McAdam: Sweep of Rays gives the Red Sox a chance to start again

Warning: The U.S. Surgeon General has determined that following the 2021 Boston Red Sox may cause severe whiplash.

Swept in most ignominious fashion by the lowly Baltimore Orioles over the weekend, it seemed like the Red Sox were in danger of irrelevancy in the first week of play. If they were so awful against the rebuilding (and not so subtly, tanking) O's, what would happen to them when the Tampa Bay Rays got to town Monday?

The Rays, the defending American League champions. The Rays, winners of eight straight at Fenway and 12 of their last 13. The Rays, owners of a seemingly bottomless pitching staff of hard-throwers.

So naturally, the Red Sox did the sweeping, taking three in a row from Tampa, with two of them not at all competitive. So naturally, the Red Sox outscored the Rays 26-9 in the sweep. So naturally, the same team which looked so hapless only a few days ago now looks like a powerhouse.

The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, of course. The Sox are neither good enough to dominate a quality team like the Rays, nor bad enough to be outclassed by a team as bad as the Orioles. (On the latter, we won't have to wait long to see: the Sox begin a three-game series in Camden Yards on Thursday afternoon).

Since Monday, you could almost chart the upswing of confidence the Sox now seem to feel.



They spent the weekend nicely trying to remind everyone that, no, three games do not a season make. Some did so better than others. Garrett Richards revealed himself to be the newcomer to the city that he is when he said: "Three games is a little early to push the panic button.'' Perhaps in Anaheim or San Diego, yes,. But welcome to Boston anyway, Garrett.

While the the Sox were getting beaten up, Alex Cora was trying to navigate some rhetorical middle ground, acknowledging the level of play was unacceptable, while also pumping the brakes for the panic-button pushers.

The Monday night win seemed to give everyone a small reprieve. No longer were they facing the barrage of daily questions, most of them asked as some variation of "How concerned are you?''

Then came Tuesday's win, in which the Sox stoutly rebounded from deficits in the ninth, 11th and 12th before securing a walk-off win. If Monday's victory temporarily restored a sense of equilibrium, Tuesday's was bolder, more assertive.

And because the homestand finale came only about 13 hours after Tuesday's come-from-behind heroics, it seemed to imbue the Sox with an energy they might not have otherwise had for a weekday matinee/getaway game.

Unlike the first two games, the Red Sox didn't score first, but when they fell behind -- 1-0 in the top of the third -- it didn't take them long to respond. Convincingly. After a run-scoring single from Xander Bogaerts tied things, Christian Vazquez hit his second homer in his last four plate appearances, dating back to Tuesday night.

Very quickly, the Red Sox were up 3-1, and they didn't let up, tacking on six more in the very next inning. By then, Kevin Cash's only response was to keep Ryan Yarbrough in longer than usual to avoid overusing his already beleaguered bullpen.

After each of the first two wins of the series, Cora was careful to keep things focused. When they won Monday to end their three-game losing skid, he was quick to point out that they now had two chances to win one game and take the series. When they pulled Tuesday's thriller out, Cora boosted expectations, noting that the Sox were in position to claim a sweep.

With the considerable help of Nathan Eovaldi, they got that, too. Eovaldi can be prone to eight- and nine-pitch at-bats, with hitters continually spoiling pitches by fouling them endlessly. But Eovaldi attacked the Rays lineup with an aggressiveness he seldom shows. That approach bought him seven innings on just 91 pitches. If Eovaldi can find a way to maintain that efficiency, he may finally get the results that match his stuff.

It helped that his teammates caught the ball behind him, as they've been doing as a matter of routine since the shoddy fielding that marked the first two losses.

But the sweep didn't make a believer out of Cora, because he believed even when they were being embarrassed in the first series.

"Nothing has changed,'' he said. "The feeling that we have of our team, like I said on Sunday, we still felt the same way and I still feel the same way today. We have a good baseball team, but we have to keep working.''

It was a sober reminder that, as eye-catching as three wins in a row against the Rays might have been, the Sox are only now back to .500, back to even ground.