On Tuesday, they were up 4-0 six batters in, and 7-4 after five innings, only to end up tied going into the eighth.
It didn’t matter, because — as we’re all growing to accept with the 2021 Red Sox — of course it didn’t.
‘What’s up?!’ I was just fired up,” Verdugo told the Section 10 podcast in Thursday’s episode, part of a nearly hourlong chat.
The third, up a hair from the second, slightly more in the zone, went 467 feet for Arroyo’s third game-changing home run in seven days.
In their gauntlet of 17 games in 17 days, all against 2020 playoff teams, with their starters posting a 6.32 ERA during it, the Red Sox went 10-7.
With the Sox up three in the eighth Wednesday, and the Atlanta order coming to its 4-5-6 hitters, Taylor got the call.
It was his fourth straight hitless outing, and his 19th straight scoreless one, which doesn’t even account for his stranding the last 10 runners he’s inherited.
A year ago, it was Phillips Valdéz, albeit without many high leverage spots given the season lacked them entirely.
All prove critical, in varying degrees as the stakes vary.
Cora was referring to a bunching of lefties, whom the lefty Taylor has held to a .220/.238/.244 line this year.
Only Barnes is getting swings and misses at a higher rate on the team, and Taylor is in the top 30 leaguewide.
It’s a slight uptick from 2019, when they missed it 48 percent of the time across his first 52 MLB outings and he was one of the better relievers in the game.
He spent two seasons as a Scottsdale Community College Fighting Artichoke, twice taking his team to the College World Series, then went to Division 2 Georgia College.
Less than a year later, they traded him to Arizona for bonus slot money.
A year later, he was in the majors, finally able to shed the job working on a loading dock he told MassLive he needed to make ends meet.
Banked wins and strikeouts matter, of course, but they promise no more going forward than all that pedigree Taylor’s never had.
Middle relief is a fickle industry, even within the context of baseball.
Those two wins in Atlanta were both bonkers, both slivers from gutting losses multiple times.