PawSox Leftovers: Ty Buttrey Looked Sharper, Defense Needs To Get Better With Current Performances Being Unacceptable
The Pawtucket Red Sox defeated the Louisville Bats 5-1 on Thursday, a win that gave them the 2-1 series win. One of the stars in this game was Ty Buttrey.
Buttrey threw 2 innings allowing just 1 base hit while striking out two batters. The tall right-hander has started to come into his own with the 25-year-old possessing a .71 ERA over his last 10 appearances with 12.2 innings pitched allowing 7 base hits and 1 earned run while issuing 5 walks and striking out 16 batters.
After his Thursday outing his Manager, Kevin Boles, gave him some praise but also some criticism.
“Very good, little bit better command today (Thursday). I thought his stuff was sharp, and that fastball is explosive. And he matched up pretty good because he was facing a lineup that is pretty aggressive at the plate.. There were some pitches that were a little bit elevated, they were able to chase his fastball but, great job by him”
Boles noted that one thing that was important about Buttrey’s outing was the fact that the team had the lead, and he came through:” Pitching with the lead, that’s important. He’s a guy that is going to have to do that. Can’t always be games that we are down. He is going to have to learn to pitch with the lead and he has the stuff to do it and he executed today. Job well done.”
PawSox Defense Needs To Get Better
Now onto the bad, the PawSox defensive woes continue.
In their last 7 games, the team has committed 10 errors. This is something that is certainly on the team’s mind and on the mind of their skipper.”Yeah its a huge issue for us, a lot of bad hops in the air, it wasn’t very good” Boles said after Thursday’s game where 2 errors were committed.
But the team needs to get better and they are focused on doing that.
“We need to get better, 100% we need to get better defensively. Because our pitchers, it’s running through their pitch counts. We are giving them extra pitches, and it’s going to come back and haunt you.” Said Boles.
But he admits the team has gotten away with it for the most part this season:” We got away with it today, we have gotten away with it a little bit here in the last few days.”
Boles outlined what needs to happen going forward and it is rather simple: “We need to catch the ball, we need to take care of our pitching. It is our responsibility, it’s unacceptable play when you drop the ball this many times. So again, we are going to continue to work, it’s not that the guys aren’t working. But we need to execute, we need to be able to catch the ball and we are going to do it. We are going to figure it out and get it done.”
The Pawtucket Red Sox will have the opportunity to improve their defense with a 3-game set starting on Friday against Indianapolis.
