Jackie Bradley Jr. never doubted he would pull out of his slump Dorian O'Daniel Color Rush Jersey , even as he hit .167 in June and fell further down Boston’s batting order.
He kept putting in the work. Kept tinkering with his stance and his swing. Kept believing he would snap out of it.
”You have to trust that what you’re doing is going to produce results,” Bradley said after his second straight three-hit game helped the Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 9-1 on Tuesday night.
”If it doesn’t early on, it’s a long season,” said Bradley, who batted ninth and drove in four runs. ”You’ve just got to continue to grind. There’s no other way.”
Mookie Betts homered on John Lamb’s first pitch of the game, and J.D. Martinez hit his major league-leading 24th home run to back David Price’s six strong innings and lead the Red Sox to their fourth win in the last five games. The Angels lost their fourth straight game.
Christian Vazquez also hit one of Boston’s four homers to help Price (9-5) bounce back from his previous loss on Wednesday in Minnesota that was his first since May 3. He allowed five hits on Tuesday, including a solo homer to Chris Young, and two walks while striking out seven.
Bradley has now had back-to-back multi-hit games after producing just five in his previous 68 games this season. He had three hits, all singles, against Seattle on Sunday but still entered the night hitting .189.
”We all want the results now Saquon Barkley Jersey Giants ,” Bradley said. ”Sometimes the game’s a lot tougher than that. You can do everything right and still be out.”
Two-time AL MVP Mike Trout, who began the game batting .387 in June, singled in four at-bats for the Angels while serving as designated hitter to aid his recovery from a sprained right index finger. The Angels went hitless in their last three innings against Boston’s bullpen and fell into fourth place in the AL West for the first time since opening day.
SAFE BETTS
Betts’ homer into the Red Sox bullpen sent right fielder Michael Hermosillo crashing over the wall in pursuit. It was his 15h career leadoff homer, extending his franchise record.
”Trying to set the tone against a good team,” Betts said. ”Just letting them know we’re here and we’re ready to go.”
SACRIFICIAL LAMB
Lamb (0-1) got just five outs. He allowed five runs, three earned, on six hits and a pair of walks.
He escaped more damage in the first after Betts’ 20th homer of the season, then was removed in the second after giving up Bradley’s two-run double and two more run-scoring hits.
”It was just a nice welcome to Fenway ballpark I guess by one of the better baseball players in the game right now,” Lamb said. ”I tried to get ahead on the outside part of the plate and they went ahead in the run column.”
Deck McGuire needed just one pitch to end that inning, but he surrendered solo homers to Bradley in the third and Vazquez in the fifth before Martinez hit one in the sixth that made it 8-1.
IN A JAM
Price only had trouble in the third Sylvester Williams Color Rush Jersey , when Young homered and then the Angels loaded the bases with two out on two singles, a wild pitch and a walk. He retired Albert Pujols on a grounder to third to end the inning.
”Pujols can tie the game at that point,” Price said. ”To get that ground ball is big.”
TRAINER’S ROOM:
Angels: McGuire was checked out by the team athletic trainer after Christian Vazquez lined a ball up the middle in the third inning, but he remained in the game.
Red Sox: Knuckleballer Steven Wright was put on the 10-day DL with left knee inflammation, and RHP reliever Justin Haley was recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket.
UP NEXT:
Angels: LHP Andrew Heaney (4-5, 3.43 ERA) gets his first start since going seven innings and allowing one earned run on Friday against Toronto. Heaney has pitched at least seven innings in three of his last four starts.
Red Sox: RHP Rick Porcello (9-3, 3.44) has allowed two earned runs or less in four of his last five starts, holding the Twins to one hit over seven scoreless innings in his last turn on Thursday.
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Jimmy Garoppolo showed what he can do in coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense even before he fully understood it in an impressive five-game cameo at the end of last season.
With an entire offseason to learn the foundation of the San Francisco 49ers‘ scheme and build chemistry with his receivers and offensive line, he should only be better in his first full season as an NFL starter in 2018.
Whether that translates into even more prolific numbers is a different question.
”I don’t know how much of a jump you’re going to see,” Shanahan said Wednesday before the team’s final minicamp practice of the offseason. ”When you talk about expectations http://www.broncosauthorizedshops.com/authentic-royce-freeman-jersey , I don’t know how you’re going to live up to that. He did very good last year. If we had 400 yards a game, does that mean we need to have 600 the first five games to improve? I don’t know what the numbers will be, but we will be a better offense.”
The numbers were quite good after Garoppolo took over as the Niners won their final five games of the season after a 1-10 start under Shanahan. San Francisco scored on an NFL-best 56.6 percent of their drives after Garoppolo took over as starter and ranked in the top five in the league in scoring offense (28.8 points per game), yards per play (6.1) and yards per game (409.6).
That all came with Garoppolo being force fed a game plan each week in an offense he barely knew. This offseason he has been able to start from scratch and learn the whys behind the scheme, which should make him even better once the season starts.
”I think I’ve come a long way, especially from last season when I was just cramming everything in,” Garoppolo said. ”But there’s still a long way to go developing that chemistry between me and the skill positions and the o-line. It’s a work in progress.”
That was evident Tuesday when issues with a new cadence led to several false starts or players not getting off on time early in practice. That led Garoppolo to keep a lot of the offense on the field after practice for some extra work to make sure those issues don’t come up again.
Shanahan said he was pleased to see his players take the initiative to fix those issues without any prodding from the coaches.
”It wasn’t any fun,” Garoppolo said. ”When that goes wrong, it just screws up the rest of the play. First and foremost, we have to get that corrected.”
While the cadence issue was a one-time issue http://www.bearsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-james-daniels-jersey , a major focus this offseason for Garoppolo and the offense has been on becoming more efficient in the red zone.
San Francisco moved the ball with ease the last five weeks of the season but the offense too often had to settle for field goals. The Niners converted less than half of their chances inside the opponent’s 20-yard line into touchdowns.
The team has excelled in that area in practice this offseason and Garoppolo hopes that carries over to the games.
”Those are point plays,” Garoppolo said. ”Those are the ones that really matter. When you get those opportunities, it’s hard to complete a touchdown, especially in the red zone like that. The windows are tighter, there’s not as much room.”
While Garoppolo is the headliner, there has been significant change in the one-plus year since Shanahan and general manager John Lynch took over a struggling franchise.
Shanahan took over a two-win team that had gone through three coaches in the previous three years and now has it in position to be a legitimate contender in the power-packed NFC.
”We’ve put a lot of work in a year, we’ve gone through a lot of things, we’ve changed the roster over a ton,” Shanahan said. ”We’ve been better as a coaching staff. We go through this every single day. What I’m happy about as I look over our players and our coaches is we’re better. We’re deeper. We’re faster. We move together, our 11 guys Mason Cole Color Rush Jersey , better together. That should happen. We’ve done it longer. We’ve had more time to build the personnel.”
NOTES: WR Marquise Goodwin won the Pro Football Writers of America George Halas Award, given to the person who overcomes the most adversity to succeed. Goodwin caught an 83-yard touchdown pass in a Week 10 win against the Giants just hours after he and his wife, Morgan, lost their infant son due to complications which led to a premature delivery. … Third-round LB Fred Warner signed his rookie contract. … Former 49ers LB Larry Grant has been named the team’s 2018 Nunn-Wooten Scouting Fellow.
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