It’s a winning streak?
Something like that seemed unthinkable just four days ago, when the Red Sox were hammered by the Phillies to extend a miserable losing streak to nine games. But three nights later, the Red Sox had turned it around — at least briefly — with their third consecutive win, an 8-5 win over the Orioles at Camden Yards.
Friday night was marked by what happened off the field, though, as the Red Sox swung a trade with the Phillies during the game that sent Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree to Philadelphia for a pair of pitchers. Here were three takeaways from the night, including some fallout from the trade:
Matt Barnes, new closer? With Workman out of the picture, all eyes are on his now former setup man to take the ninth for the Red Sox. That’s exactly what happened Friday, as Barnes recorded his first save of the season to preserve the victory.
On a strange night in Baltimore, where Workman and Hembree stuck around until the end of the game in order to say goodbye to their teammates, Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke said he wasn’t able to communicate with Barnes to talk about his role. But Barnes assumed he’d be the guy for the ninth if he needed to be.
When Josh Osich made a mess of the eighth, giving up five runs to make it an 8-5 game, it became reality. Roenicke has trust that Barnes can be the Red Sox’ regular closer, though he cautioned it might not work out like that every time.
“No doubt I have faith in what he can do,” Roenicke said. “I probably won’t do it the same way that we did with Work because we had Barnes seventh, eighth, or somebody and then going to Work. This will be a little bit different probably, I’m sure he’ll get most of the opportunities but if it matches up better with him in the eighth inning and another closer in the ninth, we’ll do that. So it’s not, I don’t think I’m just going to limit him to doing it for one inning.”
Roenicke named Austin Brice, who cleaned up Osich’s mess Friday, and Josh Taylor as candidates to close.
“I think we have a couple other guys that can do it and I’m comfortable with all of them, so I think the matchups will kind of tell us what to do there,” Roenicke said.
Darwinzon Hernandez impresses in 2020 debut: On a night when the Red Sox lost two of their most reliable bullpen arms, they welcomed another. Hernandez, who missed the first 26 games of the season as he recovered from COVID-19, made his season debut Friday, pitching two scoreless innings in the fifth and sixth innings.
Hernandez picked up right where he left off from his impressive 2019 season, with his electric fastball that averaged 94.4 mph and topped out at 96. He mixed it well with his slider, combining the two for seven swings and misses as he struck out three.
Roenicke said Hernandez likely wouldn’t slot in as a closer because they stretched him out and like him in a multi-inning role, whether it’s in relief or potentially starting. But he was sure impressed with how he looked Friday.
“Coming out today for the first time, he threw some nasty pitches,” Roenicke said. “I know sometimes he may get a little wild, but his pitches, you see the swings they take and the bats that break and it’s really good stuff. So fun to see him back, nice to have him in our bullpen again and now we have the two lefties that we used a lot last year along with Osich, so we feel pretty good with where we are.”
Top hitters break out: Lost in the madness of the trade, the Red Sox’ best hitters each had productive nights at the plate, with Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers each homering.
Bogaerts is heating up after hitting a homer in consecutive nights, Martinez crushed a two-run shot to center to celebrate his 33rd birthday, and Devers one-upped him with a 447-foot three-run blast that made it 6-0. After a brutal start to the season, Devers is now 9-for-18 with two doubles, two homers and seven RBIs over his last four games.
“I think it was big for J.D. and Devers to do what they did today, Bogey continues to do it, so if we set the table for those guys, hopefully they all get hot at the same time and then it will certainly be fun to watch,” Roenicke said.
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August 22, 2020 at 11:03AM
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Red Sox 8, Orioles 5: Matt Barnes emerges as closer in third consecutive win - Boston Herald
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