Sweeney: Leftover Saturday thoughts -- Sit Leon, shuffle the Revs offense

A couple of leftover thoughts from both Saturday afternoon’s Red Sox win and Saturday night’s Revolution draw:

From the 5-3 Sox win:

Let me ask the hive mind a question: What would you rather have when we get to the playoffs in three weeks — a spectacularly-called game behind the plate and an easy out every time through the order, or a catcher with a howitzer of a right shoulder who can actually be productive in the batter’s box?

That’s the state of affairs for the Red Sox backstops right now, and it’s a conundrum for manager Alex Cora. Sandy Leon handles the pitching staff incredibly well, there’s no denying that. We love Sandy behind the plate.

But he’s positively Arctic with a bat in his hands. As we noted yesterday evening, he’s 0-for-September. He’s 0-for-29 coming into Sunday’s rubber game with the Mets. He hasn’t had a hit since Aug. 24. He’s 1-for-40 dating back to his last at-bat on Aug. 15 in Philadelphia, and worse yet, Leon is 3-for-54 dating back to Aug. 8.

We can’t say that Leon hasn’t had opportunities to break out of his slump: he has, and he just hasn’t produced.

Yet look at Blake Swihart: hitting .221 in only 163 AB’s, he has driven in 14 runs with a pretty solid OPS for a part-time player. Compare that to today’s starting catcher Christian Vazquez: .212 in 226 AB’s with only 15 RBIs. Nine points worse than Swihart, with one additional RBI in 59 more AB’s.

Look, we all know how important it is to have a catcher who can control his pitching staff, and Sandy Leon does that. He’s a lot like Jason Varitek in that regard. But like Varitek had a habit of grounding into rally-killing double plays in the clutch, Leon doesn’t even do that.

So we either have to do one of two things: accept/reconcile the fact that when Leon comes up, it’s an out, or make a switch to the embattled Swihart. Swihart is playing for his contract: when a man is hungry, he’ll produce.

Here’s my postseason rotation/bullpen deployment: Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, Eduardo Rodriguez or Nathan Eovaldi; Rodriguez/Eovaldi, Brandon Workman, Ryan Brasier, Matt Barnes, Brian Johnson, Steven Wright (stop fretting, folks: he throws a knuckleball… were you this anxious when Tim Wakefield came out of the bullpen? No, you weren’t. Stobbit. Have a drink. Relax.), Bobby Poyner, Craig Kimbrel. You should be able to get dubs from the top three in the rotation, as long as the Red Sox hit for their pitchers. The offense can’t have the ridiculous mindset that, “Oh, Sale is pitching, or Porcello is pitching, we can take the night off,” which has been the offensive mindset on many-a-night since 2015. And when it comes to the bullpen, I think you have a series of arms that I’ve named there that can limit damage and reduce traffic on the basepaths.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

From the Revolution’s 1-1 draw:

The offense was positively dreadful inside the box in the first 45: Let me paraphrase from New England manager Brad Friedel when I repeat myself with “I’ve said it many, many times,” when I say this offensive alignment, for some reason, has grown too lackadaisical — too stale — for anyone’s liking. Too many soft shots taken, or much like Arsenal FC of London, waiting too long for the perfect opportunity to shoot; one would think that Friedel, a former Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper, would want to shake that particular mentality (for the uninitiated wondering why I would mention that: Arsenal and Tottenham are much like the Red Sox and Yankees in many respects, except put Arsenal’s stadium in Fenway’s place and Tottenham’s in the TD Garden’s, and you’ll get the idea of just how close these two sides are located in North London… but have Red Sox fans ever considered giving Yankees players food poisoning? It happened a few years back; Google “dodgy lasagna” to see what I mean) from the offensive mindset. This team should be ruthless, and they just aren’t.

And I think it may be time to sit Cristian Penilla: his flub on the Revs’ counterattack in the 66^th minute was absolutely dreadful. You’re down a goal, you’re on the counterattack, and you don’t put a quality shot on frame? Rubbish. You need to be clinical in those situations. I said it last night/early this morning, and I’ll say it again: Start Isaac Angking, start Diego Fagundez, start Juan Agudelo, start Teal Bunbury. With Angking, Agudelo, and Bunbury on the pitch last night, the offense flowed a lot better than with Kelyn Rowe, Brian Wright, and Penilla around Fagundez.

Can New England make up the five-point gap? With six matches left and with a three-match unbeaten streak going, the Revs are still on an uphill climb to reach the postseason; and while we want positive results over the next month and a half — I think they will come, especially after the result against NYCFC — I have to think it won’t be enough, and that a lot needs to go the Revs’ way for playoff football to return to Gillette; that nine-match winless skid really did damage, and who would have thought that Montreal would beat Philadelphia, 4-1, last night? We have to see what D.C. United, tied with the Revs on 34 points but sit ahead of them on the table due to wins, do today against the Red Bulls: a New York win would keep United and the Revs level on points. The Boys In Blue still have the six-pointer with Montreal (39) on Oct. 28 coming, and United and Montreal go head-to-head in two weeks. I think DC will inevitably make the playoffs in place of Montreal. A little luck — such as fifth-place Philadelphia and Montreal going into the toilet down the stretch — and a definite three points next Saturday night against Chicago are needed for New England to avoid a third straight season without playoffs.