BOSTON — Looking for a jolt of energy, the Red Sox reached into their farm system and pulled up Jarren Duran to bat leadoff in a new series against the White Sox on Friday night.
Duran played his part, but it didn’t seem to matter.
The Red Sox’ offense looked just as dead in a 4-2 loss on Friday as it did a day earlier in an 8-0 loss to the Angels and Shohei Ohtani, who Sox manager Alex Cora said had the best stuff of anyone he’s seen pitch against the Sox since 2018.
It’d be easy to say that Ohtani broke the Red Sox’ offense, but it was never whole to begin with.
The takeaways from this one:
1. Duran made his presence felt
It was an encouraging sign to see the Sox give Duran a chance after he was hitting .397 and showing a tremendous plate approach (13 strikeouts, nine walks) at Triple-A Worcester. He reached base on a hit-by-pitch in the fifth and then again in the eighth, when he blooped one into right field that was misplayed by AJ Pollack to allow Duran to make his way to third base on a triple.
He scored the next play, when Trevor Story grounded out to second to get the run in.
But Story failed to come through with a bigger chance to do damage in the fifth, when Duran was on first and Jackie Bradley Jr. was on third with two outs. Story battled to two strikes, then got robbed on a third strike check-swing call by first-base umpire Carlos Torres and the inning was over.
Duran provided a spark, but couldn’t come through in the ninth inning when he stepped up as the tying run with a man on first base and struck out swinging against White Sox closer Liam Hendriks.
The rest of the offense was mostly quiet.
White Sox starter Vince Velasquez has been one of the worst pitchers in the big leagues since he entered the league in 2015. He entered with a 4.58 ERA in 2022 and a 5.92 ERA since the start of 2020.
Regardless, the Red Sox couldn’t touch him. He generated five swing-and-misses on his fastball, which averaged just 93 mph, and 11 whiffs in total while the typically-aggressive Sox’ offense made him look like a Cy Young contender.
Velazquez needed just 75 pitches while holding the Sox to just three hits and a run in five innings.
2. The first base conundrum remains
While the Red Sox reached into the farm system for one prospect on Friday, they notably left another, Triston Casas, down in Worcester.
Casas entered Friday with a .372 on-base percentage and .866 OPS in Triple-A as the calls for his big league promotion continue amongst a portion of the fanbase that has grown tired of Bobby Dalbec’s struggles.
Dalbec, who entered with a .217 OBP and .444 OPS, was 0-for-1 on the day. He drew a 10-pitch walk in the second inning and was also hit by a pitch, but his claim to fame in this game was a bizarre play at first base in the sixth inning, when he completely whiffed on a routine throw. The Sox should’ve turned an easy double play as Rafael Devers fielded a toss from Xander Bogaerts at second base and fired a strike to first that Dalbec simply missed. He didn’t stick his glove out far enough as the ball hit the webbing and bounced behind him.
When it came time for Dalbec to take a key at-bat against Hendriks to lead off the ninth, Dalbec was pinch-hit for with Franchy Cordero, which was as strong a signal as any that the Sox don’t trust him at the plate right now. Cordero struck out.
It wasn’t all bad for the Red Sox defensively. Bradley had a fine night in right field, where he showed off his cannon of an arm several times and finally collected an assist on an absolute rocket to home to nail A.J. Pollack, who tried to tag up in the ninth inning.
3. The Red Sox can’t seem to win with Eovaldi
Eovaldi had his worst start of the season and it really wasn’t that bad.
He clearly didn’t have his best stuff nor his best command, throwing just 65 strikes on 101 pitches. He got taken very deep by White Sox’ stud center fielder Luis Robert, who teed off on a curveball on the lower-inside part of the plate and hammered it over everything in left field for a two-run shot in the third.
Eovaldi gave up six hits and three walks, striking out four, but still managed to get through five innings while allowing just three runs.
He has a 2.94 ERA on the year but the Red Sox are just 2-4 in his starts.
