London Trip an absolute mess for Red Sox & MLB
Jim Monaghan
Content Coordinator
If the object was to bring a circus-like atmosphere to London, Major League Baseball succeeded on a grand scale.
On the contrary, if the idea was to expose England to what we here in the colonies call our national pastime, Saturday's game was a colossal failure.
If you've ever been to Cooperstown Dreams Park in upstate New York, you know that there are 22 fields with ridiculously short fences. The tournaments held there each summer have no restrictions on bat size and weight and the result is that the games turn into slugfests with an opportunity for almost any player to hit a home run.
Major League Baseball presented the adult version of that experience yesterday.
The Red Sox and Yankees spent nearly five hours scoring a combined 30 runs on 37 hits while using a total of 16 pitchers. Neither starting pitcher made it through the first inning. There were three six-run innings. No lead appeared to be safe.
The game was played in a soccer stadium - they call it a "pitch" over there - that had been converted to a field about the size of an American high school baseball field. 385 feet to straight away center field? You've GOT to be kidding. Yankee Stadium isn't enough of a joke with its Little League dimensions in parts of the outfield. Let's REALLY make a mockery out of the game.
It's bad enough that the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry has been watered down over the years (do they REALLY need to play each other 19 times during the regular season?), but now Major League Baseball has turned the game itself into a joke.
How Gary Sanchez and Andrew Benintendi went a combined 0-for-8 is mind-boggling. On a day when even Jackie Bradley Jr. had four hits, and Michael Chavis slammed a pair of home runs and drove in six runs, they were the only two starters without a hit.
Thankfully, the circus leaves town after tonight. Then perhaps Red Sox management can get down to the business of fixing the bullpen before the division race is completely over.
Click here to find more by Jim Monaghan on Red Sox Life. Follow him on twitter - @Monaghan21.
Content Coordinator
If the object was to bring a circus-like atmosphere to London, Major League Baseball succeeded on a grand scale.
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| Photo courtesy of NESN |
If you've ever been to Cooperstown Dreams Park in upstate New York, you know that there are 22 fields with ridiculously short fences. The tournaments held there each summer have no restrictions on bat size and weight and the result is that the games turn into slugfests with an opportunity for almost any player to hit a home run.
Major League Baseball presented the adult version of that experience yesterday.
The Red Sox and Yankees spent nearly five hours scoring a combined 30 runs on 37 hits while using a total of 16 pitchers. Neither starting pitcher made it through the first inning. There were three six-run innings. No lead appeared to be safe.
The game was played in a soccer stadium - they call it a "pitch" over there - that had been converted to a field about the size of an American high school baseball field. 385 feet to straight away center field? You've GOT to be kidding. Yankee Stadium isn't enough of a joke with its Little League dimensions in parts of the outfield. Let's REALLY make a mockery out of the game.
It's bad enough that the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry has been watered down over the years (do they REALLY need to play each other 19 times during the regular season?), but now Major League Baseball has turned the game itself into a joke.
How Gary Sanchez and Andrew Benintendi went a combined 0-for-8 is mind-boggling. On a day when even Jackie Bradley Jr. had four hits, and Michael Chavis slammed a pair of home runs and drove in six runs, they were the only two starters without a hit.
Thankfully, the circus leaves town after tonight. Then perhaps Red Sox management can get down to the business of fixing the bullpen before the division race is completely over.
Click here to find more by Jim Monaghan on Red Sox Life. Follow him on twitter - @Monaghan21.
