Red Sox Pitching Prospect Ty Buttrey Needs To Harness His Pitching, William Cuevas Struggles Out Of The Gate, Fernando Rodriguez Jr. Makes His First Appearance Since Returning From DL, And Defense Needs To Get Better
Red Sox pitching prospect who is with the Pawtucket Red Sox at the moment, had a very strange inning in today’s 5 to 4 defeat for the Paw Sox against the Buffalo Bisons. Buttrey was the first pitcher out of the bullpen for Kevin Boles this afternoon after starting pitcher William Cuevas went six innings. In that seventh inning for Buttrey, he allowed two base runners, and he struck out the side.
The inning began with a strikeout swinging of Jason Leblebijian. Roemon Fields then reached first base on a fielding error by Tzu-Wei Lin. Dalton Pompey then struck out swinging against Buttrey. During Pompey’s at-bat, Fields stole second base and was able to reach third base on a throwing error by Paw Sox catcher Mike Ohlman. Devon Travis, who was batting after Pompey, then reached first base on a four pitch walk. To end the inning, Buttrey then struck out Rowdy Tellez.
“There are sometimes where we see him in the strike zone a little bit more. One thing, and we’ve talked to him about this as far as slowing things down. Now one things that’s good, is that he got out of the jam. There was people on base, and he got out of what could have potentially been a damage inning. So that’s good, and he has the swing and miss capability with the stuff that he has. But we try to stay away from pitching in high stress innings all the time. So hopefully he is able to slow that down. You can see what comes out of his hand. It’s impressive. So it’s just harnessing it at this point” said Paw Sox manager Kevin Boles.
This has continuously been the issue with Ty Buttrey. He has swing and miss stuff which can in turn translate to late inning potential for Buttrey. In seventeen innings pitched this season for Buttrey, he has thirty strikeouts. With a fastball that is in the high 90’s, the stuff he has shown is electric. He has the stuff to be a set-up man at the major league level. He just needs to harness his control and he can’t allow as many base runners. Otherwise, he is an option who could be called up to Boston. Especially since he is already on the 40-man roster, which shows that the team values what he could be.
William Cuevas Struggles Out Of The Gate
William Cuevas struggled in the first inning for the Paw Sox. After allowing a lead off single to Dalton Pompey, the first pitch to the next batter, Devon Travis, was hit over the Paw Sox bullpen in left field. The third batter of the inning, Rowdy Tellez then hit a check-swing double down the left field line, who then would come in to score later in the inning.
“I thought he did a great job after that first inning. But for him to be standing out on the mound in the sixth inning, after that first inning, that could have gotten ugly on him. He shut it down, he gave up another run, but for him to be standing out on there and complete through six innings, very impressive by him. Just have to get a little bit better of a start out of the gate” said Paw Sox manager Kevin Boles after the game.
After he allowed the first three batters to reach in the game, and ultimately score, Cuevas was able to use his change-up to be able to get batters out. To end the inning for Cuevas, was able to strike out Anthony Alford and Reese McGuire swinging by throwing a lot of change-ups. In six innings of work for Cuevas, he gave up four runs on six hits, while walking one batter, and striking out four on 88 pitches (64 strikes).
Fernando Rodriguez Jr. Makes His First Appearance Since Returning From DL
Fernando Rodriguez Jr. made his first appearance for the Paw Sox today since he was reactivated off of the disabled list on Tuesday. He was originally placed on the disabled list on April 10th (retroactive to April 9th) with a right hamstring strain. Before he was placed on the DL, he made one appearance for the Paw Sox. That was on April 8th against the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. That was the second game of the season for the Paw Sox.
“(Rodriguez was) little bit shaky. He’s not going to have his command after how long he’s been on the DL. Good to see him out there. He said his arm felt good afterwords. Just very happy he’s healthy now” said Paw Sox manager Kevin Boles.
This was a big outing for Rodriguez. After being away for so long, he needs to be able to pitch for the Paw Sox. It is especially important since the Paw Sox have so much uncertainty with bullpen since guys are coming and going between Pawtucket and Boston. In today’s outing he allowed two base runners on 28 pitches (16 strikes). He definitely was a little bit shaky, but that will get better once he gets a few outings under his belt.
Defense Needs To Get Better
The Paw Sox committed four errors on the day. Two by catcher Mike Ohlman and two by shortstop Tzu-Wei Lin. Both errors by Mike Ohlman were throwing errors on runners trying to steal second base. That includes when Roemon Fields stole second base in the ninth inning, to then advance to third base with no outs. He ended up being the game winning run.
“We were below average today. Defensively we need to get better. We need to take care of the baseball. Again, we’re not looking for perfection, obviously we’d like to play clean baseball every night error free. We gave them plenty of opportunities. We gave them extra bases, extra outs, and we need to play better defense. There is no doubt about it. That’s not what we’re looking for from our defense” said Paw Sox manager Kevin Boles regarding his defense on the afternoon.
Next For The Paw Sox
The Paw Sox will have an off day on Thursday before beginning a three game series in Rochester this weekend. The pitching match-up in Friday night’s game is scheduled to be LHP Stephen Gonsalves (2-1, 3.94 ERA) for Rochester. He will be up against RHP Chandler Shepherd (2-2, 4.75 ERA) for the Paw Sox. It’s not 1000% official yet but it appears that Dustin Pedroia will be continuing his rehab assignment over the weekend in these games for the Paw Sox.
