Editor’s note: The temperature gauge is a Bill James-created statistic that measures how hot or cold hitters are. We will spotlight Red Sox and opposing team temperatures on game days.
The kryptonite of the Boston offense is apparently 29-year-old rookies making their fifth career start.
That’s exactly the situation the Red Sox found themselves in on Thursday night when they stepped into the box to face Sam Deduno. Deduno stifled the Boston bats to the tune of only two hits allowed in six shutout innings of work, wasting a bounceback outing by Jon Lester. Now the Red Sox, losers of two straight and back at an even .500, look to turn things around before they get worse.
It sounds like a broken record at this point, but the hottest Red Sox hitter by far going into Friday night’s action is Adrian Gonzalez. The first baseman picked up Boston’s only two hits on Thursday and raised his average to .302. He’s had five multi-hit games out of the last six, with four RBIs and five runs scored. Most importantly, he’s slugging .762 in that same period of time — a great sign, given his early-season power outage.
Also hitting relatively well of late is Cody Ross, who has seen time at designated hitter in the absence of David Ortiz. He’s had a hit in five of his last seven games, batting .273 with an RBI and a run scored.
The Twins’ hottest hitter, like the Red Sox’ one, is the same as it was entering Thursday’s tilt. Denard Span continues his assault on American League pitching, stretching his hitting streak to 11 games with a third-inning RBI double off Lester. During the hitting streak, Span is batting .444 with five RBIs and 10 runs scored.
Here are the Red Sox and Twins temperatures for Friday, Aug. 3.
Red Sox
Adrian Gonzalez 91
Nick Punto 72
Cody Ross 67
Will Middlebrooks 67
Ryan Lavarnway 67
Jacoby Ellsbury 64
Pedro Ciriaco 64
Ryan Kalish 63
Dustin Pedroia 62
Kelly Shoppach 59
Jarrod Saltalamacchia 57
Carl Crawford 57
Mike Aviles 49
Twins
Denard Span 86
Ben Revere 82
Brian Dozier 82
Justin Morneau 76
Darin Mastroianni 72
Danny Valencia 71
Ryan Doumit 66
Drew Butera 64
Alexi Casilla 64
Joe Mauer 63
Jamey Carroll 61
Josh Willingham 50
