Story by Robbie Lewis (@sayheyrob)
5-1-24 RECAP: San Francisco Giants (14-16) vs Boston Red Sox (17-13)
The settings didn’t help the Giants sticks last night as they were once again silent in a 4-0 blank job at Fenway. They’d set out again tonight looking to find their offense against Red Sox righty Kutter Crawford, who has been on fire and owns a top 5 baseball name of all time. With the injury to Blake Snell, the Giants would elect to go with a bullpen game where lefty Erik Miller would be the opener.
Miller worked through back to back walks to leadoff the bottom of the 1st and recorded a scoreless frame. Daulton Jefferies got the ball in the “bulk innings” role to start the bottom of the 2nd. He’d also walk the leadoff man, but get out of it without any damage being done.
The struggling Tom Murphy got the start tonight for Patrick Bailey and he made Bob Melvin look like a smart man. With one out in the top of the 3rd he launched a solo dinger over the Green Monster in left field to give the Giants an early 1-0 advantage. Surely that would be enough runs for Daulton Jefferies.
Haha. It sure as hell wasn’t. The Red Sox immediately started ganging up on Jefferies in the bottom of the 3rd. Ceddanne Rafaela led the inning off with an infield single and then Jarren Duran drew yet another walk. Rafael Devers made it hurt with a fly ball off the Green Monster for an RBI double to tie the game at 1-1. Tyler O’Neill then gave the Red Sox the lead with an RBI groundout up the middle making it 2-1.
In the top of the 4th, the Giants found a little two out thunder against Crawford. Michael Conforto drew a walk and then Thairo Estrada hit one off the tippy top of the Green Monster for a double. That brought up Mike Yastrzemski with runners on 2nd & 3rd and he laid down a sneak attack bunt for an RBI infield single to tie things up at 2-2. It was a really heads up play by Yastrzemski as 3rd baseman Rafael Devers was damn near playing in shallow left field.
Boston quickly got the lead back against Jefferies, who quite simply doesn’t belong in the big leagues. Connor Wong hit another one off the top of the Green Monster for a leadoff double. Dominic Smith moved him to 3rd on a groundout and Wong was driven home on an Emmanuel Valdez RBI double once again off the Green Monster. With the score 3-2, Jarren Duran drove home Valdez with an RBI triple to right field to increase the Boston lead to 4-2. At long last, Bob Melvin finally pulled Jefferies and brought in Taylor Rogers. Rogers retired Rafael Devers to finally end the frame.
Rob Refsnyder led the bottom of the 5th off with a single, but Taylor Rogers recorded back to back fly outs. Bob Melvin then felt like it was a good time to get Luke Jackson some work, so he replaced Rogers. Predictably, things got worse immediately. Connor Wong singled up the middle to keep the inning alive and Dominic Smith then smacked an RBI single once again up the middle to make it a 5-2 game.
Mitch White got an opportunity to throw the ball in the bottom of the 7th and he sucked as well. After two quick outs, Wilyer Abreu hit a single to left field and then Connor Wong missed a homer by inches, but it still went down as an RBI double off the center field wall to boost the Boston lead to 6-2.
The Red Sox won 6-2, but at least the Giants didn’t get shutout. Baby steps. They’ll try not to get swept tomorrow. Kyle Harrison (2-1, 4.09) takes the ball against Josh Winckowski (1-1, 3.50). First pitch 10:35 AM PT. I’d suggest ignoring the game and being productive.
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