BOSTON — Rick Porcello is a whole different pitcher with Christian Vazquez behind the plate.
The Red Sox right-hander pitched his second straight quality start in a 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday, and a lot of that success has come from simply having Vazquez back at catcher.
“I think the biggest thing is that Rick is very confident with (Vazquez) back there,” John Farrell said after Wednesday’s win. “Trusting the game that’s being called, that’s more just thinking about execution rather than maybe working to call his own games at times. The rapport and the flow of the game is very smooth, a very good rhythm to it, and one that they’re both in command of the game.”
Porcello pitched seven innings, allowing three runs on six hits with one walk, one home run and nine strikeouts, and he actually looked better than the box score suggests. And Porcello himself didn’t downplay the role Vazquez had in that.
“I think you guys can probably see it on TV,” Porcello said. “I mean, he’s got great hands. I think everybody talks about how well he blocks the ball and things like that, but really he’s got a great feel for calling games, and he sees a lot of things. Just simple things, too, like coming out for a mound visit after I got into a little bit of trouble there — it was either the sixth or the seventh — just kind of slowing the pace of the game down a little bit. He’s really talented back there.”
Here are some more notes from Wednesday’s win.
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— Mookie Betts went 2-for-3 with three runs, two walks, two RBIs, a stolen base and a two-run home run, snapping a 2-for-21 slump. And while it’s expected Betts will start heating up after a slow start, the right fielder said walking in his first at-bat helped him Wednesday night.
“I’ve been not aggressive enough, and that’s kind of been the reason why I was swinging at balls in the dirt and whatnot, so I’m trying to get a little more aggressive,” Betts said. “That way I can see the pitch early and make some good swings.”
— Red Sox pitchers have recorded 145 strikeouts through their first 14 games — good for 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings — which is more than any other Red Sox team in the last 100 years. The previous high was 141 in 2013.
That total is good for the most in the American League and second-most in Major League baseball behind the Philadelphia Phillies.
— Porcello reached six innings pitched in his 11th straight start, which is the longest active streak in the AL. The right-hander also has struck out at least seven hitters in each of his last six starts, which is the longest streak for a Red Sox since Jon Lester did it starting in April of the 2014 season.
— David Ortiz hit two doubles Wednesday to drive in three runs, putting his career RBI total at 1,654, passing Tony Perez for 29th on the all-time list.
— Xander Bogaerts’ quad tightness might not even be bad enough to keep him out of Thursday’s game.
“He came out of the game more precautionary because the left quad tightened up on him,” Farrell said. “He scored from first on two occasions here tonight. We’re hopeful he’ll be good to go for tomorrow. We’ll go through a number of tests here when he reports tomorrow.”
Bogaerts confirmed that he was feeling better after the game, and said if he still felt that way Thursday, he’d be good to go.
Thumbnail photo via Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports Images
