Hirokazu Sawamura, not Rich Hill, is the reason why the Boston Red Sox lost 4-3 today to Oakland
Boston Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers after his diving catch in the top of the sixth inning to rob Oakland Athletics batter Sean Murphy of a hit. (Photo from MLB.com Video: https://www.mlb.com/gameday/athletics-vs-red-sox/2022/06/16/663267#game_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=663267)
By: Evan Troxel
The Oakland Athletics defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-3 on Thursday afternoon (today) at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
Boston starting pitcher Rich Hill is mostly the reason the Red Sox lost today, but he is not the only reason.
When Red Sox relief pitcher Hirokazu Sawamura was in the game (he relieved Hill), Boston catcher Christian Vazquez committed a passed ball to Oakland’s batter Elvis Andrus with two outs in the top of the sixth.
As a result of the passed ball, Seth Brown, the Athletics baserunner advanced from first base to second base.
The score was 3-1 in favor of Oakland.
Moments later, Andrus hit a ground ball to the third baseman Rafael Devers and it went under Devers’ glove and to the left field corner.
Brown ended up scoring on the play, Devers’ was charged with a fielding error and Andrus wound up at second base.
Oakland 4, Boston 1.
Sawamaura then got Jonah Bride to line out to center fielder Jarren Duran to end the inning.
Perhaps the Oakland-Boston game would still be going on as I am typing this if Sawamura didn’t allow that fourth run to score.
Because the game could still be tied.
And it also needs to be pointed out that Rafael Devers made an outstanding catch to start the top of the sixth inning robbing Sean Murphy of a hit, moments before he messed up and allowed the game-winning run to score.
Hirokazu Sawamura really should be the number one culprit for this Boston loss today. He could have struck out Andrus or Jonah Bride (the next Athletics batter), but he didn’t.
He failed.
I’m getting tired of seeing the Red Sox lose because of Sawamura.
I THINK HE IS LOSING GAMES ON PURPOSE! AND GETTING PAID TO DO IT TOO!
I THINK THE BOSTON RED SOX SHOULD SERIOUSLY CONSIDER GETTING RID OF HIROKAZU SAWAMURA (OR ACTUALLY GET RID OF HIM) AND ANY OTHER BOSTON RED SOX PLAYERS WHO ARE LOSING GAMES ON PURPOSE IMMEDIATELY!
So you want proof that Sawamura is a problem? Good! I’ll show you!
April 15th: Lost vs. the Minnesota Twins on Opening Day at Fenway Park
Twins scored the game-winning run in the top of the fifth (when Sawamura was pitching)!
April 18th: Lost vs. the Minnesota Twins on Boston Marathon Monday/Patriot’s Day
Threw a wild pitch and allowed a run to score before even recording an out.
To be fair to Sawamura, Boston probably would not have won the game even if he didn’t make that mistake anyway.
The point is, he basically put the game out of reach.
April 30th: Lost at the Baltimore Orioles
Seven scoreless innings of Nathan Eovaldi pitching is wasted when Sawamura literally throws the baseball over the head of third baseman Rafael Devers in the tenth inning.
May 4th: Lost vs. the Los Angeles Angels
Gives up a three-run home run to Jared Walsh to basically eliminate the possibility at all of a Red Sox comeback in the tenth inning. The Red Sox were already trailing by three at that point and Sawamura already allowed a run to score before giving up the three-run homer.
May 27th: Lost vs. the Baltimore Orioles
He allowed three of the four runs to score in the top of the ninth of a game that was tied at eight heading into the ninth. Also threw a wild pitch which allowed one of the runs to score.
May 30th: Lost vs. the Baltimore Orioles
He allowed the fifth and sixth runs to score in the top of the fifth. That pretty much ends the game if your team doesn’t have any runs on the scoreboard to counter that.
June 9th: Lost at the Los Angeles Angels
He allows a three-run game-winning home run to Andrew Velazquez, who the Angels TV broadcast has nicknamed “Squid”.
The win is also the first career MLB victory for Angels manager Phil Nevin.
And, of course, Shohei Ohtani christens the first win of the Nevin era by getting a win on the mound. Because, why not? Everyone loves Ohtani.
What makes the home run feel even worse is that Sawamura already got two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning.
June 16th: Lost vs the Oakland Athletics
You could blame Christian Vazquez and/or Rafael Devers, but what if Hirokazu Sawamura told them to do that? Huh!
TO INTENTIONALLY LOSE!
Sawamura is partially responsible for eight losses this regular season for the Boston Red Sox.
He has actually helped the Boston Red Sox lose 1.998 games.
In other words, he has lost almost two out of the 30 Red Sox losses this regular season.
Sawamura has more actual losses than every Boston pitcher except for four starters (with more than one start) named Nathan Eovaldi, Rich Hill, Tanner Houck and Nick Pivetta, and two relievers, Matt Barnes and Ryan Brasier.
He has the most actual losses for a Red Sox pitcher who hasn’t actually lost a sum total of two games yet.
Sawamura has actually lost twice as much as he has won this regular season.
His numbers are so lopsided that he is ranked 5th on the team in ERA (2.91) but is ranked 17th in true run average (6.02) and very true run average (5.82).
Hill pitched 5 2/3 innings giving up 7 hits, 4 runs and 3 earned runs.
Officially, he only gave up 3.25 very true runs.
Hill recorded four strikeouts and didn’t walk a batter.
With today’s loss, Rich Hill has actually lost more for the Red Sox than any other Boston pitcher except for Nick Pivetta and Nathan Eovaldi.
It just seems like the writing is on the wall.
Either today’s loss to the Athletics by the Red Sox was a sacrifice so that the Boston Celtics can win Game 6 of the National Basketball Association Finals tonight (and force a Game 7) or the Celtics really are going to lose to the Golden State Warriors tonight and the NBA season will finished tonight.
