On The Bleachers Central

By: Tyler Walters Other than taking first place from the Yankees, Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez's comments about the Home Run Derby has been the talk of Boston baseball this week. Both players have put any theories of the two battling it out in D.C. this summer to rest.  For very different reasons though. Betts made head lines this week when he said, "Hell no," to participating in the derby.  According to the Boston Globe  Betts says, "I don't hit home runs in BP.  Can you imagine me going against Aaron Judge?" Aaron Judge has already said that he will not be participating in this year's Home Run Derby but the point still stands with Mookie as he describes himself as "not that kind of hitter." Mookie Betts turns on a 3-2 slider for his Major League-leading 16th home run of the season, a three-run blast to left in the 3rd inning #DirtyWater pic.twitter.com/MSNR8uCONI — TheRenderMLB (@TheRenderMLB2) May 23, 2018 As much as the ...

By: Tyler Walters The Boston Red Sox wrapped up their four game set with the Orioles with a win Sunday afternoon. Their was a lot to be happy about this past weekend for Red Sox fans as the bats were great and the pitching was pretty good as well.  The Sox outscored the Orioles 21-12 in the series. Game one was dominated by David Price who through a complete game with only 95 pitches.  And had it not been for Manny Machado hitting a two strike, two out home run in the top of the ninth Price would have completed a shutout. David Price was dealing for the @RedSox tonight. 😤 pic.twitter.com/7eFkdH108i — Stadium (@WatchStadium) May 18, 2018 I'm still not sure what we're going to get out of DP this year.  He's had games like this where it looks like his only competition for the Cy Young Award will be Chris Sale. Then he's had the games like he did against the Yankees where he gave up four runs in the first inning and says that he can't feel his fingers.  ...

By: Tyler Walters J.D. Martinez is absolutely mashing baseballs in Boston for the Red Sox and I can't get enough of it.  J.D. was the biggest offseason free agent acquisition in the MLB and I feel like he's kind of going under the radar because he's playing with the second best player in baseball (Mookie Betts). It's not that J.D. isn't getting recognition, because he definitely is, it's that he should be the number one story in baseball every day with how great he's playing right now. Martinez is batting .344 with a .631 slugging percentage and a 1.024 OPS in the 40 games he's played this year (173 plate appearances).  He's one of four players in the MLB with at least 100 plate appearances that is batting .330+ with a 1.000+ OPS (Mookie Betts, Manny Machado and Mitch Moreland are the other three). All that stuff is great but make no mistake, J.D. Martinez was brought to Boston to hit home runs.  And he's done that 11 times so far this se...

By: Tyler Walters The Washington Nationals have become the hottest team in baseball over the last couple of weeks.  The Nats are now 13-2 over their last 15 games. There was a great deal of hype for the Nationals coming into the season because they have a new manager and Bryce Harper is in the last year of his contract in Washington.  But the team got off to a slow start. They started their season with a sweep of the Reds but then lost a series to the Braves and were swept by the Mets.  They then went 7-10 after the Mets series but have found their stride lately. The Nationals are operating under first year manager Dave Martinez who was the Cubs bench coach before heading to Washington.  Martinez coached alongside Joe Madden for the last ten years so there was certainly a buzz that followed him to Washington. Since April 29, the Nationals have been clicking on all cylinders and last night was no different. Watching games at Chase Field in Arizona is alway...

By: Tyler Walters The Boston Red Sox dropped their second straight game to the Yankees in New York last night.  Boston blew a lead in the 8th inning and the Yankees went on to win 9-6.   The Yankees are now a game ahead of the Red Sox in the A.L. East standings and now hold the best record in baseball (26-10).   To be honest, I felt like my dog died after the Sox lost last night.  These games between the Sox and Yanks have meant more this year than they have in the past decade, but it's only MAY.   We aren't even close to the All Star break and I'm as tense as I normally would be in August.   The bullpen has been the nail in the coffin for the Red Sox this week.  Heath Hembree blew game one by juicing the bases in the bottom of the seventh and leaving Joe Kelly to try to get two outs and give up no runs in that situation.   Last night Matt Barnes blew the game in the eighth inning by giving up two qu...