{"id":59508,"date":"2025-06-04T11:42:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T11:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=59508"},"modified":"2025-06-04T11:42:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T11:42:05","slug":"angels-4-red-sox-3-the-ship-is-on-fire-and-there-arent-enough-lifeboats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=59508","title":{"rendered":"Angels 4, Red Sox 3: The ship is on fire and there aren\u2019t enough lifeboats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disasters don\u2019t just happen. They\u2019re generally caused by the residue of numerous small, seemingly inconsequential things lining up. A combination of fail-safes falling through, and stars aligning to create a catastrophic chain reaction.<\/p>\n

The Hindenburg did just blow up. They were using hydrogen instead of helium and the airship\u2019s fabric covering was not well-grounded. The Titanic didn\u2019t just sink. They sailed a ship full of shoddy rivets into an ice field at high speeds despite multiple ice warnings in the hours preceding the calamity. And the 2025 Red Sox don\u2019t just happen to embarrass themselves over and over again and fail to execute in almost every one run game. The front office created a roster and continues to field a lineup that\u2019s designed to fail when you need them to come through the most. The pieces don\u2019t fit, and the ones they do have are not being used properly.<\/p>\n

Take for instance the bottom seven hitters in the Sox starting lineup for this game:<\/p>\n

3) Rob Refsnyder RF<\/p>\n

4) Romy Gonzalez 1B<\/p>\n

5) Abraham Toro 3B<\/p>\n

6) Trevor Story SS<\/p>\n

7) Ceddanne Rafaela CF<\/p>\n

8 Connor Wong C<\/p>\n

9) Kristian Campbell 2B<\/p>\n

Are you kidding me? Does that look like a lineup from a serious baseball team? I don\u2019t drink on Tuesdays, but I should have started after this thing came out. Exactly zero of those guys have a career OPS+ over 100 outside of Coors Field, and to get that putrid offensive output, they fielded an infield of Toro, Story, Campbell and Gonzalez, who have a combined -17 Defensive Runs Saved on the season. Woof!<\/p>\n

Apparently, there\u2019s a couple of sacred items in the Red Sox clubhouse in addition to the home run Wally head. They include the big book of stupid baseball rules, which Alex Cora subscribes to religiously, and the sorting hat from Harry Potter.<\/p>\n

Since the big book of stupid baseball rules states that you can\u2019t start your young left handed hitters against left handed starting pitching if they show the slightest inkling of struggle, the right handed boys got the opportunity to try out the sorting hat before tonight\u2019s game. Evidently, when Alex Cora placed it on Romy Gonzalez\u2019s head, it uttered the words \u201ccleanup hitter\u201d and he was awarded the opportunity to bat fourth.<\/p>\n

The baseball gods saw this heresy and decided to strike down the abomination with their classic brand of ruthless and soul crushing consequences. Bottom of the ninth inning, two out, winning run on third base, and guess who comes to the plate? Of course it was Romy Gonzalez, who was already 0-4 on the night with three strike outs, and of course he grounded out to end the threat.<\/p>\n

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this game. There was a sequence in the second and third innings where the Sox strung together a Ceddanne Rafaela double, a Connor Wong single, a Kristian Campbell double and a Jarren Duran double on four consecutive batters and only scored one run. There was the eighth inning where Trevor Story led off with a single and Rafaela and Wong followed it up with a flyout and a double play.<\/p>\n

Then there was the man on second nobody out situations in both the ninth and the tenth innings without scoring, the three errors tonight that gives the team the most in all of baseball, and the 1-13 figure with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re all part of the disaster, but they\u2019re also all products of decisions being made long before the first pitch is thrown. You can\u2019t throw out a second rate lineup and expect to win major league baseball games. This is the stuff I expect out of the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, not a big market club claiming it\u2019s trying to contend for the postseason.<\/p>\n

\n

Oh, and speaking of second rate, look how NESN was covering this fiasco of a game. They were interviewing the hosts of Dining Playbook, a show on their sports network that has absolutely nothing to do with sports. So instead of continuous hard analysis on the multitude of mistakes made throughout the night, we got this:<\/p>\n

I swear, NESN is just phoning it in and running out the clock until MLB decides what comes next for the way they broadcast the sport regionally. They are putting out the most insulting product imaginable for people who actually care to watch the games for the baseball.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, there\u2019s plenty of other concerning topics from this game that on another night might also deserve their own deep dive. Most notably, Tyler Milliken brought up the extremely problematic lack of whiffs generated from Brayan Bello tonight.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Brayan Bello had 4 total Whiffs tonight.<\/p>\n

2 on the sweeper. 2 on the changeup.<\/p>\n

He threw 33 sweepers. Only 6 changeups.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2014 Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) June 4, 2025<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

So even though Bello got through six innings giving up three runs, it probably had just as much to do with the dreadful Angels lineup as it did with anything he was throwing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure what\u2019s more pathetic, the Angels failing to get an extra base hit all night despite Bello not having any swing and miss stuff, or the Red Sox for not being able to beat a team in today\u2019s MLB that didn\u2019t have an extra base hit and almost gave up four of them in a row at one point.<\/p>\n

Anyway, after the game, Alex Cora sounded downright despondent and had this to say:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe keep making the same mistakes. We\u2019re not getting better. At one point, has to be on me, I guess, right? I\u2019m the manager, so, you know, I gotta keep pushing them to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they\u2019re not getting better, you know. We keep making them the same mistakes, same mistakes. I\u2019ll be very honest about it, very open about it, you know, you get frustrated. I was like, wow, this is real. It\u2019s frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, the lack of situational execution is becoming downright alarming!<\/p>\n

\n

But hey, you know who didn\u2019t have a problem getting a big hit in the late innings tonight?<\/p>\n

If this franchise didn\u2019t exist, you couldn\u2019t make them up!<\/p>\n

Studs<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ceddanne Rafaela: <\/strong>3-5 at the plate including this electric home run to tie the game in the sixth, which was also the hardest hit ball of his career.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, he also had an overzealous throwing error and the team didn\u2019t score another run the rest of the night.<\/p>\n

The combination of Greg Weissert, Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman:<\/strong> Together, they posted scoreless innings in the seventh, eighth and ninth after the Rafaela home run tied it up. They gave the team a fantastic opportunity to win, but this disturbingly ineffective lineup couldn\u2019t manage to push another run across the plate against the worst bullpen in the American League.<\/p>\n

Three Duds<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Romy Gonzalez: <\/strong>You can\u2019t bat this guy cleanup, have him go 0-5 with three strikes outs, and not have him end up here.<\/p>\n

Zack Kelly: <\/strong>He somehow found his way back to the major leagues and ended up on the mound at Fenway tonight. Here\u2019s how he immediately kicked off his return in extra innings:<\/p>\n

Alex Cora :<\/strong> Aside from everything else going on and already covered, how does Marcelo Mayer not get an at bat in either of the last two games? Everything going on with this team right now is just mind boggling!<\/p>\n

Play of the game:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The moment the Red Sox posted this lineup. You can\u2019t expect to win baseball games running out this second rate trash!<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Poll<\/h3>\n

What was the most infuriating offensive sequence of the game?<\/h4>\n
\n
    \n
  • \n
    \n
    51%<\/h6>\n
    \n
    Four straight hits including three doubles in the second and third innings that only resulted in one run.<\/h6>\n

    (32 votes)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n
    \n
    0%<\/h6>\n
    \n
    8th inning: Leadoff Story single followed by a Rafaela fly out and a Wong double play.<\/h6>\n

    (0 votes)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n
    \n
    24%<\/h6>\n
    \n
    9th inning: Campbell walk, Hamilton steals second, doesn\u2019t advance to third on a Duran flyout. Inning ends with an Abreu strike out and a Gonzalez ground out.<\/h6>\n

    (15 votes)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n
    \n
    24%<\/h6>\n
    \n
    10th inning: Strikeout, strikeout, popup with the tying run starting the inning on second base.<\/h6>\n

    (15 votes)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    62 votes total Vote Now<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Red Sox embarrassed themselves before, during, and after the game tonight on the way to their league leading 17th one run loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":59509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nAngels 4, Red Sox 3: The ship is on fire and there aren\u2019t enough lifeboats - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=59508\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Angels 4, Red Sox 3: The ship is on fire and there aren\u2019t enough lifeboats - 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