BSJ Game Report: Astros 13, Red Sox 5 - Boston, Barraclough shelled at home to kick off pivotal series

TURNING POINT

Top of the sixth: Fresh off Duvall’s go-ahead, two-run homer, the Red Sox had the lead entering the top of the sixth, but the wheels fell off in short order. Houston cracked it open with a six-run top of the sixth inning, which saw Barraclough give up four walks, two HBPs, a triple, a single and a homer. Altuve gave Houston the lead with a two-run triple, and Yordan Alvarez blew it open with a three-run shot to right-center. 

ONE UP

Adam Duvall: Red-hot against Houston this past week, and continues to mash fastballs. Accounted for most of Boston’s offense, giving the Red Sox a brief 4-3 lead on a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth. Took a chin-high fastball onto Lansdowne Street with a 104.6 mph exit velocity. Finished the night 1-for-3 with a pair of walks and the two RBI. 

FIVE DOWN

Chris Sale: Sale had a pretty strong day going right up until the fifth inning. Had his slider playing really well, getting all six of his strikeouts with it. Started to unravel in the fifth, which foreshadowed the rest of Boston’s night. Got heated after allowing a run off a wild pitch, compounded mistakes before his pitch count ballooned and never reset. Getting through the fifth might have gone a long way. 

Kyle Barraclough: Tonight’s sacrificial lamb, and boy did he get slaughtered. Essentially made a start, throwing 94 pitches over 4.1 innings and got absolutely shelled, and he's only started five games across his entire professional career. Credit to him for eating it after getting called up from Triple-A, but he had no command and couldn’t throw strikes. Got absolutely knocked around on his four-seamer (96.4 mph average exit velocity) and cutter (99.5). 

Alex Cora: On one hand, Cora had to play the hand he was dealt. With almost no quality starts to speak of for the staff over the last week-plus in addition to a heavily worked bullpen, he had to leave Barraclough in to take the beating, even after Chris Murphy ate it on Sunday. But to see Barraclough getting his teeth kicked in during the sixth and seventh with no action in the bullpen sure felt like the towel was thrown in. No urgency. 

Rafael Devers: Went 0-for-4 at the plate with a pair of strikeouts before exiting the game in the seventh. Chased fastballs out of the zone on both of his Ks. 

Trevor Story: Looks lost at the plate right now. Tons of check-swinging and generally looks like he’s second-guessing himself. Finished the night 1-for-5 with a pair of strikeouts. His hit was a garbage-time single in the bottom of the ninth.

NOTABLE 

The Red Sox bullpen leads baseball in innings pitched since the All-Star break.  

Ceddanne Rafaela made his MLB debut, entering the game in the eighth inning for Adam Duvall in center field. Picked up his first career hit with a single to right in his first career at-bat, swinging on the first pitch he saw. He’s expected to start tomorrow. 

Masataka Yoshida went 3-for-3 with a double as well as a pair of runs and walks.

Triston Casas went 1-for-3 with a double, two RBI and two walks. 

QUOTE OF NOTE

"We're still resetting today. ... We had a lot of guys down,” Cora said of the bullpen and his usage. “[Barraclough] was throwing the ball well [in Triple-A]. This is where we were. We had Chris. We had Kenley. … It just didn’t happen. We had Barraclough and some other guys. This is where we were. … It’s 16 games in a row. A lot of teams go through this. 

“We just have to get over that hurdle, and right now for us, it’s where we’re at. We’re going to be in better shape tomorrow, bullpen-wise. Much better. … It’s awful. I feel bad [for Barraclough]. … He wanted to go out in the ninth. We were thinking about actually sending a position player, but he was like, ‘ You know what? I’ll take this one. I’ll finish this one, and we’ll move on from here.’”

UP NEXT

Second of the three-game set will be Tuesday at Fenway Park with first pitch set for 7:10 p.m. RHP Brayan Bello (10-7, 3.56 ERA) will face RHP JP France (9-5, 3.51 ERA).