Whitlock pitches five-plus innings and Story and Bogaerts homer as Red Sox win 6-3 over the Astros

Xander Bogaerts hitting a two-run home run in the eighth inning. (Photo from MLB.com Video: https://www.mlb.com/gameday/astros-vs-red-sox/2022/05/16/663275#game_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=663275)

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Garrett Whitlock pitched five-plus innings as the Red Sox came from behind to defeat the Houston Astros 6-3 on Monday night.

He allowed a hit batsmen, a single, a walk and a solo home run in the first five innings.

Chas McCormick homered in the fifth inning for the Astros, in left-center field, to tie the game at one, over the green left field wall and basically at the farthest-right portion of the left field wall you can go before it is over the center field wall.

So in other words, the baseball was hit way above the white 379 foot sign and to the left of that sign and the yellow line which is painted on the left field Green Monster (and the yellow line is actually in the center field area I believe).

(The yellow line symbolizes the intersection area between the left field wall and the center field wall.

I believe the yellow line signifies the farthest left area of the center field area and if the baseball hits the yellow line or to the right of the yellow line, I think that is supposed to be considered a home run.)

Boston had a 2-1 lead entering the sixth inning.

In the sixth, Whitlock allowed a Michael Brantley double and a Alex Bregman walk, and then he was taken out of the game.

Brantley scored later in the inning, as Whitlock in total gave up two runs, two earned runs, three hits, two walks and three strikeouts and a solo home run to Chas McCormick.

Jake Diekman came into the game for Boston and allowed a Yordan Alvarez walk to load the bases and then Yuli Gurriel hit a sacrfiice fly to center fielder Kike Hernandez, scoring Brantley and advancing Alex Bregman from second base to third base.

Tie game at two.

Kyle Tucker then flied out to left fielder Alex Verdugo and Diekman's brief appearance was over with.

Two outs in the top of the sixth.

John Schreiber then came into the game and got a very important out as Chas McCormick struck out swinging.

Schreiber has still not allowed a single run (or even a partial run) to score in 7 1/3 innings pitched this regular season.

Diekman blew his third save of the regular season, and to be honest, I don't really understand why any pitcher should be getting a blown save if they are officially not going to be blamed for giving up any runs. It makes no sense.

The game was then delayed after the top of the sixth inning for one hour and thirty-eight minutes due to rain.

So at that point, the game had to be resumed because the Red Sox did not get a chance to bat in the bottom of the sixth before the rain delay. Plus the game was tied at two.

Phil Maton came into pitch in the bottom of the sixth for the Astros.

Rafael Devers singled on a line drive to left field, but was quickly put out when J.D. Martinez lined into a double play when he hit the ball to third baseman Alex Bregman who caught it and threw to first baseman Yuli Gurriel.

Xander Bogaerts got hit by the pitch, and the Red Sox did not score in the sixth inning.

In the top of the seventh, Matt Barnes came into the game for Boston and allowed a Jason Castro double to left field, a Mauricio Dubon sacrifice bunt to advance Castro from second base to third base, and then a Jose Altuve single to center field on a ground ball scoring Castro.

Astros three, Red Sox two.

The night for Barnes was finished and Matt Strahm came into the game and hit Michael Brantley with a pitch.

Strahm then struck out the next two hitters with Alex Bregman going down looking and Yordan Alvarez striking out on a foul tip.

And then in the bottom of the seventh, Phil Maton remained in the game for Houston.

Trevor Story showed up for the Red Sox.

He hit a solo home run over the Green Monster in left field (and out of Fenway Park) to tie the game at three.

Maton completed the bottom of the seventh and he pitched two innings giving up one run, one earned run, two hits, zero walks, one strikeout and one home run.

In the top of the eighth, Strahm got the first two batters out, and then Chas McCormick hit a double to the center field wall that was inches from being declared a home run.

At this point I thought Boston manager Alex Cora should have taken Strahm out of the game, but Jason Castro was batting, he hasn't hit well all season, and Strahm struck him out swinging.

In the bottom of the eighth, Hector Neris came in to pitch for Houston and Kike Hernandez hit a ground ball near the left field foul line and doubled.

With one out, J.D. Martinez hit a line drive to left-center field and Hernandez scored.

Boston four, Houston three.

Then, Xander Bogaerts hit a two-run home run over the left field wall to make the score six to three in favor of Boston.

A few batters later, Trevor Story walked and then stole second base.

In the top of the ninth, Hansel Robles came in the game to pitch and Mauricio Dubon singled on a ground ball to left field.

Three pitches later, Jose Altuve hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Two outs.

One out to go.

Michael Brantley then lined out to left fielder Alex Verdugo to end the game.

The Boston Red Sox won over the Houston Astros six to three.

Matt Strahm (2-1) got credit for the victory, his second victory of the season, he pitched 1 2/3 innings, gave up one hit, and struck out three.

Hansel Robles pitched one inning, gave up a hit, and got credit for just his second save of the season.

Hector Neris (1-2) took the loss for the Astros giving up three runs, three earned runs, three hits, one walk, one strikeout and one home run in the eighth inning.

Jake Odorizzi started the game for Houston going five innings and allowing two runs, one earned run, three hits, one walk, and four strikeouts.

Boston scored first in the bottom of the fourth as Kike Hernandez singled on a line drive to right field to start the inning.

Two batters later, with one out in the inning, J.D. Martinez singled to right field on a ground ball.

Xander Bogaerts then walked, loading the bases.

Alex Verdugo then got credit for an RBI, scoring Hernandez on a weird play in which a fly ball was hit to center field.

Houston center fielder Chas McCormick almost caught the baseball and it rolled out of his glove.

Shortstop Mauricio Dubon went over and picked up the baseball in shallow center field and threw it to third baseman Alex Bregman, which forced out J.D. Martinez at third base.

Martinez was forced out at third because he was standing near second base and had the best view of the play, so he couldn't have a big lead like any of the other Red Sox baserunners.

After, four innings Boston led 1-0.

Houston tied the game with the first batter in the top of the fifth.

In the bottom of the fifth, Franchy Cordero led off the inning by hitting a double for the Red Sox on a fly ball to left field.

Jackie Bradley Jr. grounded out to shortstop Mauricio Dubon, making it two outs in the inning, advancing Cordero to third base.

On the very next pitch, during the very next at-bat of Kike Hernandez, Jake Odorizzi threw a 90.5 mile-per-hour cutter above the strike zone which the Astros catcher Jason Castro should have probably caught anyway.

But he didn't.

The play ended up being a passed ball and Cordero scored, giving Boston a 2-1 lead.

Cordero probably had at least a 15-foot lead off of third-base when the pitch was thrown, and he was at least a few feet away from the area of the giant circle, three-quarters circle or half circle of dirt surrounding third base (and closer to home plate).

The missed catch and deflection by the catcher at the last second probably ended up saving home plate umpire Cory Blaser's life.

The pitch looked like it probably would have missed Blaser anyway, but we'll never know.

Odorizzi threw the pitch high when Castro wanted the baseball to be thrown low and away from the right-handed hitter Hernandez.

Odorozzi would end up leaving the game after the final out of the fifth inning and he was carted off the field due to some type of leg injury.

...

Garrett Whitlock pitched five innings for just the second time in a start, in his Major League career.

So that is a good thing for Whitlock, but he is still looking for his first Major League victory in a start.

Whitlock has pitched five innings twice now at Fenway Park. So he is looking to pitch at least five innings in a road game sometime in the future.

In terms of allowing runs to score, he finally pitched better than his previous game for the first time since April 12th.

That obviously is a long time because he had four straight games (including on April 12th) when he did not give up a run.

And then the three games after that, Whitlock did not improve in the run(s) allowed department.

The last game he had in which he did not allow a run was on April 23rd, his first Major League start.

...

Jake Diekman at least did something right twice. He recorded two outs.

Sure, he allowed the tying run to score in the sixth, but the remainder of the game proved there was still plenty of positive baseball for the Red Sox left.

Diekman has given up just 1.250 very true runs this regular season in Red Sox wins. He has given up 5 very true runs and 5.5 true runs in Boston losses.

So to say Diekman has not costed the Red Sox in a win this regular season is simply a lie.

He messed up on April 13th at Detroit when he allowed two runs to score. Luckily, the Red Sox were ahead 9-5 when he entered the game in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Before Monday's game, Diekman had costed the Red Sox a win 89.34% of the time when he gave up some type of run, whether it be a partial run or a full run(s).

He has given up zero runs and earned runs in Red Sox wins and five runs (and four earned runs) in Boston losses this regular season.

John Schreiber did his job. Nothing else to say.

For Matt Barnes, with the Red Sox win on Monday, he was finally given a break.

Before Monday's game, the Red Sox lost every game he gave up a run(s) or a partial run in.

He gave up a run on Monday.

Not a lot to be excited about for Boston fans, other than the fact that the Astros only scored one run against Barnes and not three.

Matt Strahm did his job, despite two mistakes.

He last gave up a partial run on April 26th at Toronto.

Strahm has pitched in six games (including Monday) since then.

Don't expect him to do well in one of his next three to five games.

Hansel Robles last gave up a run on May 10th and he did not pitch again until Monday (yesterday).

Robles is going to be used a lot the next three to five games.

Nathan Eovaldi (1-1, 3.15 ERA) is scheduled to pitch on Tuesday night (today) for Boston while Jose Urquidy (2-1 4.40 ERA) is opposing him for Houston.

First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. Eastern Time.

...

NOTE: Very true run average and run average include all runs scored. So they are not like earned runs. Very true run average is more accurate than true run average because it doesn't blame a pitcher for allowing a baserunner to start on second base in extra innings. True run average blames the pitcher for allowing a baserunner to start on second base to start extra innings. Other than that, very true run average and true run average are more accurate and truthful than earned run average (earned runs) and run average (runs).

MORE NOTES: All statistics in the story above are from after the Monday, May 16th, 2022 game and before the Tuesday, May 17th, 2022 game. This story was posted on Tuesday, May 17th, 2022.

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Actual won-lost records in the 2022 regular season for Boston Red Sox pitchers depending on the Boston Red Sox win/loss result for any one specific game

NEW: The "wins" are all games that the Boston Red Sox actually won. The "wins" are percentages of innings pitched for each pitcher. All of the percentages of innings pitched (of games the Red Sox actually won) are then added together to get "wins", which is what you see below. The "losses" can be thought of as the percentage of runs any one pitcher allowed the opposing team to score. These percentages of how many runs a pitcher allows in any one game to score are then added together for every game (and only of the games that the Red Sox actually lost) to get "losses". Pitchers who start any extra inning are blamed for allowing a baserunner to start the inning at second base (and any other additional bases they allow that baserunner to advance) if that baserunner eventually scores. The winning percentage is wins divided by wins plus losses.

Matt Barnes .296 wins and 2.133 losses (.122 win pct.)

Ryan Brasier .370 wins and 2.480 losses (.130 win pct.)

Kutter Crawford .481 wins and .993 losses (.327 win pct.)

Tyler Danish .333 wins and .827 losses (.287 win pct.)

Austin Davis .296 wins and .239 losses (.554 win pct.)

Jake Diekman .926 wins and .925 losses (.500 win pct.)

Nathan Eovaldi 1.074 wins and 2.183 losses (.330 win pct.)

Rich Hill 1.593 wins and .500 losses (.761 win pct.)

Tanner Houck 1.333 wins and 2.591 losses (.340 win pct.)

Nick Pivetta 0.778 wins and 2.944 losses (.209 win pct.)

Kevin Plawecki .000 wins and .000 losses (Plawecki hasn't given up any runs or partial runs yet, so that means he's perfect. He also has not appeared in a game yet as a pitcher that the Boston Red Sox actually won. 1.000 win pct.)

Hansel Robles .889 wins and 1.383 losses (.391 win pct.)

Hirokazu Sawamura .333 wins and 1.106 losses (.232 win pct.)

John Schreiber .370 wins and 0.000 losses (1.000 win pct.)

Matt Strahm .815 wins and 0.167 losses (.830 win pct.)

Phillips Valdez 0.000 wins and .828 losses (.000 win pct.)

Michael Wacha 2.407 wins and .333 losses (.878 win pct.)

Garrett Whitlock 1.704 wins and 1.367 losses (.555 win pct.)

...

Actual won-lost records in the 2022 regular season for Boston Red Sox pitchers not depending on whether the Boston Red Sox actually win any one specific game or not.

In other words, this tells the complete picture of their entire regular season (the good and the bad) of how many people the pitcher got out (innings pitched) and how many runs the pitcher truthfully gave up (which is more accurate than runs or even earned runs given up). So to make this more easy for people to understand, starting pitchers (or the previous pitcher) don't 100% get blamed for the inherited runner(s) that the reliever(s) (or the next pitcher to pitch) allows to score. The starter (or previous pitcher) will get 25%, 50% or 75% blame for giving up one run instead, for an inherited runner that eventually scores.

Also, a pitcher can get a partial win and a partial loss in the same game. So pitchers that throw more innings pitched are going to get a higher percentage of partial wins and pitchers who give up more runs are going to get a higher percentage of partial losses. So if one pitcher pitches a complete game he will get one win (regardless of the team's win/loss result) and if the pitcher's team actually loses that same game in which he was the only pitcher who pitched for his team, he will also get credit for one loss.

The only time any pitcher cannot take a loss or a partial loss is if the winning team doesn't give up any runs to the team they are playing.

Basically, this is truly giving credit where credit is due among pitchers only.

NEW: The "wins" are percentages of innings pitched for each game for each pitcher. All of the percentages of each game are then added together and the sum total of all percentages for each game are "wins" (whether the Red Sox actually won that specific game or not) and are what you see below. The "losses" can be thought of as the percentage of runs that any one pitcher allowed the opposing team to score for each game. All of the percentages of runs given up for each game are then added together and the sum total of all of those numbers are the "losses" and what you see below. The "losses" presented here are represented as the total number of potential losses that a pitcher could have if the Red Sox actually lost every single game in which a pitcher gave up a run(s). The winning percentage is wins divided by wins plus losses.

VERY FINAL NOTE: To not confuse people, pitchers do get blamed for allowing an opposing baserunner to start any extra inning at second base. When I have presented this detailed information (as you see below) this entire regular season (so far), I have always blamed the pitcher for allowing an opposing baserunner to start any extra inning at second base.

Matt Barnes 1.310 wins and 2.467 losses (.347 win pct.) 11 2/3 innings pitched

Ryan Brasier 1.394 wins and 3.646 losses (.277 win pct.) 12 1/3 innings pitched

Kutter Crawford 1.162 wins and 1.314 losses (.469 win pct.) 10 2/3 innings pitched

Tyler Danish 1.103 wins and 0.827 losses (.571 win pct.) 9 2/3 innings pitched

Austin Davis 1.721 wins and .525 losses (.766 win pct.) 15 1/3 innings pitched

Jake Diekman 1.256 wins and 1.199 losses (.512 win pct.) 11 1/3 innings pitched

Nathan Eovaldi 4.542 wins and 3.469 losses (.567 win pct.) 40 innings pitched

Rich Hill 3.167 wins and 2.500 losses (.559 win pct.) 28 innings pitched

Tanner Houck 3.028 wins and 3.174 losses (.488 win pct.) 26 2/3 innings pitched

Nick Pivetta 3.777 wins and 3.944 losses (.489 win pct.) 33 2/3 innings pitched

Kevin Plawecki .125 wins and .000 losses (Plawecki hasn't given up any runs or partial runs yet, so that means he's perfect. He also has not appeared in a game yet as a pitcher that the Boston Red Sox actually won. 1.000 win pct.) 1 inning pitched

Hansel Robles 1.564 wins and 2.633 losses (.373 win pct.) 14 1/3 innings pitched

Hirokazu Sawamura 1.234 wins and 1.106 losses (.527 win pct.) 11 innings pitched

John Schreiber .832 wins and 0 .000 losses (1.000 win pct.) 7 1/3 innings pitched

Matt Strahm 1.405 wins and 0.750 losses (.652 win pct.) 12 2/3 innings pitched

Phillips Valdez 1.204 wins and 0.828 losses (.593 win pct.) 10 1/3 innings pitched

Michael Wacha 2.949 wins and 2.000 losses (.596 win pct.) 26 innings pitched

Garrett Whitlock 3.226 wins and 2.617 losses (.552 win pct.) 29 2/3 innings pitched

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Wins, Losses, Holds, Blown Saves and Saves that everybody understands

Matt Barnes 0-3 Blown Saves 1 Saves 1

Ryan Brasier 0-2, Holds 4, Blown Saves 2

Kutter Crawford 1-1