Mitch Moreland has homered in each of the previous three games before last night’s game, tying his longest streak of his career. Unfortunately the home runs were not enough as the Red Sox have lost two of their last three games.
Two of his dingers were solo shots coming in the last two game against Anaheim. The BoSox took the first game of the four game set at Fenway against the Minnesota Twins.
The last Red Sox player to homer in four straight games was now Los Angeles Dodgers first basemen Adrian Gonzalez in May 2011. Moreland was not given a chance to tie Gonzalez’s record as Sam Travis was given the start at first base with the lefty Hector Santiago on the hill to start the game.
All 12 of Moreland’s round-trips this season has come off of right-handed pitchers.
What has been consistent for the Red Sox has been the lack of production from the third base position.
The Red Sox are tied for last in the MLB with San Diego for batting average at the third base position with a .199 average and are last in OPS with. .559.
A total of eight different players have fielded the hot corner this season for the BoSox, including Vasquez who had a brief stint of a couple innings a couple weeks ago.
A few have fallen to injury like Brock Holt with vertigo, Josh Rutledge to a concussion and Pablo Sandoval most recently with an ear infection.
Tzu Wei Lin made his major league debut on Monday night going 1-3 and Deven Marrero started last night, going 1-4 with a double and committing his third error of the year.
The inconsistency at third base could be contributed to not finding a genuine starter. By having a different man in there every night doesn’t allow a player to get comfortable at the plate or in the field. The position has been injury-plaqued as well, but the Red Sox seemed to have battled through it .
Vasquez put the first two runs on the board after sending one over the Monster and Chris Young shut the door with a three-run blast in the bottom of the 6th.
The Red Sox are now 31-10 when they score first in the ballgame.
The Red Sox were without manager John Farrell last night as he was serving a suspension after a poking altercation with an umpire in Saturday’s game. It didn’t seem to matter as they brought the bats out, dispersing nine runs while scoring at least one run in five consecutive inning.
Rick Porcello is looking to carry the momentum of quality starting pitching on Wednesday night.
