30 telling statistics from the first half-plus of the Red Sox season
COMMENTARY
If you want to sum up the Red Sox’ play in their 89 games before the break, you can comfortably say that there has been some good (Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts come to mind), more bad (Pablo and Papi?), and a lot of ugly (don’t make me name them all).
The problems that existed before the season began still exist, but now they even seem more pronounced. This is a team that is short in the rotation, short in the bullpen, and short defensively.
Don’t fooled by the number of games out they are. The Sox are playing .472 baseball, 13th in the AL and 22nd in the majors.
Here are 30 telling statistics from the first half of the season.
1. On the first pitch of an at bat, Ryan Hanigan is hitting .571, and Dustin Pedroia is hitting .529. Then again David Ortiz is hitting .194 and Brock Holt is hitting .231. Batters hit just .188 against Junichi Tazawa on the first pitch, but .444 against Koji Uehara.
2. The first two batters in the Sox lineup this season are hitting .297, and the first two batters in the opposing lineup are hitting .271.
3. The 3-4-5 batters facing the Sox have hit .265 against the Sox pitchers, while the Sox batters have hit .250
4. Leading off an inning, Dustin Pedroia has a team-leading .380 OBP, followed by Hanley Ramirez’s .337. On the other end, Alejandro De Aza has a .182 and Sandy Leon has a .208.
5. For Sox pitchers leading off an inning, Koji Uehara has a team best .206 OBP against, followed by Tommy Layne’s .208. The starter with the best OBP against is Eduardo Rodriguez at .236, followed by Porcello at .276. Craig Breslow has a .500 OBPA and Joe Kelly has a .354.
6. When the bases are empty, the Red Sox are hitting .254 and opponents are hitting .255 against them. With men on, the Sox are hitting .260, but opponents are hitting .281. It gets worse with runners in scoring position, with the Sox hitting .249; the BAA is .295.
7. Ramirez is hitting a team-best .312 with the bases empty, followed by Pedroia at .306. On the other hand, Mike Napoli is hitting .156 (with 41 whiffs), and Daniel Nava a puny .056.
8. Porcello and Buchholz each have two starts in which they allowed 10+ hits, the most on the team.
9. Napoli leads the team swinging and missing on 149 pitches, followed by is Oriz with 133 misses. Buchholz has gotten batters to swing and miss 197 pitches, followed by Porcello on 156.
10. Holt and Bogaerts lead the Sox with three games with at least four hits, while Rodriguez, Kelly, and Buchholz each made four starts in which they allowed four hits or fewer.
11. The Yankees lead the AL with 78 1st-inning runs, more than double Boston’s 38, good for only 12th in the AL.
12. Porcello has induced 18 pop-ups and Miley 17. Betts has hit 25 pop-ups, and Sandoval and Ramirez have hit 22 each. Hanigan has one pop-up in 95 PA.
13. Ramirez leads the Sox striking out five times with a runner on third and less than two outs; Holt is next with three whiffs. Buchholz leads all Sox pitchers with five strikeouts with a runner on third and less than two outs. Robbie Ross is next with three whiffs.
14. When the Sox are ahead, the three lowest ERAs on the team belong to Tazawa (1.50), Robbie Ross (1.69), and Koji Uehara (1.91); Rodriguez leads the starters with an ERA of 2.08.
15. Betts has looked at 357 called strikes; Holt is next on the team with 286. Miley and Buchholz have each thrown 298 called strikes.
16. Napoli has looked at a team-leading 23 called strike threes, while Buchholz and Porcello lead the team with 29 strikeouts looking.
17. When the Sox are trailing, the highest batting averages belong to Pedroia (.337), Sandoval (.330), and De Aza (.321). On the other end of the spectrum, Napoli is hitting .177 and Ramirez is hitting .211.
18. Versus righties, De Aza is hitting .346 and Pedroia is hitting .312. Conversely, Victorino is .184 and Napoli is hitting .186.
19. On the mound against righties, Tazawa has a .183 BAA and Rodriguez has a .221. Conversely, righties are hitting .383 against Matt Barnes, .317 against Robbie Ross, and .99 against Porcello.
20. Versus lefties, Victorino is hitting .346 and Bogaerts .333. Conversely, Ortiz is hitting .128 and Sandoval is hitting .183.
21. On the mound against lefties, batters are hitting .117 against Koji Uehara and .231 against Miley. Conversely, lefties are hitting .315 against Justin Masterson and .294 against Porcello.
22. Ramirez has hit one grand slam (the only Sox slam this season), two three-run-homers, seven two-run homers, and nine bases-empty homers. Ortiz has hit three three-run-homers, three two-run homers, and nine bases-empty homers.
23. Napoli leads the team with eight games with at least two walks; Ortiz is next with six. Miley leads the team with 11 games in which he walked at least two, followed by Kelly with 10.
24. Alejandro De Aza has the night moves hitting .333 after dark. Leon, on the other hand, is in dark when the lights are on hitting just .119. Rodriguez is 4-0 with a 1.11 ERA in night games. Kelly is 0-3 with 5.66 ERA at night
25. Justin Masterson, who has a 7.46 ERA at night, is 2-0 with a 0.90 ERA in day games, but Porcello is 1-3 with a 9.82 ERA in the daytime. The daytime is the right time for Dustin Pedroia who is hitting .398. Both Victorino and Ortiz are hitting .194 in the daylight.
26. Bogaerts has a .943 OPS with runners in scoring position, but Leon has a .333. Robbie Ross has a .433 OPS against with runners in scoring position, but Porcello has a .948
27. When the score is tied, Bogaerts is hitting .390 (10 RBI) and Ramirez is hitting .353 (11 RBI), but Napoli is hitting .197 and Pedroia .204. When the score is tied, both Barnes and Tazawa have a 6.35 ERA.
28. From the 7th inning on, you want Bogaerts who is hitting .327 at the plate. You also want Ramirez, who has six homers. You don’t want Ortiz who is hitting .145 with 21 whiffs and two homers or Napoli who is hitting .115 with one homer and 39 Ks.
29. The work weak: The Red Sox are 6-3 on Mondays, 8-5 on Tuesdays, 5-10 on Wednesdays, 5-5 on Thursdays, 6-8 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
30. In the 9th inning or later, Breslow has a 1.93 ERA and Uehara has a 2.45. But, Swihart has hit .059 and Victorino .091.
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