Jones: Rick Porcello Comes Through When Red Sox Need It Most
BOSTON (CBS) - Hanley Ramirez and his league-leading tenth home run helped lift the Red Sox to a 4-1 victory Wednesday night over the Toronto Blue Jays. But what Ramirez was to run production, starting pitcher Rick Porcello was to run prevention.
Boston's starters entered the day with a 6.03 ERA, highest in the majors, but the $20 million man (starting in 2016) held Toronto to just one run over seven innings, giving the Red Sox exactly what they needed -- and hopefully some confidence going forward with the Yankees coming to town this weekend.
Following the game, 98.5 The Sports Hub's Adam Jones and Rich Keefe reacted to the strong performance from Porcello.
"[Red Sox] pitching in general has been in shambles, but lo and behold they don't get a ton of offense [Wednesday night], but it was enough because the pitcher showed up and did his job," said Jones. "It's weird how that works."
"Rick Porcello was really good. You've got to give him credit for that. He had an error, but only allowed two hits, a couple of walks and six strikeouts. The strikeout rate is a lot higher than what we expected coming into the season," said Keefe. "With an offense this good you really need the starters to at least go five innings. Look at Porcello: he's got six [innings], eight, five, six and seven. He's not going to win any Cy Youngs right now because his ERA is still over 5.00, but you've at least seen something there. You've seen more good than bad with Porcello."
Adam Jones has said all along that he doesn't think Porcello is worth $20 million a year, but he's encouraged to see the strikeout numbers being higher than what he expected. Porcello has 29 strikeouts in 32 innings.
"I didn't realize he missed that many bats. If he's going to be this guy I'm a little more on board with him. I sign off on that this season. Let's see how it bears out going forward. That was a pretty good [Blue Jays] lineup we saw tonight, but on balance it hasn't been great for him. Can he get his ERA south of 4.00? I probably think so. Can he win 15 games? He should with this offense."
Like what you saw from Rick Porcello last night? Listen below for the full discussion and game summary: