MLB Player News

Jewett has been a coach in the Nationals organization since 2009, serving as the third base coach during the 2013 season. Prior to his time with the Nats, he was a long-time minor league manager and coach in the Pirates organization, where he worked with M’s new skipper Lloyd McClendon. He had been seen as a potential successor to Davey Johnson, and did interview to become the Nationals manager this offseason.

With the Red Sox looking at 21 called strikes, Brown needed just 78 pitches to get 18 outs tonight. He has 17 strikeouts while allowing just one run in 10 2/3 innings to date, and now he gets to face the Rockies next time out. It is at Coors Field, but that’s usually not the same kind of issue in April as it might be in July.

That’s the good. The bad is that, because he threw 50 pitches, he’ll probably be swapped out for a fresh arm prior to Wednesday’s game. Bolton, who signed a minor league deal in January, was just added to Houston’s roster before the game. He had a 5.79 ERA in 34 career appearances with the Pirates, Mariners and Guardians coming into tonight.

The one encouraging thing about Bello’s outing tonight was that his cutter performed incredibly well; he threw it 21 times for seven whiffs, five called strikes and three instances of soft contact, though two of those turned into hits. Nothing else stood out, and he just didn’t have an answer for Yordan Alvarez, who homered and doubled off him. He’s not a mixed-league quality starter right now, but he’ll probably be adequate for Boston if the Red Sox choose to start hitting at some point. He’ll face the Brewers next.

The double was a 418-foot blast to center off Brayan Bello in the first. It would have been gone in 26 ballparks, according to Statcast, but Ceddanne Rafaela nearly turned it into an out before coming up just short at the wall. Alvarez didn’t leave it to chance in the fifth, delivering a 399-foot blast far over the wall in right. He’s looked fantastic so far, and he could easily have five homers, rather than three, through his first six games. It’s understandable to worry about durability, especially since he’s going to be asked to play a fair amount of left field, but he’s one of the handful of players with a real shot at winning AL MVP honors.

The homer was hit just 346 feet and would have been an out in a lot of ballparks, but he’ll take it. The walk came five pitches after Smith somehow got away with a phantom swing and a miss for strike three, but he’ll also take that. Smith doesn’t seem quite ready to bust out as a star as a sophomore, but if he keeps playing regularly, he’ll probably offer some mixed-league value.

We’re not going to compare him to Kristian Campbell just yet, but this one was ugly. Anthony’s first three strikeouts all came on three pitches against Hunter Brown. He made it up to five pitches before taking a called strike three from Cody Bolton in the eighth. Anthony looked great in the WBC and had three hits in Boston’s opener last week, but he’s 1-for-17 with 10 strikeouts and two walks in his last four games, all of which have been losses for the Red Sox.