J.D. Martinez was seemingly joking, but there was some truth to what he said.
In the moments after Christian Vázquez was traded across the field on Monday shortly before the Red Sox, suddenly the catcher’s old team, began a series with the Houston Astros, his new team, Martinez noted the irony of the situation.
“We were like, he just sat through all our hitters’ meetings and now he’s going over there to catch against us,” Martinez said.
Two days later, Vázquez made his first start behind the plate for the Astros against his former team and the Red Sox were promptly silenced.
Vázquez, obviously, wasn’t in the Red Sox’ hitters’ meetings on Wednesday, but his strong familiarity with their lineup probably didn’t hurt. Astros starter José Urquidy pitched seven dominant shutout innings on a rough day for the Red Sox, whose health issues continued as they lost rookie pitcher Brayan Bello to an injury in a 6-1 loss at Minute Maid Park.
After back-to-back one-run victories to win their first series since June, the Red Sox fell back to earth as they couldn’t complete the sweep and saw their three-game winning streak snapped.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora made a last-minute call to have Rich Hill — returning from the injured list after a month away — start instead of Bello, who was originally supposed to start. Cora planned to have Bello piggyback Hill in an effort to reset the bullpen. But it didn’t work out that way.
Hill was lit up over just three innings in which he gave up four runs on six hits, including a two-run homer from Astros newcomer Trey Mancini. Bello took over in the fourth, but he only recorded two outs before looking to feel discomfort after throwing a pitch. After a quick visit from Cora and the trainer, Bello left the game. He was later diagnosed with a left groin strain.
