All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' loss to the Cardinals, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
HEADLINES
Longballs, bullpen doom Sox
Less than 24 hours after the Red Sox bullpen relinquished four runs in the ninth inning and turned an easy W into a nail-biter, Boston’s relief corps was at it again on Saturday night against the Cardinals.
Only this time around, instead of trying to nail down a victory in the ninth, Boston’s beleaguered bullpen snuffed out any hope of a Red-Sox rally — with Hansel Robles and Hirokazu Sawamura tagged for a combined six runs in the sixth inning en route to an 11-2 loss for the Sox against St. Louis at Fenway Park.
Before that sixth-inning implosion, it felt as though Boston was clawing back into the contest — having cut St. Louis’ lead in half by way of a bases-loaded walk by Kevin Plawecki in the fourth, making it a 4-2 game.
But after Boston’s bullpen faltered, the Sox bats also quieted down the stretch — with the Sox now set to battle the Cardinals in the rubber match on Sunday afternoon.
Kutter Crawford started for the Sox, with the young righty tagged for six hits and four runs over four innings of work. He struggled with the long ball — with all four earned runs for Crawford coming off of big flys for the Cards.
Sox trade for James Norwood
A few hours ahead of first pitch, the Red Sox swung a minor deal with the Phillies — acquiring pitcher James Norwood in exchange for cash considerations.
Philadelphia had designated Norwood, 28, for assignment earlier this week. The righty struggled in a relief role for the Phillies this season, posting an 8.31 ERA and a 1.90 WHIP in 20 outings.
However, Norwood does have plus stuff in his arsenal thanks to a lively fastball and a splitter/slider with movement — registering 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings this season.
“Good fastball, good split, good slider,” Alex Cora told reporters at Fenway on Saturday. “The numbers don’t represent that but one of those intriguing arms with good (velocity).”
Sale set to begin rehab assignment on Monday
Chris Sale’s path back to Boston is finally starting to get mapped out.
Cora noted on Saturday that Sale will begin his rehab assignment on Monday with two scheduled innings of work with the FCL Red Sox down in Florida.
“From there, he’ll pitch every five days,” Cora said. “And the goal is to stretch him out as a starter. It’s kind of like the progression of spring training.”
In total, the Red Sox expect Sale to make four or five rehab starts before getting the call back up to Boston.
If you apply that pitch calendar (every five days) to Sale and all goes well, he could be back with the Red Sox as soon as mid-July.
“Let’s see how it goes but I do feel he’s going to be OK,” Cora said of Sale. “His arm looks great. The best I’ve seen him in a while. The changeup, which is the one he was missing last year because he was coming from surgery, it’s playing. It’s a good one. So we’ll go Monday and we’ll take it day by day from there.”
TURNING POINT
Plawecki’s bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the fourth might have made it a two-run game, but Boston has to be kicking itself that it wasn’t able to capitalize even more against Dakota Hudson — who ultimately walked five batters in his outing. With Hudson still struggling to locate his pitches, Jarren Duran ultimately grounded out to end the inning.
TWO UP
Xander Bogaerts: One of the few bright spots offensively for the Sox, Bogaerts once again put together a multi-hit game for Boston — going 2-for-4 at the plate with a run scored.
Austin Davis: Yes, he was tagged for a run in the ninth inning, but Davis helped spell the rest of the bullpen after that ugly sixth inning — tossing 56 pitches (his previous high this season was 35) over three innings of work.
TWO DOWN
Hansel Robles: Just a dreadful showing from Robles, who faced five hitters and put four of them on base en route to four runs allowed over just 0.1 innings of work.
Hirokazu Sawamura: He was put in a rough spot, but Sawamura didn’t really fare much better after Robles — giving up two runs over 0.2 innings of work.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
This marks just the fourth loss for the Red Sox in the month of June.
Xander Bogaerts extended his hitting streak to 11 straight games on Saturday.
UP NEXT
The Red Sox and Cardinals will close out their series Sunday at 1:35 p.m. with RHP Nick Pivetta (6-5, 3.50) vs. TBA