There’s no such thing as a bad win. All wins are good wins. Except for this one. Maybe.

Every win counts the same. At the end of the season, we won’t look back and say “damn, I wish they would have won on July 9th by seven instead of three”. On Saturday, however, we might say, “damn, I wish we didn’t need to use Zack Kelly and Greg Weissert after opening up a nine-run lead”.

Going into tonight, we also hoped to see Brayan Bello take another step in the right direction. If you look at the box score, you’ll see he surrendered five runs in just over five innings, which is bad. You’ll also see 23 swings and misses, and 11 strikeouts, which is good. I was in the bleachers tonight, so I didn’t have the best view of the pitching performance and actually had to double-check that 23 whiffs were correct. That’s an absurd total. From my view in the bleachers, it looked like he struggled to put away hitters – more of the same. What’s encouraging, however, is his changeup command. The ball stayed down all night, leading to ten whiffs on 17 swings. I’ll have to go back and watch the broadcast to fully understand what happened tonight, but right now I’m taking the improved feel for the changeup as a positive sign.

I walked out of Fenway tonight with a bitter taste in my mouth. Sitting here, typing this, I feel wrong to be complaining on a night the offense scored 12 runs. I think that’s a good sign for the state of this team because I expect better. They hopped out to an early lead and took their foot off the gas. After a hard-fought series against the Yankees, I’ll take this as a late-onset hangover. Take the game tomorrow with Pivetta on the mound and win another series. Who cares about the curmudgeon writing the game recap on a Tuesday night?

Three Studs

Wilyer Abreu

I showed up early today to watch batting practice because I like the sound of the bat better than I like spreadsheets. I watched Wilyer Abreu hit a ball so high in the air, it dislodged a bolt from a bleacher seat when it landed. When the game actually started, he hit a ball to nearly the same location. He hates that bleacher seat.

Masataka Yoshida

Yoshida reached base three times tonight and appears to be a formidable hitter again. He’s hitting the ball hard and not just rolling over to second base every at-bat. He also runs like Daniel Craig playing James Bond. Seriously, look it up. It’s the same thing.

Ceddane Rafaela

I don’t know. Pick anyone in the lineup. They’re a stud tonight. Rafaela was 2-5 with a triple. He’s hitting the ball. It’s pretty awesome.

Two Duds

Connor Wong

I don’t really care about Wong’s performance at the plate tonight. I’m more concerned about his performance behind the plate. Bello was credited with two wild pitches, but from my view, they looked like balls that a catcher should be able to block. He also dropped a foul tip that would have been strike three. I’m nitpicking, but I want better defense out of my catcher.

Trey Wingenter

Wingenter took the ninth inning tonight for his Red Sox debut. He got the job done but did give up a home run in the process. First game jitters, get ‘em next time.

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Source: USA Today