
Spoelstra: No need to penalize Ball any further
Erik Spoelstra supports no further penalties for LaMelo Ball after flagrant foul.
The Boston Red Sox were shut out 6-0 by the Minnesota Twins, struggling against pitcher Mick Abel despite a favorable matchup. Sonny Gray lasted only four innings, allowing five earned runs while the Red Sox bats failed to score, striking out ten times.
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 14: Carlos NarvĂĄez #75 of the Boston Red Sox is late with the tag on Byron Buxton #25 of the Minnesota Twins who scored from second base on a single off the bat of Luke Keaschall in the first inning at Target Field on April 14, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Ellen Schmidt/Getty Images) | Getty Images
For the third time on this road trip, the Red Sox entered a game with a seemingly large advantage in the pitching matchup and lost. They got shut down by Dustin May last Friday, Garrett Crochet got bombarded while matched up against Bailey Ober yesterday, and Sonny Gray got thoroughly outpitched by Mick Abel tonight.
On an evening where the Sox needed both length and effectiveness from their starter, they got neither. Gray lasted just four innings and allowed five earned runs. Oh, and as bad as he was, it easily could have been worse as he narrowly wiggled out of a bases loaded jam in the third.
Meanwhile, the bats were going up against a guy with a 6.19 ERA in 52.1 career innings entering tonight. They scored zero runs and struck out ten times against him.
If this is what things look like when matchups are favorable on paper, what type of horror show are we in for when this butter knife offense starts running into the teeth of real rotations? Although I guess in some ways it canât get any worse. You canât score less than zero runs, and you canât have less than zero wins, which is how many the Red Sox have against American League opponents 17 games into this season.
If you dive deeper into the details, it somehow only gets uglier. Willson Contreras left the game with lower back tightness, which unfortunately feels like the most natural injury ever when youâre talking about a guy who will be 34 next month, has never played more than 138 games in a season, and started all 17 games this year. I donât have time to look it up, but I bet thereâs a decent chance this is the first time heâs ever started 17 straight games in his career. It also feels like another byproduct of a completely unbalanced roster that includes way too many outfield / DH guys, and not enough quality infielders.
Speaking of subpar play by an infielder, did you see the strike Andruw Monasterio (who came into the game for Contreras) challenged tonight? This puppy wasnât even close!
And it should be noted, this stands juxtaposed to Roman Anthonyâs decision to not challenge a ball in the third pitch of his first at bat tonight. If you saw this live, you could see that he really, really wanted to tap his head on this one (pitch 3), but ultimately decided to be a good teammate and not risk burning a challenge in the very first at bat of the night.
But you know what, as we continue to iron out the best way to handle these challenges, maybe they should let Roman use them early in the game if heâs confident. He seems to have a much better handle on the strike zone than most guys on this team. Perhaps the player challenging matters almost as much as the spot? (Within reason of course)
Oh, and we also have to mention that Jarren Duran flipped off a fan in this game, but that didnât get me nearly as angry as the overall play of the team.
What a great night!
**Jack Anderson:**Even somebody as cynical as me is a sucker for a major league debut, and Jack Anderson had a good one tonight. He came into a horrible situation needing to clean up the mess made by both of the top two men in the Red Sox rotation over the last 36 hours, and he delivered big time. The rookie gobbled up three innings of grunt work and struck out the side in his first frame ever pitched on a major league mound. His family was also in attendance, so for them itâs a wonderful evening theyâll never forget.
**Roman Anthony:**Anthonyâs slowly starting to heat up at the plate. After getting on base four times yesterday, he went 2-4 tonight, including the only extra base hit of the game for the Sox.
Masataka Yoshida:Â He took advantage of his time back in he lineup at DH and recorded a pair of hits.
**Sonny Gray:**Not even close to what the Sox needed from this guy after Crochet got bombed yesterday. Five runs over four innings including two gopher balls is a dreadful outing on any night, but it stings even worse given the current state of this team. They needed somebody to step up, and instead he dug the hole deeper.
**Jarren Duran:**He flipped off more fans than he had hits, so thatâll get you included here. And just to be clear, I find the zero hits far more offensive than the one finger that was up.
Carlos Narvaez:Â Should we start getting concerned about this guy? 0-4 with four strikeouts tonight, and with that golden sombrero heâs now batting .195 with a .409 OPS on the season.
Itâs Jack Andersonâs first career strike out. Heâs the only person in that clubhouse who should have a smile on their face tonight.
Looking Ahead: Tomorrowâs game is Early, both in time (a 1:40pm start) and in matchup. Connelly Early will take the mound tasked with trying to prevent a Twins sweep and to salvage a .500 road trip for the Sox.
The final score was 6-0 in favor of the Minnesota Twins.
Sonny Gray was the starting pitcher for the Red Sox.
Sonny Gray allowed five earned runs during his four innings of pitching.
The Red Sox struck out ten times against pitcher Mick Abel.

Erik Spoelstra supports no further penalties for LaMelo Ball after flagrant foul.
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