:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55885215/811507136.0.jpg)
Hello, good evening, welcome, bienvenidos, greetings, salutations, namaste, and, most importantly, Happy Félix Day.
Though for a sizable stretch of the season Félix Day has been less “Happy Félix Day” and more “Oh-god-oh-god-oh-god Félix Day,” or “At-least-it’s-not-Yovani Félix Day,” over his last three outings, the King has turned it around with a vengeance.
In those 18 innings of work, he’s chalked up 22 strikeouts to 5 walks, surrendering only two earned runs on a pair of home runs. Despite a criminally undeserved loss to the Yankees last Thursday, [insert vintage Félix run support joke here], this is as good of a stretch as we’ve seen from the man in quite some time.
Meanwhile Mitchell “Meeshka” Haniger, whose struggles at the plate were examined earlier today by LL’s own Jake Mailhot, gets the start in right field and bats sixth. Danny Valencia will hope to apply his team-best 151 wRC+ vs. left-handed pitching from the No. 2 spot.
On the mound for Bahston today is southpaw (and former divisional counterpart) Drew Pomeranz. After a slow start to the season, Pomeranz is in the middle of an impressive run in his own right, having allowed just a single dinger in his past six starts en route to a 4-0 record and FIP of 3.03.
Also of note: MLB’s current #4 overall prospect Rafael Devers will make his big league debut tonight for the Red Sox, playing third base and batting ninth. At a cherubic 20 years old, he had logged a mere 9 games at Triple-A Pawtucket before getting the call. According to Paul Swydan at Fangraphs, Devers’s expeditious progression through the minors puts him in rarified air, however you slice it.
I hope he has a long and successful career and strikes out four times today.
Game Time: 7:10 PM PT
TV: ROOT
Radio: 710 AM
Online: MLB.TV