Inside Baseball: The Emergence Of Xander Bogaerts
BOSTON (CBS) - On this week's edition of Inside Baseball, WBZ-TV's Dan Roche and 98.5 The Sports Hub's Tony Massarotti discussed Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts, and how the 22-year-old is blossoming right in front of our eyes.
One sequence in particular that stood out to the both of them was his eighth inning at-bat from Sunday against Oakland.
Down 4-3 with two outs in a 2-2 count, Bogaerts smacked a two-run double off the Green Monster to give the Red Sox a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the eighth, an inning in which the home team scored seven runs off eight hits.
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"It was just a textbook at-bat; hanging in there, he gets an off-speed pitch on the inner half and he not only hits it, but he drives it off the wall to knock in two runs," said Tony Mazz. "Fabulous at-bat."
It's just one play in a long, 162-game season, but that small snippet was a huge indicator to Tony Massarotti of what kind of potential Bogaets has.
"Xander Bogaerts is one of the cornerstones of the franchise going forward. What you saw there was plate discipline, mental toughness, the ability to have an approach at the plate, and come up with a plan to fight off fastballs or try to hit hard stuff the other way. You saw power to drive the ball, excellent baserunning and good speed," Mazz added. "That's him. That is what the Red Sox saw in this kid when they brought him here. All of his skills were on display there."
Dan Roche and Tony Massarotti also discussed the Three Amigos -- David Ortiz, Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval -- and showed stats that prove the Red Sox offense goes as they go, and how the team will need more production from them going forward.
"If they get going at all, the Red Sox will be in pretty good shape," said Roche.
Lastly, the guys finished the segment with a feel-good story involving Tommy Layne, the Red Sox reliever who almost quit the game altogether back in 2012 in Double-A.
Tune in to Inside Baseball every Monday night on the WBZ-TV News at 10 on myTV38! Send in your questions to Rochie (@RochieWBZ) and Mazz (@TonyMassarotti) on Twitter.