The Boston Red Sox kicked off a three-game series at Fenway Park vs. the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night and came away with a 12-9 win. Several standout moments took place for Boston, including Brayan Bello making a bit of history on the mound, Wilyer Abreu and Dom Smith hitting back-to-back home runs, and every Red Sox hitter recording at least one hit. On today's show, Gabby breaks it all down and also discusses the debut of Trey Wingenter.
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(upbeat music) - It's the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. - Brian Bayo may not have had the best outing of his life on the mound on Tuesday night, but he got the job done for the Boston Red Sox and made a little bit of history while doing it. (upbeat music) - You are Lockdown Red Sox, the Daily Boston Red Sox Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. - Hello and welcome to Lockdown Red Sox, your Daily Boston Red Sox Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm your host Gabby Herlbot, former ESPN social media associate, and current host of the Boston Falling Podcast as well. And I am here to bring you the latest in all things Boston Red Sox Monday through Friday, straight to your favorite podcast feed and wanna know the best part, it is free. So you can check out the show wherever you get your podcast for free because Lockdown is your team every day. This episode is brought to you by Price Picks, the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Go to prize picks.com/lockdownmlb and use code Lockdownmlb all lowercase for a first deposit match up to $100. Welcome to the show, you are halfway through the week. Congratulations on that. I know going back to work after what, for most people was a long weekend, could be really tough and this week has been a drag. I literally thought it was Wednesday all day yesterday. So I was certainly very disappointed when I found out it was only Tuesday, but at least the Red Sox so far are making our week a little bit easier because they did record a 12 to nine win against the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night and put the Red Sox 10 games over 500 at 50 and 40 and the A's are now 34 and 59. That poor team just is seriously struggling right now. And the thing is they definitely have some guys who can hit. I mean, just from even watching the game on Tuesday night, they have some guys in their lineup who can rake. They just have no pitching to go along with it. And that A starting pitcher on Tuesday, Estes, was just absolutely getting hammered by the Red Sox and the team certainly brought the offense in the victory. So I'm going to be talking about that a little bit later. Also going to be talking about Brian Bayo who made the start on the mound for the Red Sox on Tuesday and made a little bit of history in that store. And I'm also going to be talking about the debut of a guy that they placed on the active major league roster. So last to talk about, but the Red Sox are continuing to work their way up. The Orioles and Yankees did both lose last night. So the Red Sox were able to gain a spot in the standings and gain some ground on those two teams. And for a while in May and early June, the conversation was that the Red Sox are definitely not winning their division. They are too far out. They were about 13 games out at this point. But now the tide is turning. I mean, they are very much in it and they have a shot. And that's what's exciting about it is all I wanted for this team was to put themselves in a position to have a shot to make a run. And they certainly do have that. And while they have had a lot of factors that have contributed to that success, especially from a pitching standpoint, Brian Bayo is somebody who has been struggling a little bit more and hasn't exactly found that same success as some of the other starters in this Red Sox rotation, he started the game on Tuesday night, went 5.1 innings, gave up nine hits, and five earned runs with two walks and 11 strikeouts. He did give up a home run. His ERA is now a 5.4. So he has not brought his best stuff this year. And for whatever reason, in general, he struggles against Oakland. He never has good starts against that team. And I don't know what it is, whether it's at Fenway or on the road. He cannot seem to figure out how to have a clean start against that team. And for a while, it was looking like it was going to be a quality start for him because he was rolling. I mean, he had given up a couple runs early on in the game. But then he gave up a three-run homer in the sixth inning to give the A's five runs. So then it became no longer a quality start for him. But he was rolling and he started off looking a little bit rough. But then once he cleaned everything up, he was looking pretty good after that. And he made some history in the start as well. He gave up those two runs in the first inning. But while he was doing that, he was also working through Oakland's lineup, generating tons of swings and misses. He had nine strikeouts through three innings, punching out every Oakland batter who did not reach base. And then he opened the fourth with a 10th strikeout and then brought his total to 11 by the end of that inning. So he became the first Red Sox pitchers since at least 1969 to rack up nine strikeouts and three innings and became the first ever to record 11 strikeouts in four innings. He also tied the expansion era MLB record by getting each of his first 10 outs via strikeouts. Only two pitchers had achieved that prior to Bayo. Aaron Noah on June 25th, 2021 and Andrew Heaney on April 10th, 2023. So he generated lots of swings and misses early, which was fantastic to see from him because he has not been able to generate tons of strikeouts and a lot of his starts. And that was something that certainly has held him back from being able to be in that next tier of successful pitchers. So it was great to see him finally starting to generate some swings and misses and get these guys to strike out. The Red Sox did sign Bayo to a six year, $55 million contract extension in March, locking him up for a long time. So it is important that he is able to turn things around and become a little bit more consistent out there. He's now nine and five on the season with that 5.40 ERA, 8.9 strikeouts per nine innings and a negative 0.3WR in 2024. So he just hasn't exactly lived up to the price tag that the Red Sox have wanted from him, but he has shown some flashes of being absolutely brilliant, even before Tuesday night's historic outing. In his 40 starts between September 3rd, 2022 and May 12th of this year, Bayo went 18 and 16 with a 3.85 ERA. So he definitely has the ability. It's just a matter of what has him struggling in the way that he is this year because we used to be able to watch him and say he was the undoubted ace of the Red Sox pitching stuff. And he was able a lot of time to get the job done, but now he goes out there and we don't really know what version of him we're going to get. He was coming off a very solid start his last time out, and I was hoping that he would carry that over into this game. And he was able to generate those swings and misses, but he also was giving up lots of hits. These guys were figuring him out and bouncing on him early as they did put those two early runs on the board. So that was what the issue was for him on Tuesday night. And I just wonder if there's something with Andrew Bailey's mechanics or the way that he's approaching this pitching stuff and what he wants to see from them. That's giving Bayo some trouble because he used to be a guy who we could very much rely on. And now this year he's been super up and down and inconsistent. So I'm going to need to see more consistency from him and him having an ability to be able to really lock guys down, not get himself into pitch count trouble early in games because by the time he was pulled in the sixth inning, he was over 100 pitches at that point. And he was just racking up those numbers on his pitch count because of the fact that there were a lot of Oakland days that were reaching base. They as a team recorded 13 hits. So they actually tied the Red Sox and hits overall, but the Red Sox just overpowered them from an offensive standpoint and earned the 12 to nine win. And Bayo did still earn the win because the Red Sox were in the lead when he got pulled. But he has had some outings where the pitch count has just been an absolute problem for him. So I really would like him to see that get cleaned up and be able to move forward in his outings with a sense of confidence and a sense of being able to really lock in and shut these guys down. Making history is really cool. And the fact that he did that is certainly a big confidence boost for him. But I definitely want to see more from him in terms of knowing the right pitches to utilize and being able to rack up more quality starts because right when we thought this was going to be a quality start and ended up not being one. And we could sit here and wonder why Alice Corey didn't pull him after five innings. And I feel like the thought process was because the Red Sox just had this big lead with them being up 11 to two, that he felt like they should keep him in, try to see if he could get through the sixth inning, which he of course did not. But if he was able to get through sixth inning and give the bullpen one more inning of rest, that would have been ideal. But this pitching staff as a whole almost gave it away on Tuesday night. After Bayo pitched Greg Weisert then came in, giving up two hits and one earned run over 1.2 innings. He did strikeout two and walk one. And then Zach Kelly was absolute nails, pitched one inning, gave up zero earned runs and recorded a strikeout. He has been very good this season. His ERA is down to a 1.89. And I've been very impressed by what I've seen from him. And then a pitcher who I'm going to be talking about later on in the show, Trey Wingenter, who made his Red Sox debut, came into the game as well. But this was a game where we saw Kenley Jansen getting up to warm up in the bullpen in the ninth inning. And that's just never have been the case because the team had an 11 to two lead. And then in the ninth inning, Oakland cut it to 12 to nine. So then the Red Sox thought that there was a chance Jansen would have to be used. So there was no reason in a game like this that Kenley Jansen should have ever had to even think about warming up. So that's an issue. That's definitely something that the Red Sox moving forward and the rest of this series need to keep in mind. Can't let it slip away like that and can't nearly blow an 11 to two lead that you had early on in the game because the Red Sox didn't score anymore after those early innings until very late on a sacrifice fly to give them that 12th run. But they can't sit here and just blow leads like that because honestly, I was getting a little worried about the fact that they were going to blow it. And that's a huge problem. So obviously a win is a win and gotta beat teams like Oakland. But it was a problem that I was worried that they didn't have enough runs on the board once Oakland started chipping away again. So gotta keep that in check moving forward. But coming up, I'm going to be talking about the offensive productivity in the game on Tuesday night because the Red Sox certainly brought a lot of offense with them, which was great to see. So that's coming up next. This episode of Locked on Red Sox is brought to you by booking.com booking. Yeah. 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So check out booking.com today. Also check out Game Time. If you're looking to score last minute tickets to games, it's funny 'cause I was actually at the Red Sox game last night and had no plans of being there and then the last minute decided to go because my fiance was coaching the baseball game in the area. So I was able to go on Game Time and pull a last minute ticket at a fantastic price and that's something that they do that I absolutely love is they are much cheaper than other ticketing vendors. Game Time is an authorized ticket marketplace, a majorly baseball, which makes getting tickets faster and easier. Prices on the Game Time app actually go down the closer it gets to the first pitch. Just take the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account and use code locked.mlb for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-M-L-B for $20 off. Download Game Time today. Last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed. I know from personal experience, especially using it literally just yesterday that they really do try to guarantee lowest price. So make sure to check it out today. You can also check out Lockdown Sports today, the first ever National Sports 24/7 streaming channel on YouTube and it's also available on Amazon Fire TV in the free Fire TV channels app and it is here to keep you caught up on all things going on in sports no matter where you're at. So make sure that you check that out today and keep yourself caught up. The Boston Red Sox defeated the Oakland A's 12-9 on Tuesday night and they certainly brought the bats. Lots of different guys contributing. Every single guy in the lineup recorded at least one hit which was fantastic to see in a game in which they recorded 13 total hits. And one of the most notable things about the offense in the game is the fact that Will Your Abreya and Dom Smith crushed home runs back to back which was so much fun to see because the Red Sox just pounced on the A's really early in this game and the damage was already done to the point where it couldn't be repaired. And it was tough for Oakland because they were already kind of out of it at the time although they did make it interesting in the later innings but the Red Sox pounced right away and when guys hit back to back home runs that's great for momentum. But everybody in the lineup recorded at least one hit. David Hamilton had a two-hit night. Raphael Devers had a two-hit night. Masataka Yoshida had a two-hit night and Saddam Rafaela also had a two-hit night. And these guys are really showing up and showing that they have the capability to just destroy lots of teams with their offensive skillsets. Jaren Duran is at a 276 batting average right now. Saddam Rafaela is up to a 247. Don Smith is actually up to a 226. I mean, he has not been fantastic this year but he certainly has developed a little bit at the plate and then Masatya Yoshida up to a 259 average. He has been a red hot at the plate lately and that's something that we really needed to see from him. His ability to actually make things happen on offense and be a contributor because early on things were rough. He was not contributing. He was an absolute ground-out merchant or he was swinging and missing a lot 'cause he was way ahead of it or way behind the pitch. But now he's starting to take more pitches, foul things off, be more aggressive but also more disciplined and he's putting together much better at bats than he did early on in the season. And that's been great to see as a Red Sox fan because when you have somebody like him playing DH pretty much every day, you need to have your DH hitting well. So hopefully it's something that continues and it's not just something that is a fluke and he's just in a hot stretch right now but we'll dip back down into reality. I'm really hoping this stays because that would be absolutely huge. Connor Wong did record a hit on the day but also recorded two strikeouts. He has a 309 batting average right now in the season. He has just been so good for the Red Sox team and it's so fun to watch him play and have watched him develop over the last year or so because he really has come a long way from last year to this year and it's great to see somebody like that blossom into what he is as a catcher because it's really exciting that Kyle Teal is waiting in the rafters and eventually we'll get called up and hopefully the catching tandem of him paired with Connor Wong will be really good for this Red Sox team moving forward. And I'm just super excited about the future of the catching tandem. Connor Wong contributes every single night by either making a big play at catcher basically pinning down a base stealer or making a really nice stop behind the plate or getting a big hit on offense. So he's always contributing in some capacity whenever he's out there. And that's absolutely been great. David Hamilton 264 average on the year has also been a red hot. He had two hits in the game as well. Those speedy guys in the lineup are just so dangerous between Duran and the lead off spot and then Hamilton second and then Rafa Yellow and the nine hole. I mean, these guys are an opposing pitcher's worst nightmare because they don't want guys on the base paths who are significant threats to steal and can play small ball and make things happen. It rattles a lot of opposing pitchers. And I like the way that Rafa Yellow bats ninth to separate the speedsters on the roster because if he's leaning off and inning and he gets a hit, then you have him on base and then you have Duran and Hamilton up after him. The next fastest guys on the team too. And then say they both get on, then you have three really fast players on the base path. So as much as Rafa Yellow has been improving his swing and his plate approach and discipline, he definitely still should be hitting in the nine hole because primarily his speed is something that could help offset the guys at the beginning of the lineup because if you put them all as one, two, three, then what do you do when the bottom of the order is up at the plate and you have no speed on the bases? So I think it actually makes sense to keep him in the nine hole. So really good game offensively for him and the Red Sox just were capitalizing on so many opportunities. When they had runners on base, they just kept scoring people and offensively they started off very strong, just hit after hit after hit. And that was so fun to see too. They were just pouncing on the Oakland A's team and when this version of the Boston Red Sox is playing, it is so much fun and that's seriously a very tough team to beat and I really don't envy other opposing pitchers that have to face this lineup. They are resilient, they are hungry, they fight for their pitch and they know when to take it when it's necessary and it's been great to see them as an offensive unit become more consistent and be able to score more runs as of late. And even when they're facing good pitchers too, they've been able to cause damage and get pitchers out of the game early. Like the starter for the A's had pitched a shutout in his last outing against the Angels and then had to get pulled after five outs on Tuesday night. The Red Sox offense does that to people. They rattle opposing pitchers. Alex Quora really knows how to utilize the speed on his roster when guys are getting on base to help other guys feel more confident in their ability to drive in those base runners. So something is working with this whole offensive unit right now and it's been great to see them all come together and click in the way that we've been wanting them to for a while now and they offensively could just be an absolute horse. I mean, there are just so many guys here that can do their part and contribute offensively and Tuesday night's game obviously was one that was just exceptional. You're not gonna see them score 12 runs every night but they had it and the Oakland pitching did not many Red Sox players that were out there and it's great when every single person in the lineup records at least one hit because that's huge for the confidence of everybody out there. Especially somebody like Abreu who crushed that home run and desperately needed that because he was on a very cold stretch of going over his last 16. So he definitely needed that big hit and he got that on Tuesday night and I'm really hoping it gets him going again because the Red Sox need him to be hitting the way that he was earlier on in the season because he has just been phenomenal this year and he's been a key piece to this Boston Red Sox team. So I'm really hoping that he can continue to grow and build on that home run that he hit which was so well overdue for him. So that's what I'm gonna be looking at from him moving forward. But yeah, lots of things to be had 12 total runs as a team and 13 hits, 10 strikeouts but five blocks and they just kept crushing lots of baseballs. They do need to keep the strikeout thing in mind 'cause this team does generate a lot of swings and misses as a whole. But I was very happy with the offensive effort that I saw on Tuesday night and I'm just hoping that they can be more consistent and continue to hit well and put pressure on opposing pitchers to get their pitch counts up early because that's how the Red Sox do win. A lot of games is when they have that plate discipline and they're able to get guys off the mound early in game. So definitely gotta keep that up and coming up next. I'm gonna be talking about a pitcher who made his debut for the Red Sox on Tuesday night and did not look overly impressive. So that's coming up next. Would you like a fun way to play daily fantasy sports? If so, Price picks is the exact place for you. Price picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members. Price picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on Price picks, it's just you against the numbers. 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Offer Tanner Hauck to have higher than 6.5 strikeouts as next start. Offer Nolan Gorman to have higher than 0.5 total bases and in Zach's outing. And offer Juan Soto to have higher than 0.5 home runs at his next game. Download the app today and use the code locked on MLB for a first deposit match up to $100 again. Download the app today and use the code locked on MLB for a first deposit match up to $100. Pick more, pick less, it's that easy with Price picks. - The Red Sox did make a few roster moves prior to Tuesday night's game against the A's. They recalled infielder outfielder Jamie Westbrook from AAA Worcester and optioned and Manuel Valdez to Worcester. Valdez has brought a good bat to the Red Sox but he has not been able to field lots of balls cleanly in the infield. So my guess would be that the Red Sox want him to clean up his defense before they give him another shot to get called back up. So that's something that I'm gonna be looking out for from him moving forward. If he gets called back up again is has his defense improving. That's a huge part of the game. And that would be my guess as to why they decided to do this. And Jamie Westbrook has such a small sample size, made his Major League debut earlier this season for the Red Sox and was super excited about it. But I'm excited to see what he can do now that he was called up again, got some more reps in the minors and is now back up and hopefully he can handle business and be somebody that the Red Sox could consider moving forward for a roster spot down the road. So that'll be fun to see. They also selected right handed pitcher, Trey Wingenter to the active Major League roster. Now, this was the minor league pitcher that the Red Sox had traded for over the weekend. And I mentioned how he likely is gonna be on the 40-man roster right away. And sure enough, that was the case. They prefaced the move by optioning Cam Buser back down to triple A. So I had a feeling that he was going to end up taking that spot. And sure enough, that is what happened. So with him, he was in a situation where he did have an assignment clause in his contract, meaning he needed to be added to the roster. So when the Red Sox traded for Wingenter, they knew that this was a factor. So in order to make room for him after optioning Cam Buser back down to triple A, they also DFA'd right-hander Niyuki Uisawa. He is somebody who we didn't really see a lot of, but will no longer be on the active, Major League roster for the Red Sox. Uisawa had spent his entire career with the Nipon Ham fighters of Japan's Nipon Professional Baseball until signing a minor league deal with the Rays over the winter. He wasn't gonna make the Rays roster out of camp, but had an upward mobility clause in his deal, which basically means he would have to be traded if any other club was willing to give him a spot. The Red Sox were interested and sent cash to the Rays to get a deal done, but they've largely kept him on optional assignment, and he really hasn't made appearances in the majors except twice. Two appearances at the Big League level this year, with one earned run allowed in four innings. He's mostly been serving in a swing roll at the triple A level. He has a 654 ERA and 42 and 2/3 innings over 13 appearances, including six starts. So he really is not pitching that well. So it's really nice that the Red Sox made the decision to DFA somebody who hasn't really been as good and has had his struggles. So now the Red Sox have a week to either trade him or pass him through waivers. Since the waiver process takes 48 hours, any potential deal would have to come together in the next five days. His results this year have been poor, but there are teams that could perhaps be interested just based on his track record in the Japanese League. He tossed over 1,000 innings in that league with a 319 ERA before making the move to North American ball. So maybe there are teams that could be like, he might not be doing well this year, but I'm intrigued by his potential moving forward. So if the Red Sox find a partner where they can make a trade for him, that would be great. If not, he goes through waivers and see if somebody claims him, and if that doesn't happen, then he stays with the Red Sox and ends up back. In AAA and back where he was. So the Red Sox made a good decision when they had to activate Wing Enter to the active roster, but he certainly was not impressive in his Red Sox outing on Tuesday night against the A's. He did come in and pitch the ninth inning giving up two hits and three earned runs. He had one walk and one strikeout, but he did give up a home run. And I was not impressed, I will say, by what I saw from him, even though he only pitched one inning, there was quite a bit of damage that took place in that inning because of the home run that he gave up. And all of a sudden it got Kenley-Jansen warming up because it was then a 12 to nine game, and it wasn't as comfortable of a lead. The biggest thing that stood out to me about him was how slow his fastball was going. It was going about 95 miles an hour, and a lot of the reports about him mentioned that his fastball is weak and there were a lot of hitters that were going up against his fastball and finding success on it. So that's something that I was worried about going into this season was, okay, is his fastball going to be good enough for him to really pull the weight at the major league level here. So obviously we saw a very small sample size with him, but I think the way they're gonna handle him is they truly do see this as a trial and error period. And I think especially with Chris Martin being on the injured list right now, it could just be a placeholder until he comes back. So even if he doesn't play well, the Red Sox, I'd be like, we have to stick this out because we need to wait until Chris Martin comes back and then we can get rid of him. Or it's even smaller than that, and they're gonna try him out over the course of this week. And if he doesn't pitch well, then maybe he just gets canned quickly, who knows? But obviously the Red Sox were willing to take a chance on him in some way, shape or form, but he has to get that fastball velocity up or else. It's gonna be very easy for opposing offenses to figure him out and to hit the ball against him. We already saw it on Tuesday night. He just did not have the best stuff. And I worry that that best stuff won't come from him at any time. So hopefully he's able to turn things around and that I'm wrong, but it was certainly frustrating to watch him go out there because the Red Sox had all this momentum. They were ready to win the game. And then he just comes in and just doesn't finish the game as effectively as we would have hoped that he would. But again, really small sample size, first time, fine. I'm willing to look past it and give him another chance, but he definitely has to pitch well. So the pressure absolutely is on him to figure that out and to get the job done when he gets called in by Alex Quora. I don't know that Quora would bring him in in a tight game because he might not feel like he can trust him to handle the pressure and that's fine. So we'll see what he can do in a situation where it's not high leverage and see if he ends up becoming Chase Anderson 2.0. A guy who's used in games where you know it's washed and somebody who likely could give up more runs, but it doesn't really matter 'cause you already lost anyway. He could be used in that type of setting, but we'll see, I mean, very small sample size with him, but I'm definitely a little bit intrigued. I wanna see how his off speed stuff is, his slider, which is a pretty good pitch of his as well. So I'd love to see him mix that in a little bit more. So it was definitely enjoyable to watch and I'm excited to see this Red Sox team as they continue to go along because they are good and they are resilient and they want to win. And it's just a bunch of guys who are focused locked in and that is their goal is to finish with a World Series ring at the end of the season and we'll see what happens, but they are playing like a team that can certainly at least contend for a playoff spot and hopefully make a deep run. But you know what you have to do as a fan to keep this going and make sure the Red Sox are succeeding in their Chase for a playoff spot. And that is keep the faith go Red Sox and I will catch you on the flip side. A prime members, you can listen to this lock-down podcast, add free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.
