The Boston Red Sox remain behind the Yankees and Orioles in the AL East, but both of those teams have started to show cracks in the armor. Now is the time for the Red Sox to make a run. On paper, they’re still the best team in the division and they’ll get a nice buffer series this weekend against a lackluster Oakland Athletics team as they look to gain ground in the standings.
This series will be contested from Thursday, May 18, 2017 through Sunday, May 21, 2017 at O.co Coliseum in Oakland.
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Pitching Matchups
The Athletics will have their rotation lined up to great the Red Sox with their best as Sonny Gray takes the mound in the series opener. He’ll go opposite the Sox’s right-hander Hector Velazquez.
Gray will be making just his fourth start of the season as he got off to a late start due to injury. The former Cy Young candidate had a rough, injury-plagued season last year and ended up going just 5-11 with a 5.69 ERA on the heels of a 14-7 year with a 2.73 ERA in 2015.
The A’s are hopeful that the young right-hander can return to his peak form. At 27-years old, he should be getting better and reaching his peak and as we’ve seen, his peak is very, very good.
Overall here in 2017, Gray has thrown 16.2 innings at the big-league level, allowing 10 runs—only seven earned—on 17 hits. His strike out rate is down a bit, too, but he is coming off his first quality start of the year, holding the now surging Rangers to two runs in six innings.
As for Velazquez, he’ll be making his Major-League debut. The Sox plucked him out of the Mexican League earlier this year and he was lights out at Triple-A Pawtucket, going 2-1 with a 1.55 ERA and 0.793 WHIP in 29 innings. He’s allowed just one home run and five walks while striking out 20.
Gray’s shown he can be an ace in the Majors and is coming off a quality start, but Velazquez is the hot hand and often the first time seeing a new pitcher is an edge for that hurler, but can Velazquez hold down the butterflies of his Big-League debut?
After Thursday’s matchup, Boston will have the clear advantage on Friday, sending Chris Sale to the mound against Kendall Graveman. Sale has already struck out 85 batters in eight starts. He’s pitched 58.2 innings, so he’s sitting down 13 per nine innings on strikes. At 4-2 with a 2.15 ERA, he’s been nearly unhittable. His FIP is 1.77 and his WHIP is 0.767. He’s walking just two per nine and his home run percentage is at a career low. Interestingly, his groundball to fly ball ratio is at an all-time low, too, but with 38.8-percent of the batters he faces going down swinging, he’s more than made up for the comparative increase in fly balls.
As for Graveman, he’s a solid pitcher. The 26-year old is still getting better, but he routinely keeps his team in the game. Against Sale, that’s probably not enough. The righty will look to do more and he’s done that in his career against Boston, facing the Sox three times and allowing just two runs over 13.1 innings.
The last two games of this series should feature a couple southpaws on Saturday in Drew Pomeranz and Sean Manaea and a couple pleasant surprises on Sunday in lefty Eduardo Rodriguez and righty Andrew Triggs.
For Saturday’s matchup, both starters have ERAs in the mid-5s and have had consistency issues. Manaea’s health has also been a concern as he’s coming off the DL to make the start. The stuff is there for both starters, but will the command be there? Boston has the more patient offense and that could play into the results.
As the series wraps up on Sunday, we’ll see E-Rod try and continue his David Price impersonation. He’s 1-1 with a 2.80 ERA and 1.132 WHIP so far this year in his seven appearances. He’s been an absolute god-send for this team given Rick Porcello’s regression and the concerns of basically every other spot in the rotation outside of Sale’s.
Triggs has been phenomenal, too. Just when it looked like some magic was wearing off, he goes and holds the Angels and Mariners to just a single run in six innings each. He’s 5-2 with a 2.12 ERA. He’s only allowed more than one earned run in two of his eight starts.
Who's Hot?
Yonder Alonso is red hot. The man that made Anthony Rizzo expendable by the Padres back in the day is finally living up to expectations now that he’s 30.
After a bunch of hype in his younger years, Alonso has fallen into obscurity the last several seasons as a strong fielding first baseman without much power and an inconsistent batting average.
The most homers Alonso has ever hit in a season is nine, back in 2012, but he’s already slammed 12 in 2017. He’s batting .276 with a .378 OBP and .629 slugging. That slugging mark is completely out of character and the on base average is as high as it’s been since a 47-game sampling in 2011.
Alonso made several adjustments over the offseason and has spoken openly about looking to improve his bat path to increase his launch angle, becoming a bit more of a slugger and less of a slasher. Boy, has it worked.
Here in May, Alonso leads baseball with his eight home runs and is second in the AL in RBIs behind the Red Sox’s own Mookie Betts.
Betts is hitting .293 in the month, but his OBP of 1.051 paints a picture of a hitter nearly as hot as Alonso with his 1.198 OPS in the month. The two rank third and fourth respectively in baseball in total bases this month with Betts at 39 and Alonso at 38.
On the pitching side, here in May, Craig Kimbrel has already struck out 14 batters in 6.1 innings, recording four saves and a win while giving up just one hit and walking nobody. That’s Kimbrel level dominance from his years in Atlanta. He’s back to being the best closer in the game, alongside the equally dominant Greg Holland from the Rockies.
Who's Not?
While Kimbrel has been a sure thing in May, the Oakland bullpen has been a disappointment despite a large selection of former closers to choose from.
Ryan Madson has solid overall numbers, but has two blown saves this month. Santiago Casilla adds another blown save to the mix along with five runs in 5.1 innings this month.
Khris Davis is another Oakland player on the ‘not’ list. The slugging outfielder has 11 home rusn this year, one behind Alonso for the team lead, but only one of those has come in May. Over his last 54 at bats, he’s had just seven hits for a .130 average. He’s also struck out 18 times and recorded just two extra base hits, a double and a homer.
Jackie Bradley Jr. had a home run on Tuesday night and that’s a good sign for the centerfielder who has been ice cold at the plate all season long. He’s hitting just .200 and has the .189 average in May.
Another positional issue for the Sox is third base. It’s been a revolving door at the position. Marco Hernandez and Pablo Sandoval remain on the DL. Both underperformed when healthy anyway. Now, the team has Josh Rutledge, Deven Marrero and even Chase d’Arnaud as options. The first two haven’t provided any real offense while d’Arnaud had a hit in his only AB with Boston, but hasn’t been anything to write home about as a 30-year old career Four-A player with a 65 major league OPS+ in 448 total plate appearances.
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