The Red Sox might have some healthy third base competition on their hands once again.
Boston crushed the Oakland Athletics 16-2 on Friday, and nearly a third of those runs came from Travis Shaw, who went 3-for-6 with two doubles, a three-run homer, two runs and a whopping five RBIs. But Yoan Moncada still is going to start at third base Saturday.
Red Sox manager John Farrell said before Game 1 that Moncada, who made his Major League Baseball debut and went 0-for-1 with a walk and a run Friday, would receive more at-bats against right-handed starters, per the Providence Journal’s Brian MacPherson. But Shaw isn’t going to sit on the bench without a fight.
“If you get hits, it’s going to be hard to keep you out of the lineup down the stretch,” Shaw said, per MacPherson. “We are in a pennant race, so hopefully I can get hot.”
Shaw really will have to prove that Friday wasn’t an anomaly, though, as he’s still batting .192 in August and .251 on the season, and his 15 errors are the sixth-most among qualified third basemen. One game won’t change all that, especially if Moncada does well at the plate.
Either way, Farrell isn’t going to complain if he has two guys playing their butts off for a job.
“Players have a way of making everyone compete to their best,” Farrell said. “We’ve seen it in a number of cases so far this year, and if this is another example, you know what, it makes us better as a team.”
Here are some more notes from Friday’s win.
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— Mookie Betts notched two RBIs on Friday, bringing him that much closer to his first 30-homer, 100-RBI season with 30 and 98, respectively. David Ortiz (31 home runs, 105 RBIs) is already there, so if Betts can knock in two more runs, they’ll be the first Red Sox duo to reach the mark in the same season since Ortiz and Manny Ramirez did it in 2006 (and 2003 and 2004 and 2005).
— Robby Scott also made his MLB debut, striking out the first two batters he saw in the ninth inning. The 27-year-old left-hander actually has been one of the better relievers in the International League this season. He leads the league with 0.98 walks per nine innings and ranking third with a .203 opponent average in relief.
Red Sox catcher Sandy Leon did Scott a solid and saved the ball from his first big-league strikeout.
— The Red Sox’s offense has killed Oakland this season, having scored 13 or more runs in four games against the A’s so far. Boston has outscored the A’s 56-17 in 2016.
— Toronto lost to the Tampa Bay Rays 8-3 on Friday, which means the Red Sox’s win over Oakland puts them only one game behind the first place Blue Jays in the American League East.
Thumbnail photo via Kelley L Cox/USA TODAY Sports Images
