Red Sox sloppy defense woes continue; Chris Murphy impresses in debut
By Zachary McMahon
The Boston Red Sox lost to the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday night 5-2 after winning the series opener on Tuesday with a 4-run 8th inning to bring it to 5-4.
Kutter Krawford got the nod to start for the Red Sox, but he only pitched three innings and was taken out by Brennan Bernadino. Tanner Bibee started for the Guardians where he went five innings where he allowed four hits, allowed the only two runs to score from the Sox and struck out two batters.
Red Sox sloppy defense in the 4th inning cost them the game
Entering the bottom of the fourth, the Red Sox were leading 2-1 after Kike scored on an error by the Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor on when should’ve been a routine play by taking it himself to first base. It was second baseman Emmanuel Valdez that reached on the error.
Emmanuel Valdez helped load the bases when he tried to flip it to Tristan Casas for the first out of the inning and the ball sailed way over the glove of Cases. Then, Naylor tied the game at 2 up by bringing home Amed Rosario. The Guardians took the lead by a fielding error on Raffy Devers and Jose Ramirez scored on that error.
The defense was cleaner for the rest of the game, but the offense did not score for the rest of the game and the Guardians got a couple of insurance runs to end the game.
The errors have been a problem in recent games for the Sox as they had similar sloppy defense in the loss against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday. One of them allowed Yandy Diaz’s RBI single turned into a inside the park home run. Reminds me of that Duran play last season that had Raimel Tapia hit an inside the park grand slam. Thankfully, Duran is much better than that now.
Red Sox player of the game: Chris Murphy has impressive debut in relief
Pitcher Chris Murphy was called up to the majors for the first time yesterday in exchange for Kaleb Ort bring sent down to Triple-A Worcester.
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Murphy made his major league debut by relieving Justin Garcia with two outs in the 5th inning. He pitched the remainder of the game only allowing two hits and striking out an impressive five batters. Murphy and Crawford were the two of the four Sox pitchers with strikeouts in this game.
Murphy was called up despite a 7.71 ERA in 39.2 innings of work this season in Worcester, but he was able to get the job done in this game against Cleveland. There were rumors that Alex Cora is going to call up a starter to the big leagues to start on Thursday, some have said that it might be Murphy.
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Since Murphy made the appearance in relief in this game, he would not be starting. The Red Sox will be calling up Matt Dermody from Worcester to start tonight, who will be making his first career start in the MLB. Tonight’s game will be starting at 7:10 PM on NESN and for outside markets, simulcasting on ESPN+.