 |
| Utility man Brock Holt is Boston's only All-Star (so far), and Boston's chances of winning jump dramatically from to 36% with him on the bench, to 51% when he's in the lineup. |
Just before Red Sox fans witnessed the lackluster fireworks display at Fenway Park on Friday night, the Houston Astros moved to 48-34, tying their season-best number of games above .500 on the year.
Friday’s 12-8 extra-inning loss was only the 12th time this season that Boston was defeated when scoring first. However, the Red Sox bounced back to score first in their wins on Saturday and Sunday.
Entering Tuesday’s series against the visiting Miami Marlins, John Farrell’s squad was 29-12 in games it scored the first run in.
CF Mookie Betts, who extended his hitting streak to seven games on Sunday, has five multi-hit contests during the streak. Between his career-high 13-game hitting streak and his current hitting streak, he had just a couple frustrating games: Betts went 0-for-4 and 0-for-3 in the final two contests of the Tampa Bay Rays series.
Utility Man Brock Holt, the lone Red Sox All-Star Game representative, if final-vote candidate Xander Bogaerts is not voted in, has a six-game hitting streak heading into Tuesday, but he does not have an extra-base hit since June 21. Via Jon Shestakofsky, the Red Sox are 30-29 when Brock Holt starts this season and 9-16 when he does not.
SS Xander Bogaerts, the Boston final-vote candidate, is the only healthy Red Sox player to have a batting average of at least .300 (minimum 30 games played).
DH David Ortiz, who started at first base on July 5 for the first time since June 18, made his last at-bat on Sunday worth it, even after going hitless in his previous six at-bats: he forced an 11-pitch walk, which was followed by a Hanley Ramirez go-ahead home run.
LF Hanley Ramirez’s season-best eight-game hitting streak ended on Saturday, but he bounced back on Sunday with the home run that eventually won the rubber game against the Astros. Alex Speier noted that with the home run, Ramirez is on pace for 35 homers, which would break his career high of 33 with the Florida Marlins seven years ago.
3B Pablo Sandoval finally drew a walk on June 30, snapping a 21-game streak without one. Then, on Sunday, he notched his first double in 14 games; his only other extra-base hit in that span was his June 28 home run.
1B Mike Napoli did not come to the plate on Sunday after his slump made it to 2-for-27 with nine strikeouts the day before.
RF/LF Alejandro De Aza’s season-best eight-game hitting streak ended on Friday, but he brought his season-best on-base streak to 12 games over the weekend. During those 12 games, he has posted an on-base plus slugging percentage of 1.232.
C Ryan Hanigan posted three hits on Sunday for the first time since April 19, 2014. In each of Hanigan’s three games in July, he has reached base. He also had a hit in his five games before suffering his hand injury, which gives him his season-best eight-game on-base streak. The last time Hanigan had a longer on-base streak was 2012 (17 contests).
BN/C Sandy Leon posted three hits the day before Hanigan accomplished the same feat. Leon matched his career high with those three hits on Saturday.
For more sports coverage, follow Adam Lowenstein on Twitter at @StatsAdam. Statistics used from Baseball-Reference.com.
No comments :
Post a Comment