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Thoughts on an 8-3 loss

They're going down, they're yelling Martin, you better find, your lost command...

By Adam J. Morris
Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

Red Sox 8, Rangers 3

  • Well, after two comfortable wins in a row, we had a clunker today.  The main culprit was Martin Perez, who has followed up his three straight 0 run starts with three straight bad starts.  Once again, Perez had problems commanding his pitches today, and while no one other than David Ortiz seemed to really hit him that hard, a combination of not being able to throw strikes and having some bad luck on balls in play falling in resulted in him getting pulled in the 4th inning with 6 runs in.  The final line was 3.2 IP, 9 hits, 4 walks, 4 Ks and 6 runs.  Perez's ERA is now 4.38 on the year.
  • Shawn Tolleson and Aaron Poreda each pitched very well out of the pen.  Tolleson put up a couple of shutout innings in relief of Perez, and Poreda retired all four batters he faced on a pair of grounders and a pair of Ks.  The Rangers have may found something in Poreda, the former first round pick who sank so low that he was picked in the AAA portion of the Rule 5 pick in 2011.  If Poreda can be a serviceable lefthanded relief arm that the Rangers wish to keep around, he offers the added advantage of being under team control through 2019, and likely not even arbitration-eligible until after 2016.
  • Justin Germano, brought up to replace Scott Baker as the long man in the bullpen earlier this week, allowed a couple of runs in the eighth inning to let the score go from 6-3 to 8-3, pretty much snuffing out any hope of a comeback.
  • Someone -- either Shin-Soo Choo or Leonys Martin -- made a really good throw to third at one point in this game, a throw that looked like it was going to nail Jackie Bradley, Jr.  And it literally nailed Bradley, hitting his helmet and bounding away, resulting in him being safe and Dustin Pedroia being able to advance to second base.
  • The offense didn't do much.  Elvis Andrus had a couple of hits, Shin-Soo Choo had a double, Alex Rios had a triple.  Rougned Odor had a pinch hit single.  That was kind of neat.  But overall, Jon Lester pitched a very good game, and the Rangers scored just enough runs that they needed a great game from Martin Perez to have a chance to win.  And that didn't happen.
  • Rubber game tomorrow with Robbie Ross, Jr.  Go Robbie Go!