Could the Chicago Cubs really trade catcher Wilson Contreras without any real answer at the position behind him? According to a new report, that may very well be the case, particularly ...
Astros' 7-Run 9th Inning Leads to Game 4 Win vs. Red Sox, Series Tied 2-2
Oct 20, 2021
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - OCTOBER 19: Xander Bogaerts #2 of the Boston Red Sox reacts in front of Martin Maldonado #15 of the Houston Astros after he hit a two run home run in the first inning of Game Four of the American League Championship Series at Fenway Park on October 19, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
The Boston Red Sox have crushed the baseball for much of the 2021 postseason. But on Tuesday night, it was the Houston Astros who came up with the timely hitting.
Jose Altuve's game-tying homer in the eighth inning and a wild seven-run top of the ninth gave the Astros a 9-2 win in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, evening the series at two games apiece.
For the second time in this series, José Altuve has tied the game with a homer. pic.twitter.com/pohaU4Lril
Alex Cora's decision to use Game 2 starter Nathan Eovaldi in the top of the ninth—alongside Laz Diaz's strike zone behind the plate—will be questioned and lamented in Boston for the next two days.
That's game. This "ball" led to Nate Eovaldi being charged four runs and the #RedSox dropping Game 4. Should've been tied, going to the bottom of the ninth. pic.twitter.com/zjOIOX7oHd
But both teams' pitching staffs calmed the stormy waters after that, at least until Houston's late heroics. No surprise that Houston heroes Altuve and Carlos Correa tied the game and scored the winning run, respectively. Or that Michael Brantley blew things wide open.
It's something of an October tradition at this point.
Key Stats
Jose Altuve, HOU: 1-for-4, one homer, two runs, one RBI
Michael Brantley, HOU: 2-for-5, three RBI, one run
Houston Bullpen: 7.2 innings, four hits, no runs
Nick Pivetta, BOS: Five innings, two hits, one run, two walks, three strikeouts
Xander Bogaerts, BOS: 2-for-5, one homer, two RBI
Nathan Eovaldi, BOS: 0.2 innings, two hits, four runs, two strikeouts
Welcome Back, Jose Altuve
When Altuve stepped to the plate in the top of the eighth, he was a shocking 1-for-15 in the ALCS. For a player who has been the hero of so many playoff moments for Houston—he has 21 postseason homers, after all, the third-most by an infielder in baseball history, per Baseball Reference—it was a pretty shocking start to this series.
And then, with one swing of the bat, he reminded everybody why he's arguably the greatest October player of his generation.
Altuve, of course. He breaks a tie with that Derek Jeter guy for third most #postseason home runs (21). #ForTheH
Altuve’s ability to wake from the dead and get his during the biggest moment is ridiculous. Second game-tying bomb of the series after a rough start. Why he’s the GOAT. #ForTheH
You have to hand it to Altuve—he may only have two hits in this series, but both have been game-tying homers. If nothing else, the man has impeccable timing.
Xander Bogaerts Showed Up Tuesday, His Teammates Didn't
Bogaerts is putting together a superb postseason, hitting .315 with three homers, six RBI and seven runs in nine games.
It's been a revelation for Boston's star man, who has struggled in postseasons past and was hitting just .226 for his career in the playoffs coming into Tuesday night. But he was getting all of the ball in Game 4.
But the rest of his teammates were a complete no-show. While Bogaerts had two hits, the rest of the Red Sox lineup went an abysmal 3-for-29 with seven walks. Boston's hitters have been red-hot for the entirety of the postseason, so perhaps a regression was inevitable. But it sure came at the worst moment.
What's Next?
Game 5 is scheduled for Wednesday evening at 5:08 p.m. ET at Fenway Park (FS1). The pitching matchup has not yet been named.
Red Sox's World Series Aspirations Now in View After Shocking Upset of Rays
Oct 12, 2021
The Boston Red Sox celebrate after beating the Tampa Bay Rays on a sacrifice fly ball by Enrique Hernandez (5) during the ninth inning during Game 4 of a baseball American League Division Series, Monday, Oct. 11, 2021, in Boston. The Red Sox won 6-5. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
As the 2021 Major League Baseball playoffs were getting underway last week, the general consensus on the Boston Red Sox was that they were just lucky to be there and, accordingly, that their stay would be brief.
The Red Sox themselves, however, have never been under any obligation to cooperate with outside prognostications. And so far, they aren't.
They surely didn't when they dispatched the favored New York Yankees in the American League Wild Card Game. After pulling off an even more shocking upset over the 100-win Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Division Series, they now find themselves running hot and needing just four more wins to get to the World Series.
For Game 3 on Sunday, it was Christian Vazquez who played the hero with a walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the 13th inning at Fenway Park. For Game 4 on Monday, Enrique Hernandez took his turn with a game- and series-winning sacrifice fly in the ninth:
With that, the Red Sox punched their ticket to their first American League Championship Series since 2018. They'll face either the Houston Astros or the Chicago White Sox, whose ALDS matchup could conclude as early as Tuesday.
In all likelihood, the Red Sox will once again be underdogs whether they end up facing Chicago or Houston. But they ought to be used to that now, and there's no longer any question that they're indeed comfortable in the role.
Red Sox Players of the Game
CF Enrique Hernandez: 1-for-4, 1 RBI. Duh.
RHP Garrett Whitlock: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 R, 0 K. Boston manager Alex Cora dropped the righty into a hornet's nest in the top of the eighth inning, wherein the Rays had already tied the game with a pair of runs and still had a runner on second with nobody out. From there, though, he only needed 15 pitches to record six crucial outs.
3B Rafael Devers: 3-for-4, 1 HR, 1 R, 3 RBI. His three-run homer was the high point of Boston's five-run third inning, and his three hits ran his total for the series to six. Not bad for a guy who's playing with only one healthy arm.
LHP Eduardo Rodriguez: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 BB, 2 R, 6 K. Though his bullpen let his 5-1 lead get away, the lefty nonetheless redeemed himself after a flop at Tropicana Field in the first game of the series.
Rays Players of the Game
SS Wander Franco: 1-for-4, 1 HR, 1 R, 2 RBI. He may have temporarily put the Rays in trouble with an error in the eighth inning, but his two-run blast in the sixth was a big momentum swing. He finished the series with seven hits, including four for extra bases. The 20-year-old's future is bright.
CF Kevin Kiermaier: 2-for-3, 2 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI. The second of his two doubles made it a one-run game in the eighth, and his epic throw in the bottom half of the inning preserved what was then a 5-5 tie. Overall, the three-time Gold Glover was in vintage form in the field throughout the series.
RF Randy Arozarena: 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI. It was all for naught in the end, but "Postseason Randy" further added to his legend with a game-tying RBI single in the eighth and five hits and four walks for the series as a whole. And yeah, we're still buzzing from his steal of home in Game 1.
The Red Sox Don't Need Any More Than What They Have
After a last-place finish in the American League East in 2020, the Red Sox weren't supposed to be a player in the AL playoff picture this year. Even after they became one, there were times (especially during their COVID-19 outbreak in August and September) when they seemed on the verge of imploding.
It took a dramatic comeback against the lowly Washington Nationals on the season's final day for the Red Sox to so much as secure their 92nd win and a wild-card berth, and even then they tended to rank near or, in the case of MLB.com, even at the bottom of publications' power rankings for the 10 clubs that made the playoffs.
The Red Sox earned some hard-won respect with a dominant 6-2 win over the Yankees at Fenway Park on Oct. 5 to earn a trip to the ALDS. Yet they looked like a poor match for the Rays on paper going in, and the actual on-field matchup wasn't much different as the Rays easily won Game 1 and outscored Boston 10-2 through the first 10 frames of the series.
Four of those runs came on Jordan Luplow's grand slam in the bottom of the first in Game 2, which lowered Boston's chances of winning the series to just 20 percent:
Fast-forward to now, however, and the Rays probably aren't the only ones looking around confusedly and wondering what the hell just happened.
More than anything, the Red Sox's offense happened. After merely managing nine singles in Game 1, it responded by banging out 47 hits and 26 runs over the next three games. And all this against a Rays team whose 3.67 ERA in the regular season was the lowest in the AL.
Unexpected? Sure. But never impossible or even so much as improbable.
The Red Sox did, after all, scored more runs (104) against the Rays than any other team this season. Boston was also generally one of the best offensive teams in either league, which isn't too shabby given that its lineup was only occasionally fully operational.
This is precisely what Boston's offense was in the ALDS, and then some. Not a single one of the Red Sox's key hitters—i.e., Devers, Hernandez, Xander Bogaerts, Kyle Schwarber, Alex Verdugo, J.D. Martinez and Hunter Renfroe—had a bad series. Hence how nine different hitters had at least five hits, with seven of them hitting at least one home run.
“If you break down the talent we have, yeah, we can hit," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Monday night, according to NESN's George Balekji.
If Boston's offense stays on this track, the team's pitching will merely need to be good enough. That's where there's red flags aplenty, specifically with regard to the Red Sox's iffy starting pitching depth underneath ace Nathan Eovaldi and a late-inning relief corps that blew two-run eighth-inning leads in Games 3 and 4.
Then again, who needs a surplus of arms when you've got a manager as savvy as Cora?
BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 11: Manager Alex Cora of the Boston Red Sox reacts during the sixth inning of game four of the 2021 American League Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park on October 11, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
As is the case with any manager's actions in October, there are nits to pick with how Cora handled his pitching staff in the ALDS. For instance, he might have avoided the aforementioned meltdowns in Game 3 and Game 4 if he'd gone to Whitlock sooner instead of Hansel Robles and Ryan Brasier, respectively.
But on balance, these are really the only two buttons that didn't work after Cora pushed them.
He especially made game-saving decisions when he inserted Tanner Houck and Nick Pivetta for multiple innings in Games 2 and 3, respectively, ultimately resulting in nine total frames marked by one run and two victories. Cora's pitching changes were also instrumental in holding Rays sluggers Brandon Lowe and Nelson Cruz to just four hits in 35 at-bats.
“We were all-in and they know it,” Cora told reporters after Pivetta's heroics left the door open for Vazquez to win Game 3. “We might do it differently than other teams, but when you get to that stage, you take it day by day.”
If watching Cora do his thing feels familiar, that's because it was only three years ago that he led the Red Sox to victory in the 2018 World Series. His year off in 2020 clearly did nothing to diminish his magic touch, as he's now 15-4 in the postseason for his career.
After five games this October, what the Red Sox have proved is that beating them will require out-hitting their offense and out-maneuvering their manager. No matter who they encounter from here on out, both tasks will be the opposite of easy
What's Next for the Red Sox?
Regardless of whether the Astros or the White Sox advance to the ALCS, the Red Sox will hit the road for Game 1 on Friday.
Since he'll be on regular rest, chances are Eovaldi will take the ball for Boston. The question then will be if Cora wants to go with Rodriguez in Game 2, or take his chances with Sale even though he's in a funk that dates back to early September.
Red Sox Offense Erupts with 5 HRs in Game 2 to Even ALDS with Rays
Oct 9, 2021
Boston Red Sox's J.D. Martinez (28) is greeted at home plate by Rafael Devers, center, after Martinez hit a three-run home run during the fifth inning, as Tampa Bay Rays catcher Mike Zunino, right, looks down during Game 2 of a baseball American League Division Series, Friday, Oct. 8, 2021, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
You want homers? The Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox just gave you homers.
The Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Friday evening 14-6, evening the ALDS matchup at a game apiece.
It was a wild contest that featured seven homers in total and a postseason-record five dingers for the Red Sox. Five different Boston batters had at least three hits amid a 20-hit outburst.
The Red Sox have 5 players with 3+ hits, tying the record for a single postseason game
It looked like the Rays, who jumped out to an early lead in Game 1, might be off to the races yet again after Jordan Luplow's grand slam put them up 5-2 in the bottom of the first.
This was the sort of game that makes pitchers recoil in horror. Rays fans too. But for neutral observers and Red Sox supporters, Friday's parade of home runs sure was fun.
Key Stats
J.D. Martinez, BOS: 4-for-5, one homer, three RBI
Tanner Houck, BOS: Five innings, two hits, one run, five strikeouts
Enrique Hernandez, BOS: 5-for-6 with three runs, four RBI, one homer, three doubles
Jordan Luplow, TB: 1-for-1 with a grand slam
Shane Baz, TB: 2.1 innings, six hits, three runs, one walk, two strikeouts
Randy Arozarena, TB: 1-for-4, one run
Amid the Offensive Onslaught, Tanner Houck Came Up Huge
Chris Sale didn't have his best stuff Friday and was chased out of the game after a four-hit, five-run first inning.
So the Red Sox turned to Houck to steady the ship, and he did just that, providing the Red Sox with five fantastic innings that calmed some stormy waters.
Before Houck and the bullpen took over, the Rays had 10 runs through 10 innings in this series. Boston's bullpen, led by Houck, just changed the ALDS. Going to Boston in an 0-2 hole would have been less than ideal.
The Moment Was Too Big for Shane Baz. It Won't Always Be.
You could hardly blame Baz for struggling. He's only made three career starts, after all, with his first Sept. 20 of this year. But so nasty is Baz's stuff that the Rays still trusted him with a postseason start.
The #Rays (Shane McClanahan and Shane Baz) are the second @MLB team ever to have rookies start Games 1 and 2 of a postseason series (2012 Athletics: Jarrod Parker and Tommy Milone). pic.twitter.com/D62FfqkzCE
Baz sure appeared to have some jitters, letting five of the first six batters he faced to reach base. A double play to end the top of the first helped keep the damage to just two runs, but Xander Bogaerts' solo shot in the top of the third earned him the hook.
Just turning on this Rays vs. Red Sox game. Would have never guessed a high scoring game between these two starters. Sale is Sale. Baz is electric. Just shows you that sometimes in baseball…you just never know!
There's little question that the 22-year-old Baz has a bright future. He's hardly the first player in MLB history to have a rough time in his postseason debut. And in his defense, none of the pitchers who followed him had much luck with Boston's lineup either. The short-leash approach to Baz didn't work in Tampa's favor.
From a pitching perspective, not much did.
What's Next?
The series turns to Boston for Sunday's Game 3 at 4:07 p.m. ET on the MLB Network. Nathan Eovaldi is set to take the mound for the Red Sox, while the Rays have yet to name their starter.
Gerrit Cole, Yankees Lay an Egg as Red Sox Deliver Decisive Knockout Punch
Oct 6, 2021
Fans react as New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) is taken out in the third inning of an American League Wild Card playoff baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
The cruel irony of Garrett Whitlock ending the New York Yankees' season was not lost on anyone who watched the American League Wild Card game Tuesday night. It was especially not lost on the pinstripe faithful.
Whitlock, the Boston Red Sox reliever who delivered the final blow to the Yankees 2021 season by limiting them to one run in the ninth in a 6-2 loss at Fenway Park, was once a highly-regarded prospect for the Yankees. But Tommy John surgery took him out of action in 2019 and the 2020 minor league season was wiped out. The Yankees didn't protect him in the Rule 5 Draft last year and the team's biggest rival picked him up as a result.
Whitlock and the Red Sox are moving on to face the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS because they did everything the Yankees couldn't do in this game: They got a dominant start out of their ace, Nathan Eovaldi, they got fantastic defense—especially the play Kike Hernandez, Xander Boegarts and Kevin Plawecki combined to make and save a run from crossing in the sixth inning—and they got key hits from their key hitters when it mattered the most.
The Yankees' $324 million man failed to deliver.
Gerrit Cole is the highest-paid pitcher in baseball and the Yankees are paying him to perform in these situations. The money wouldn't be discussed if it wasn't such a great amount, but Cole was just flat-out bad in his most crucial start as a Yankee. He allowed three earned runs on four hits and made it through only two plus innings. His stuff was flat and manager Aaron Boone had to go to the bullpen early, which was not ideal considering many of those same arms had just pitched Sunday in an attempt to clinch this coveted Wild Card spot in a series against the Rays.
"It was just a little bit of grind for him," Boone said.
A grind seemed like an understatement. Cole, who has battled COVID and hamstring injury in recent months, was a little more emotional about his disastrous start.
He now has a 7.00 ERA at Fenway Park and a 2.94 at all others.
Boone had two messages for the team following this disappointing loss: He was grateful for the efforts the team put into what he described as a "challenging" season. But his second message was the more important one. "The league has closed the gap on us," he said. "We've got to get better. We've got to get better in every aspect. … It's not just the Red Sox and the Astros now. Look at our division."
It was a strange quote from the embattled skipper considering the Yankees have not even reached the World Series in more than a decade, but he did have a point. The game has passed this version of the Yankees by.
A few years ago the Bronx Bombers seemed destined for a championship after the Baby Bombers led the team to the 2017 ALCS. Finally, the young core was ready. The club supplemented that youthful group with stars like Giancarlo Stanton and Cole.
Boston is less than two years removed from the sign-stealing scandal and less than a year removed from a season in which many questioned whether or not the club even wanted to win. Their former franchise face, Mookie Betts, was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. But one of the outfielders the Red Sox received in return, Alex Verdugo, drove in insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
The Red Sox showed that a reset is possible while the Yankees showed that building a team around a lineup full of heavy hitters isn't actually a winning formula.
The Yankees might have been a team to beat a few years ago, but they have proven to be beatable this year. Sure, they have dangerous hitters like Aaron Judge and Stanton, but those two alone cannot out-hit the other deficiencies.
The team has been stiff on the basepaths, bad defensively and lacking starting pitching outside of Cole. Midseason additions Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo helped the defense, but even with them, the team was exceptionally streaky and was never able to figure out how to consistently excel in every facet of the game.
This storied franchise has been eying another World Series, with the last one coming back in 2009, but instead it's the Red Sox who are moving on in the postseason while the Yankees are heading into the offseason with a lot of questions surrounding them.
But to be fair, those questions have plagued the Yankees all season.
Why can't they hit? Why don't they have enough starting pitching? Why did emerging young stars Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar regress? Will they fire Aaron Boone?
Eovaldi was everything Cole needed to be in this game, and it wasn't surprising considering his outstanding season. The Red Sox have struggled to get consistent production from their starters all season, but Eovaldi was a steadying presence every five days. His 5.6 combined fWAR ranked No. 12 in the regular season.
And this start came on the heels of one of his worst. Last weekend against the same team he faced Tuesday night in the same ballpark, he gave up seven earned runs in just 2.2 innings. But he was throwing harder than he did all season in the Wild Card game and he set a winning tone for the Red Sox with 5.1 innings and eight strikeouts.
It has yet to be seen if Boston has the depth needed to match up to the Rays in the next round, but this resetting season provides a road map for others. Maybe the Yankees will follow suit and do the same, because it's clear they can't continue going down the same path they've been on since 2017. The league has, as Boone said, "closed the gap."
Maybe this is where we look back and see this as what triggered a reset and put the club back on the championship path. If that's the case, then maybe we can say Whitlock was useful for the Yankees after all.
Xander Bogaerts Pulled from Red Sox vs. Rays After Positive COVID-19 Test
Sep 1, 2021
Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts throws out Baltimore Orioles Maikel Franco during the eighth inning of a baseball game on Monday, May 10, 2021, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
NESN cameras captured manager Alex Cora waving Bogaerts into the dugout.
Red Sox eight positive COVID tests since Friday: Xander Bogaerts Kiké Hernández Christian Arroyo Matt Barnes Martin Pérez Hirokazu Sawamura Ramon Vázquez (quality control coach) Kiyoshi Momose (strength and conditioning coach)
The shortstop entered the day hitting .297 with a .865 OPS in 2021 while becoming an integral part of the Red Sox lineup.
Bogaerts has also been able to stay healthy with an average of 149 games played from 2014 to 2019 before playing 56 of 60 possible games in 2020. The only time he missed more than 20 games in a season was in 2018 when a fractured ankle and a sprained finger limited him.
His durability only adds to his value as one of the top players in the league at his position.
The 28-year-old is coming off another solid season in 2020 despite struggles throughout the Red Sox roster. He hit .300 with 11 home runs to earn MVP votes for the third straight year. He also has two All-Star selections, three Silver Sluggers and two World Series titles on his resume.
His absence also creates a hole for Boston, making it tougher to compete in the loaded American League East.
Yairo Munoz entered the game for him and moved to second base, while Jonathan Arauz shifted to shortstop.
Reeling Red Sox Need More Than Chris Sale to Save Collapsing Season
Aug 11, 2021
Portland, ME - July 20: Boston Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale during a press conference after pitching 3 2/1 hitless innings during a rehab appearance for the Portland Sea Dogs against the Harrisburg Senators during first inning action at Hadlock Stadium in Portland, ME on July 20, 2021. (Photo by Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Even as recently as July 28, the Boston Red Sox were tied for the best record in the American League and looking forward to gaining more firepower upon ace left-hander Chris Sale's return from Tommy John surgery.
Cut to a Spongebob-like "Two Weeks Later" title card, and things are suddenly pear-shaped for the Red Sox.
Seemingly out of nowhere, they've lost 11 of their last 14 games. That mostly covers a 2-8 road trip between July 30 and Aug. 8 that started with them up 1.5 games in the American League East and ended with them looking up at a four-game deficit to the Tampa Bay Rays. After a crushing defeat to the Rays on Tuesday night at Fenway Park, Boston's deficit is now five games.
The New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays, meanwhile, are 8-3 and 9-3, respectively, since loading up with stars—like Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo for the former and Jose Berrios for the latter—ahead of the July 30 trade deadline.
As those three teams' playoff odds have improved, Boston's have taken a nosedive. According to FanGraphs, the Red Sox's chances of making the postseason in any capacity have gone from 95.9 to 66.8 percent since July 28. Their chances of winning the division are even worse, going from 69 to 22.4 percent.
On the plus side, Sale's return is officially on as he's slated to start for the first time in two years Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles. The Red Sox should be thrilled about this.
There will, however, be a different sort of pressure on Sale than there might have been if the Red Sox had kept on winning in his absence. In lieu of just another weapon, they now need him to be more like a savior.
Boston Needs Vintage Sale
If the Red Sox have their way, Sale will return to be something like what he was between 2012 and 2018.
He was an All-Star and Cy Young Award contender in each of those seven seasons, compiling a 2.91 ERA and 5.6 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 1,388 innings. By racking up 39.6 rWAR, he edged Justin Verlander for the overall lead among American League hurlers.
The stuff with which Sale did this? It was good. His fastball got as high as 100.5 mph, and he used that and an excellent slider-changeup combination to draw 169 more whiffs than any other left-handed pitcher between 2012 and 2018.
Yet it's also worth recalling that Sale wasn't particularly good in his most recent season, as his 25 starts in 2019 yielded only a 4.40 ERA over 147.1 innings. He did save some face by striking out a whopping 218 batters, but his weirdly fluctuating fastball velocity was a factor as he also got dinged for a career-high 1.5 home runs per nine innings.
It was elbow inflammation that ended Sale's 2019 season early in August, and rest and rehabilitation didn't save him. Further elbow trouble during spring training for 2020, and he finally went under the knife in March.
Sale turned 31 shortly after he had surgery. Now he's 32; by pitcher standards, he's not young anymore. Heck, he might even be older than middle-aged.
For now, though, the signs are good. Sale made five rehab starts between July 15 and Aug. 7 and dominated in them. In 20 innings, he allowed only three runs on 17 hits and five walks. He struck out 35.
When Sale pitched for the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox on July 20, his fastball was reportedly up to 97 mph. Also in fine form was his slider:
The catch is that Sale topped out at five innings and 89 pitches, respectively, during his rehab assignment. Starting on Saturday, the Red Sox must therefore hope that the southpaw will not only maintain his electric stuff but also take further strides toward longer outings.
Any guy who can do that is a true No. 1 starter, and the Red Sox need at least one of those right now.
Boston's Pitching Had This Coming
Even when the Red Sox were going good, their starting pitching was something of a lingering specter. Not just because their primary starters weren't particularly good in general, but also because a few of them had the potential to get even worse.
Well, take a wild guess what has happened.
Through May, Boston starters only ranked 16th in ERA at 4.20. Between the start of June and that fateful day July 28, that ERA ballooned to 4.70. Nathan Eovaldi continued to pitch well, but Eduardo Rodriguez, Garrett Richards, Nick Pivetta and Martin Perez each took turns contributing to a combined 5.38 ERA in that span.
Should Chaim Bloom, Boston's Chief Baseball Officer, have taken the hint and added a starting pitcher or two at the trade deadline? You bet. But he didn't, seemingly out of a sense of sticker shock.
“Some of the trades that were put in front of us, I didn’t feel like they made sense,” Bloom said, according to Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald.
As if on cue, disaster has found the Red Sox's starting rotation. It has served up a 6.71 ERA since July 29, notching the second-worst such mark in the majors. There's already been one notable casualty, as Perez is now pitching out of Boston's bullpen.
To his credit, 25-year-old righty Tanner Houck has played the pick-me-up role well by allowing only two earned runs in three starts since July 22. It should also be fun for the Red Sox to have him and Sale in the same rotation, since they're basically the same pitcher:
Like with Sale, though, the "yeah, but..." with Houck is that he's not built to go deep into games. In both the minors and majors this season, he's only gone as deep as five innings with a maximum of 87 pitches.
That groan you just heard came from the Red Sox's relievers, who've already picked up enough slack throughout 2021. Boston has five guys with as many as 40 appearances, plus another guy in Garrett Whitlock whose 33 outings have covered 55.2 innings.
To this point, the men in the pen have done the job by accounting for more rWAR than all but one other team's relievers. But cracks have begun to form, as noted by a 6.85 ERA since July 29 and, well, this:
Albeit to a lesser extent, there's also another party to blame for Boston's downfall.
Boston's Offense Also Had this Coming
Even after hanging eight runs on the Blue Jays on Sunday, the Red Sox's offense has still only mustered 36 runs over the team's last 12 games.
It might be tempting to see this as a fluke given that the Red Sox's offense had previously been one of the best in baseball. Through July 28, its 105 wRC+ marked it as five percent better than average and tied for the seventh-best in all of MLB.
But even then, the Red Sox's offense wasn't so much a big collection of good hitters as a medium-sized group of mediocre hitters around a smaller core of great hitters.
TORONTO, ON - AUGUST 08: J.D. Martinez #28 of the Boston Red Sox celebrates scoring a run on a single by Kevin Plawecki #25 in the second inning during a MLB game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on August 08, 2021 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers did the heavy lifting with a combined 144 wRC+ through July 28. Apart from them, Boston's other nine most oft-used hitters had just an 88 wRC+.
Barring some extraordinarily fortunate twist of fate, there always was going to come a moment when Boston's Big Three all struggled at the same time. When that finally did happen, the Red Sox's supporting cast would either step up or keep struggling and leave the team's lack of offensive depth utterly exposed.
Since July 29, it's the latter scenario that's come to life:
Going forward, it stands to reason that the Big Three will get back on track. Ideally, they'll also get a boost from Kyle Schwarber, who accounts for the one big splash that Bloom did make at the deadline, once he's fully recovered from a hamstring strain that landed him on the injured list back on July 2.
But with Schwarber having recently suffered a setback in his recovery, he's now not projected back until the third week of August. And unless he quickly masters first base—a spot where the Red Sox have gotten an MLB-low minus-1.3 rWAR in 2021—he could be a man without a set position down the stretch.
There's definitely a road ahead of the Red Sox that not only gets them to the postseason, but perhaps deep into it. This is the one in which Sale does recapture his vintage form, thus rallying the team's rotation while the Big Three and Schwarber eventually do the same for the offense. Without question, that version of the Red Sox would be dangerous.
But before the Red Sox can get on that road, they must see to a fix-it list that will hardly get shorter after Sale returns.
Love them or hate them, advanced metrics like Wins Above Replacement (WAR) are here to stay in today's MLB conversation...
Xander Bogaerts Embraces Trey Mancini in Orioles 1B's 1st Game Back from Cancer
Apr 2, 2021
BRADENTON, FLORIDA - MARCH 22: Trey Mancini #16 of the Baltimore Orioles reacts after a foul off of Mitch Keller of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first inning during a spring training game on March 22, 2021 at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
The Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles put their division rivalry on hold for the best of reasons in Friday's season opener.
When Boston shortstop Xander Bogaerts reached first base on a fielding error in the second inning, he couldn't help but hug Orioles infielder Trey Mancini—who was playing his first game since 2019 after being diagnosed with colon cancer in March 2020. He completed chemotherapy in September and was declared cancer-free in November.
Xander Bogaerts gave Trey Mancini a hug as soon as he got to first base.
Mancini is playing in his first regular season game since battling colon cancer. pic.twitter.com/Z3eNsoewRs
Mancini's day continued to get better as he picked up a walk in the sixth inning and a single—to Bogaerts at short—later in the eighth inning as the Orioles won, 3-0.
Seeing Mancini back on the field after being diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer is a triumph itself. Getting to celebrate a rising star resuming his career by picking up where he left off in 2019 is even better.
The Orioles and Red Sox will have plenty of time to resume their rivalry throughout the season. On Friday, there were much bigger things worth appreciating.
