Three off-day thoughts as the Red Sox come home for their final homestand of the season:
1. The schedule is their friend.
The conclusion of the team's road trip to Chicago and Seattle means the heavy lifting is over. After six straight games against two playoff contenders, the Red Sox now have 14 games remaining (eight at home followed by six on the road) and only three of those are against a team (Yankees) with a winning record.
The Mets (72-75), who precede the Yankees into town, are at least competitive. The same cannot be said for the Orioles, against whom the Sox have six remaining games. The Orioles have already lost 99 games and stand 53 games below .500. Their .317 winning percentage is the worst in the game.
Following three games in Baltimore on the final trip, the Sox get the Washington Nationals. A few months ago, that might have been daunting, but not now. After a trade deadline selloff, the Nationals are just 12-31.
Meanwhile, the Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays have more challenging schedules.
The Blue Jays have seven games left with the Minnesota Twins, yes, but they also have a three-game series at home with the Yankees and three on the road against Tampa Bay before finishing with Baltimore.
The Yankees, after they finish their four-game set with Baltimore, have three at home with Cleveland and three with Texas before running the divisional gauntlet in the final nine games -- three in Boston, three in Toronto and three at home with the Rays.
A key stretch for all three teams may come in the final week. While the Red Sox are in Baltimore for three against the Orioles, the Blue Jays and Yankees will be squaring off in Toronto. Every night, then, one of the Sox' prime contenders will, by definition, have to lose.
2. Help wanted
I thought it was noteworthy that both Alex Cora and Adam Ottavino saw fit to mention that the team needed fan support for the final homestand.
"We're going to need to win a lot of those games (in the last homestand),'' said Ottavino, "so hopefully the fans really bring it and we can bring it on the field.''
Cora, similarly, seemed to be encouraging fan support at Fenway.
"Chris (Sale), Friday night at Fenway,'' said Cora. "Hopefully, it's loud and intense.''
On the final road trip, NESN was running promotional announcements about "gift packs'' being made available on the final homestand. If it seems strange that the team is pumping ticket sales in the middle of a playoff race, it shouldn't really come as a surprise.
While the atmosphere at Fenway has been raucous at times this year, with a decidedly younger fan base, attendance has been off. Of the 45 home games since Fenway was allowed to go to full capacity on Memorial Day weekend, just 18 -- less than half -- had crowds of 30,000 or greater. Of those, seven were against the Yankees and three others were Sale starts. Another three were against the Philadelphia Phillies on a weekend, with plenty of Phillies fans making the trip to Boston.
That means, the Sox have attracted crowds of better than 30,000 just eight times when they weren't A) playing their chief rival B) featuring their top starting pitcher or C) getting help from the visiting team fan base.
3) Bullpen additions
Cora said recently that the string of up-coming off-days (Thursday, next Monday, next Thursday Sept. 23 and the following Monday Sept, 27) will allow for some adjustments to the rotation.
Take Tanner Houck, for example. Having pitched Wednesday in Seattle, his next turn -- staying with the usual five-man rotation -- won't come until next Tuesday, when he would be going on six days' rest. That should enable Cora to utilize Houck out of the bullpen over the weekend for an inning or two. The same would apply to Nick Pivetta, who is set to pitch Saturday against the Orioles, but whose next turn wouldn't come up until a week later. Figure on seeing Pivetta in the Mets series, since he, too, will be going on six days' rest when he next starts.
Or, the Sox could pretty much turn Houck and Pivetta into full-time relievers for a while.
If they so choose, the Sox could start either Sale or Nathan Eovaldi, on regular rest, in exactly half - 7 of 14 -- of their remaining games. (That would set Eovaldi up for the one-game wild card game on Oct. 5 when the Sox would probably prefer Sale. But Eovaldi isn't a bad option if they wanted to maximize the outings for their two best starters the remainder of the way).