Red Sox 4, Twins 1: Sale Outduels Berrios

Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays (via Fangraphs)

In the early goings it looked like we might be seeing Berrios’ first clunker this season. In the first inning, he gave up two runs on four hits, one of them a homer, and a walk. It could have been much worse, but a double play in the middle of it all softened the damage.

Berrios recovered, retiring 13 of the next 14 batters he faced. Chris Gimenez slugged a solo homer in the third inning, tying his career high with five on the season. He cleared the Green Monster, check it out:

https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/879493534281342976

Berrios had another laborious inning in the sixth, but was sent back out with 93 pitches under his belt. Two of the first three batters of the seventh inning singled, and Paul Molitor brought in Matt Belisle.

Belisle gave up an RBI single to Dustin Pedroia and ended up intentionally walking Xander Bogaerts after the runners advanced on a Gimenez passed ball. Buddy Boshers came in to face lefty Mitch Moreland, who hit a sacrifice fly. That closed the book on Berrios, giving him a disappointing four earned runs over 6.1 innings. He struck out seven.

Sale was brilliant, striking out nine batters over 6.1 innings, and the Boston pen combined for 2.2 perfect innings.

Molitor made several moves that could be second-guessed. I think Aaron Gleeman summed them up about as well as you could in 140 characters or less:

https://twitter.com/AaronGleeman/status/879513251913940992

Trailing by a run in the top of the seventh, Robbie Grossman hit a leadoff single, which was followed by a walk to Kennys Vargas (that’s where you see the big dip on the win expectancy graph). Jorge Polanco was asked to bunt, but he ended up striking out.

With Gimenez coming to the plate, Sale was pulled. Heath Hembree came in and induced an inning-ending double play to extinguish the threat.

On a positive note, Miguel Sano played third base for the first time in almost a week and made this web gem (do you still call it a web gem if the guy didn't use his glove?):

https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/879512259470409729

Postgame With Molitor

https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/879529623050108929

Bullpen Usage

Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:

*Dillion Gee was optioned to Rochester after the game to make room for Hector Santiago, who will be activated from the DL to start tomorrow.

Tuesday

Twins (Hector Santiago, 5.36 ERA) at Boston (Drew Pomeranz, 4.07 ERA), 6:10 pm CT

Pomeranz has some eyebrow-raising reverse platoon splits this season. Left-handed batters have a .997 OPS off him while he’s held righties to a .687 OPS. He also hasn’t been as good at home, registering a 4.89 ERA and 1.37 WHIP at Fenway Park. Santiago’s last start was June 6, though he threw three no-hit innings Wednesday in a rehab start. He’ll likely be on a conservative pitch count. Hector has been very good over his last five starts against Boston, posting a 1.88 ERA.

AL Central Standings

Cleveland 40-35

Twins 39-35 (-0.5)

Kansas City 37-37 (-2)

Detroit 33-42 (-6.5)

Chicago 32-42 (-7)

Just a heads up so nobody worries about me, I'll be off the grid for the next couple days and won't be able to provide recaps for Tuesday or Wednesday night's games. As always, thanks for reading!