Saturday, April 5, 2014

Game of the Day (4/4/14)

Brewers 6, Red Sox 2. Yes, this is the game from 2014, not 1984 (when it would have been a routine AL East matchup). No, I'm still not entirely accustomed to full-season interleague play.

Boston's Jake Peavy allowed a one-out triple to Jean Segura in the first inning, but left him at third. Milwaukee's Marco Estrada worked a spotless bottom of the inning, and his teammates handed him a lead in the next one. Jonathan Lucroy led off with a home run, and a Khris Davis double, a Lyle Overbay walk, and a two-out RBI hit by Carlos Gomez doubled the size of the lead.

The Sox recovered quickly, scoring once in the bottom of the second. Mike Napoli led off with a walk. One out later, Grady Sizemore singled; Napoli tried for third, and right fielder Logan Schafer threw erratically in attempting to beat him there. The error allowed Napoli to score, and Sizemore to take second. Sizemore then stole third, and tried for the tying run on a Xander Bogaerts fly ball, but Schafer's throw was good this time, nailing the runner at the plate to end the inning. (Instant redemption! I wonder how often an outfielder has a throwing error and an assist in the same inning.)

Peavy settled in with a perfect third, and Will Middlebrooks homered in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at 2. Lucroy hit a leadoff double in the fourth, but his fellow Brewers failed to advance him; Mike Carp also doubled in the bottom of the inning, and was also still on second when the third out was made.

Milwaukee mounted threats in both the fifth and sixth as well. Gomez singled with one out in the fifth and ended the inning at second. In the sixth, Aramis Ramirez reached on a Bogaerts error and Lucroy walked, but Peavy recovered to get the next three Brewers in order and keep the tie in place. Boston also had an opportunity in the sixth. Dustin Pedroia led off the inning with a single, but was caught stealing, and David Ortiz grounded out. Napoli then worked his second walk of the day, prompting the Brewers to lift Estrada for Will Smith. The Sox pinch hit with Jonny Gomes, and during his at bat, a wild pitch and a passed ball moved Napoli around to third with the go-ahead run. Gomes took a third strike on a full count to strand him there.

Burke Badenhop took over for Peavy in the top of the seventh and worked around a Gomez single. Smith stayed in for the bottom of the inning, which was only slightly less eventful than the previous one; he walked Sizemore and wild pitched him to second, but recovered to keep him from scoring. Badenhop allowed a leadoff hit to Ramirez in the eighth, but Lucroy then hit into a double play; Brandon Kintzler got the same single-DP combo from Ortiz and Napoli in the bottom of the inning, and the 2-2 tie remained intact.

Edward Mujica was summoned from the Boston pen to begin the ninth, and promptly and permanently disqualified "tie" as a descriptor for this game. Davis doubled on Mujica's first pitch. Scooter Gennett bunted the next one, and Mujica tried and failed to throw Davis out at third, putting runners safely at the corners. The next pitch was a strike, but the one after that was whacked for a two-run double by Overbay. Four pitches later, Gomez singled Overbay around to make it a 5-2 game. Segura hit into a force, then partially made up for it by stealing second. Ryan Braun flied out, but Ramirez singled Segura home for a 6-2 lead. That finally ended Mujica's outing; Andrew Miller relieved and immediately walked his first two hitters before striking out Davis to bring the inning to a merciful conclusion. Francisco Rodriguez retired the side on 13 pitches to secure the victory for the Brewers.

Despite featuring 14 of the 64 games played so far this year (21.9%), April 4 placed only one game (this one) in the top 25% of WPL for the season so far; by comparison, yesterday's games included three of the bottom six to date, and six of the worst 15. That leaves us with a best game that's in a virtual tie for worst headliner of the young season - and it's a game that was tied until the ninth inning, with the go-ahead run getting left in scoring position 6 times in innings four through seven. Which is... pretty terrific, actually.

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