J.D. Martinez was seemingly joking, but there was some truth to what he said.
In the moments after Christian Vazquez was traded across the field on Monday shortly before the Red Sox, suddenly the catcher’s old team, began a series with the Houston Astros, his new team, Martinez noted the irony of the situation.
“We were like, he just sat through all our hitters’ meetings and now he’s going over there to catch against us,” Martinez told reporters in Houston.
Two days later, Vazquez made his first start behind the plate for the Astros against his former team and the Red Sox were promptly silenced.
Vazquez, obviously, wasn’t in the Red Sox’ hitters’ meetings on Wednesday, but his strong familiarity with their lineup probably didn’t hurt. And he and the Astros were the beneficiary as starter Jose Urquidy’s strong run continued. He pitched seven dominant, shutout innings on a rough day for the Red Sox, whose health issues continued as they lost rookie pitcher Brayan Bello to an injury in a 6-1 loss at Minute Maid Park.
After back-to-back one-run victories to win their first series since June, the Red Sox fell back to earth as they couldn’t complete the sweep and saw their three-game winning streak snapped.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora made a last-minute call to have Rich Hill — returning from the injured list after a month away — start instead of Bello, who was originally supposed to start. Cora planned to have Bello piggyback Hill in an effort to reset the bullpen. But it didn’t work out that way.
Hill was lit up over just three innings in which he gave up four runs on six hits, including a two-run homer from Astros newcomer Trey Mancini. Bello took over in the fourth, but he only recorded two outs before looking to feel discomfort after throwing a pitch. After a quick visit from Cora and the trainer, Bello left the game. He was later diagnosed with a left groin strain.
Bello lobbied to stay in the game, but Cora didn’t let him.
“I was like, well, if I let you throw and you get really hurt, I’ll be going to Caguas,” Cora said of home in Puerto Rico. “So yeah, you’re out of the game. …
“Hopefully it’s nothing serious. Something that is X amount of days and he can be OK.”
Without Bello, Cora went to Hirokazu Sawamura and then rookie Kaleb Ort for three innings. Ort was roughed up in the fifth, when Kyle Tucker hit a two-run double that put the Red Sox in a 6-0 hole. Ort’s length, however, allowed the Red Sox’ best relief arms to reset going into this weekend’s four-game series in Kansas City.
Hill was making his first start since July 1 in Chicago, when he suffered a left knee sprain. The left-hander said the knee held up fine, but he was disappointed with his effort.
“It was just poor execution, poor execution on the fastballs, poor execution on the breaking balls,” Hill told reporters. “That’s what it came down to. I pitched like crap. That’s what it is at the end of the day. …
“I know the days are counting down, but we’re in a good position to go out there and to put ourselves in that spot to compete for a spot in the postseason, and it’s up to us as starters to give us more depth and length in these games to put ourselves in a position to win, and I didn’t do that today.”
It would have been tough anyway to match Urquidy, who was dealing. The Red Sox have recently hit Urquidy well, chasing him for five runs in 1 2/3 innings in Game 3 of the ALCS last year and producing four runs on 12 hits earlier this season. But the right-hander found a groove Wednesday. The Red Sox didn’t have a baserunner until one out in the fifth — when Alex Verdugo was hit by a pitch — and didn’t record a hit until the sixth, when Reese McGuire — acquired on Monday from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for Jake Diekman — led the inning off with a single in his debut.
Tommy Pham followed with a two-out double to put runners on second and third, but Rafael Devers struck out.
The Red Sox’ only run of the day came when Xander Bogaerts hit a solo homer to left in the ninth. Despite winning two out of three, the Sox only scored six runs in the series.
“Good pitching,” Cora said. “I think good fastballs. Not bad at-bats, but I think they do that a lot to a lot of good lineups. Unique fastballs to certain spots and they’re really good at what they do. …
“Hopefully we see them again. That’s the goal here. They have a great team, they have a great program over there and have some good players but we feel like we can play with them. It’s just a matter of us picking our end of the bargain.”
After a hectic three days in Houston that coincided with a busy and emotional trade deadline, the Red Sox will get something of a breather before starting a winnable four-game series in Kansas City against the last-place Royals.
“I think obviously it hasn’t been easy, but it’s part of the business,” Cora said. “We got four. We have to be ready to play.”
