Mariners (Miller) vs Red Sox (Sandoval): 09/02/26, 4:10 PM

[Brock Beauchamp]

Sandoval takes the ball for the Red Sox this afternoon at Fenway Park as Boston hosts Miller and the Mariners.

[Brock Beauchamp]

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Wyatt Olds	0	0	0	0	53	53
Jovani Morán	0	12	40	0	0	52
Greg Weissert	5	0	15	0	19	39
Garrett Whitlock	0	13	0	0	0	13
Erik Miller	0	0	0	16	0	16
Aroldis Chapman	0	0	0	15	0	15
Alec Gamboa	0	18	0	23	27	68

[Duran Is The Man]

the Mariners have lost the last 8 games Miller has started. he has been awful. so....he'll probably throw a complete game 2 hit shutout tonite.

[moonslav59]

Big game for Sandoval, who has been back long enough to start showing he can move towards the type of pitcher he was a few years back.

Take away his first two season with LAA (both under 40 IP) and his last one in 2024, when he may have been pitching injured, he was a more-than-decent SP'er from 2021-2023. Yes, I know that was a very long time ago, but from 2024 to today, he has been recovering from a major injury and surgery. Let's hope the "rehab" is over, and he starts to become more like this....

2021-2023 Patrick Sandoval:

122 ERA+ (3.53 ERA was 38th out of 147 pitchers with 250+ IP)

84 ERA- (placed 27 in MLB among pitchers with 350+ IP) 32 out of 104 with 300+ IP and 35 out of 147 with 250+. That's a solid #2 pitcher by just ERA- and FIP. 

3.72 FIP (45th/107)

7.5 FWAR in 380 IP (5.7 bWAR)

I'm not predicting today or any day will be his revival day, but I do think there is hope he can regain what he once had.

[mvp 78]

6 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Big game for Sandoval, who has been back long enough to start showing he can move towards the type of pitcher he was a few years back.

I'm not predicting today or any day will be his revival day, but I do think there is hope he can regain what he once had.

It's always a rollercoaster for guys coming off TJS. The first year is typically the worst. IMO, his last good season was '22. Unfortunately, his current pitching isn't that far off from how he performed in '24. He's not a guy I'd look into bring back next season unless he's even cheaper than he is now. 

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

It's always a rollercoaster for guys coming off TJS. The first year is typically the worst. IMO, his last good season was '22. Unfortunately, his current pitching isn't that far off from how he performed in '24. He's not a guy I'd look into bring back next season unless he's even cheaper than he is now. 

I agree that he hasn't shown he has near the same stuff as 2021-2023, and while this is his first real season back from the surgery, his surgery was in June of 2024, I believe. That's over 2 years ago. 

He did pitch some in 2025 in practice, but kept having setbacks and never pitched an inning of rehab work. I know that doesn't count as the "first year back," but I think the setbacks were not TJS related. Correct me if I'm wrong, and maybe that doesn't matter anyway.

I'm probably more wishful thinking than trying to present a case he's ready to bust out, but this staff is running out of options to hope on.

Gray is missing a start.

Suarez is struggling and cant go over 5 IP.

Tolle and Bennett are already over their projected IP limits.

Bello cannot be trusted to start a game, and after his last game, might not be trusted to do well after the next "opener" game.

We are down to 5. I get the point that Brez is ultimately to blame for this. He shoulda have added a starter at the deadline. I agree. He put all his in-season eggs into the Mead/Rutschman basket, and that has backfired almost as much as the Sale-Grissom trade.

To me, I felt he did a very good job upgrading the quality of our rotation and depth. We had 11-12 pitchers that were expected to be pitch in 2026. Those 11-12 were better than the 11-12 from 2024 and 2025, and IMO, the 6-11 pitchers might have looked stronger than any other Sox team I have seen (since 1972.) I find it hard to say he dropped the ball in this context, except he knew we needed someone at the deadline and had very few trading chips left over after the Mead & Rut deals.