Three takeaways from Red Sox’ 5-1 loss to Yankees: Ryan Weber is struggling

Red Sox 1, Yankees 5 

It’s a shame that this game ended up looking one-sided in the end, because the Sox were in it for eight innings, despite owning a set of bats that just weren’t working.

It was a 3-1 game until the eighth, when Colten Brewer was throwing some loopy curveballs and Brett Gardner walloped a juicy one for a two-run shot into the upper-deck area in right field.

Here are the takeaways:

1. Aaron Judge vs. J.D. Martinez is no contest right now

These are two of the top five hitters in the game and when one is hot/the other is not, it shows. And it showed on Friday.

Judge put maybe a C-plus swing on a Ryan Weber curveball that was spotted at the bottom of the zone but not buried down far enough. He caught the end of the it and flicked it over the stands in center for a two-run shot in the third inning that proved to be the difference in this one.

Judge has three homers and eight RBIs this season, numbers in stark contrast to Martinez, who has yet to hit a home run and has just three RBIs, all of them coming on Opening Day.

On Friday, all the runs scored were home runs, with Judge, Gardner and Gio Urshela going deep for the Yanks and Michael Chavis coming off the schnide with his first homer of the year, a no-doubter into left field off Yankees lefty Jordan Montgomery, who pitched a great game in his return from Tommy John surgery.

2. The Yankees have endless pitching; the Red Sox have only a little

Montgomery was great, Chad Green embarrassed the Sox with his high-90s heat and then they faded quietly into the night.

Weber really struggled to get outs for the second time this season. The Sox’ third starter to begin the year, Weber worked his mid-80s stuff all around the zone for 3-⅔ innings, walking four and allowing three runs. He didn’t strike anybody out for the second straight game.

Weber was clearly a question mark coming into the season but the Sox have shown an abundance of confidence in him after a strong spring training in February. He looks like he might have potential for a groundball-specialist role in the bullpen, but it’s hard to see the Sox being competitive when they start him.

Phillips Valdez is looking like a nice reliever, and Austin Brice is showing potential, but Brewer and Weber were too easy for the Yankees on Friday.

3. No more rust for the Red Sox defense

On the bright side, the defense was good.

They needed some momentum in this area. Rafael Devers is starting to get his timing back at third base, and Xander Bogaerts made a terrific do-or-die play with Chavis scooping the ball nicely at first base. Jose Peraza plays everything smooth at second and Christian Vazquez came down with the back end of a strike-him-out, throw-him-out double play.

Former manager Alex Cora always thought it was a sign that a team is coming along when the defense is improving like that, and while the Sox are seriously struggling at the dish and searching for competitive pitchers, at least they’re taking some pride in their glovework.

What comes next?

Zack Godley has looked great and the Sox desperately need him to continue that dominance into his first start for them on Saturday. He’ll oppose Masahiro Tanaka, who is making his first start of the season as well.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3hWFQ6i