Barnes had to attempt a four-out save since, once again, Adam Ottavino couldn’t work a clean inning.

Ottavino has had a serious case of Jekyll and Hyde to start his Red Sox career, only working four clean innings out of 16 and 1/3 innings pitched. Ottavino has walked more batters than Nate Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez.

That’s not acceptable for a guy that’s supposed to be the setup man, and if I’m Alex Cora, I’m giving guys like Philips Valdez and Garrett Whitlock serious looks in the seventh and eighth innings. Ottavino is not in my circle of trust as of now.

Another guy who found his way out of the circle of trust is Matt Andriese. Andriese has had the worst month out of any pitcher on the Red Sox, facing 32 batters and putting 16 of them on base, allowing eight earned runs in the process. He didn’t improve in this series, giving up the tying and go-ahead runs in the first game.

Lucky for Andriese, Bobby Dalbec was around to save the day.

Who’s hot for the Boston Red Sox

Xander Bogaerts is as hot as he’s ever been right now. It’s just ridiculous at this point. After the Red Sox dropped three in a row, Bogaerts responded by going 6-for-13 with two homers, six RBI, and two walks in the next four games.

He’s been unstoppable since the start of the season, and it sure looks like he’s got more in store for us.

Who’s not hot for the Boston Red Sox

The leadoff spot is as cold as it can get right now.

That’s been Kiké Hernandez’s position since Opening Day, with Christian Arroyo typically filling in on rest days. With both of those guys on the IL, the leadoff spot has been a tough hole to fill in the lineup.

But if anything is clear, it’s that Marwin Gonzalez and Michael Chavis are not the answer.

Here are Gonzalez and Chavis’ combined numbers at the leadoff spot since Kiké’s injury: 11-for-45 with one walk and 17 strikeouts. Batting .244 isn’t completely awful, but one walk with 17 strikeouts is horrendous from the leadoff spot.

Ultimately, this falls on Cora to shake things up a bit. Maybe try batting Verdugo leadoff. There’s no reason that we should ever see another lineup with Marwin Gonzalez or Michael Chavis batting first.