All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' 11-0 win over the Padres, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
BOX SCORE
HEADLINES
Rodriguez cruises in strong outing: Lefty Eduardo Rodriguez has been the team's best starter for most of the season and showed why again Friday night with seven shutout innings, earning his 15th win of the season in the process. As has often happened this year, Rodriguez was the beneficiary of great run support as the Sox staked him to a 6-0 lead by the second inning and he responded accordingly, attacking the Padres and ensuring quick innings -- the better to get the Sox back into the dugout and up the plate again. He threw strikes, walking just one, and while he wasn't overpowering in recording six strikeouts, he was plenty efficient, too -- just twice did he require more than 15 pitches to get through an inning. Rodriguez not only leads the staff in victories, he also has the lowest ERA (3.92) and is the only member of the rotation with an ERA under 4.00. Thanks to a host of double plays made behind him, Rodriguez only once in seven innings faced more than the minimum number of hitters.
Martinez's torrid second half continues: J.D. Martinez didn't have the kind of first half that most expected after his first season in Boston, but he's spent the second half seemingly making up for that fact. Heading into Friday's action, Martinez had slashed .385/.460/.725 in the 28 games since July 22. Adding in his big night in which he smacked two three-run homers, he now has 11 homers and 31 RBI in the last 29 games. He leads the Sox in homers with 30. In the first inning, he cranked a fastball deep to left for his first three-run shot, and after adding a sacrifice fly in the fourth, later added another three-run belt to left -- this on a 71-mph hanging curveball. Just for good measure, he added his third hit of the night with a single to left in the eighth inning. His OPS for the season has climbed to .957 and he now ranks third in RBI on the team with 82, behind only Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts.
Defense makes a difference: The Red Sox have one of the better defensive teams in baseball while the Padres rank near the bottom and Friday's game not only illustrated how large the gap is between the two clubs, but also, how defense can play a factor in determining a game's outcome. The Sox had a number of sparkling plays in the field, including a diving catch by Mookie Betts in center and a diving stop on a groundball behind the second base bag by Brock Holt on consecutive plays in the fifth inning. Additionally, the Sox turned four double plays -- including three in the first four innings -- to get Rodriguez out of early jams. By contrast, the Padres were a sloppy bunch, committing two errors -- one by first baseman Eric Hosmer on a dropped throw that ultimately led to an unearned run being scored and another by shortstop Luis Urias on an overthrow to first. What's more, there were at least two other misplays by the Padres in the field that could have gone for errors, but didn't.
TURNING POINT
This one was decided relatively early with the Sox scoring three runs in each of the first two innings. But after adding a solo run in the fourth, the real tipping point came in the sixth when Martinez hit his second three-run homer of the night, turning the game into a complete rout.
TWO UP
Rafael Devers: Having seen his nine-game hitting streak cut short earlier in the week, Devers has rebounded, spraying out three hits including his 48th double of the year.
Xander Bogaerts: Bogaerts continues to be the model of consistency at the plate, collecting two more hits and knocking in two.
ONE DOWN
Christian Vazquez: Other than pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez, Vazquez was the only member of the Red Sox original starting lineup to go without a hit.
QUOTE OF NOTE
"I push him to be great because of the talent and for him to do the things that he's doing is pretty special.'' Alex Cora on Eduardo Rodriguez.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- The seven RBI for J.D. Martinez represented a career-high.
- When Rodriguez goes six or more innings, he's 36-5 and the Red Sox are 46-13 in such games.
- The shutout was the eighth of the season by the Red Sox.
- Devers has 11 hits in his last three road games.