On Thursday night, in the immediate aftermath of his team's loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, a reporter made mention to Alex Cora that his team had failed to hit a homer in the three-game series at PNC Park.
Cora could only manage a rueful smile.
"This is who we are,'' he noted with some resignation. "We're what, 119 games in?''
Indeed, who the Red Sox are is a team that, against historical precedent, can't count much on the long ball as an offensive weapon. Across the game in 2022, the home run has never been a bigger part of most teams' arsenals. And yet, the Red Sox are on pace to finish with their fewest homers in a full season since 2014, when they finished with just 123.
Friday night, when they lost a 15-10 slugfest to the Baltimore Orioles, the Red Sox actually had more hits than the Orioles. But not one of the Sox' 19 hits left the ballpark, stretching their homerless streak to four games.
Entering Saturday's action, the Red Sox ranked 19th among the 30 MLB teams with 112 homers, less than one per game. By contrast, the Red Sox hit 219 last season.
Currently, the Red Sox have just three players in double figures: Rafael Devers (25), Trevor Story (15) and Bobby Dalbec (11). It speaks volumes about the team's output that the No. 2 hitter on the list, Story, hasn't played in more than a month, but has never had his spot threatened. And Dalbec, who is third, is no longer an everyday player.
There's every chance that the Red Sox will finish the season with Devers as their only hitter with 20 or more homers. The last time the Red Sox finished a full season with just one member of the 20-homer club was 2015.
"We're always going to be more focused on our total offensive output,'' said chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, "rather than just home runs. But they often do go hand-in-hand. Home runs are really productive. It's obviously the quickest way to score runs. I think we're at our best as an offense when we're stringing together quality at-bats. You would hope that more of those quality at-bats would result in balls going over the fence than have.
"We're still leading the league in doubles, just as we did last year. Obviously, Fenway helps with that. But I don't think all of our power has gone away. I think that's a testament to the quality of at-bats we've been having. But to maximize your run-scoring, you want some balls to go over the fence.''
Bloom is correct when he points out that when it comes to run-scoring, the Red Sox are actually 10th in baseball, part of the top third. But how many additional games could they have won with, say, another 25 homers. Their 28-27 record in games decided by one or two runs suggests: quite a few.
How much of a correlation is there between home runs and victories? Consider that the Sox are 38-28 (.576) when they hit at least one homer and 21-32 (.397) when they don't.
"I think there's a few different reasons why our total is down this year,'' said Bloom. "Some of its personnel and some of it is linked to availability and performance of certain guys.''
Indeed, it would seem inconceivable that, with the start of September just over 10 days away, neither Xander Bogaerts nor J.D. Martinez would be in double figures in homers. Both have been stuck on nine for some time. Martinez last homered a month and a half ago (July 10), while Bogaerts hasn't left the ballpark since Aug. 3.
Neither Martinez nor Bogaerts has ever been, strictly speaking, home run hitters. But Martinez has averaged 32 homers per 162 games in his career while Bogaerts has been good for 20. Neither will come close to those figures in 2022
"It's obviously something that jumps out,'' concedes Bloom. "I don't have a great answer (for their home run dropoffs). They've still been two of our best hitters and most productive offensive players. The best J.D. that we've seen this year was earlier in the year was when he was also not hitting for power, but was a doubles machine, an on-base machine and a run-producing machine. If he's able to do that, that will work just fine and we won't get too worked up over his home run total.
"It's definitely stuck out, but also we know that both of those guys tend to be such good hitters and when they're going good, they're really, really good hitters. That's still been the case this year, so I haven't lost too much sleep over it. But it is something we've noticed.''
It can be dangerous for teams to be too dependent on the long ball -- a criticism that's been hung around the Yankees' neck in reason seasons -- since a one--dimensional attack is bound to go into slumps. Offenses should be diversified enough so that when the power goes out, they still have other ways to score runs.
But it's also undeniably true that in 2022, with shifts, analytics and bullpens full of high-velocity weapons, it's more difficult than ever to string together rallies in which teams need three or four hits in an inning to score multiple runs. Too often this season, the Sox have found themselves a hit shy of a big inning, and without the home run option, come up empty-handed. Meanwhile, teams with more sock can have a game turn around with some baserunners and one well-timed swing of the bat.
The Red Sox have actually compounded matters by failing to demonstrate much plate discipline. The Red Sox are 24th in walks, and at times, have been guilty of swinging at pitches outside the strike zone. Rather than rely on the long ball as part of their attack, the Sox have shown impatience and swung futilely at pitchers' pitches.
As a team, the Red Sox chase rate, per BaseballSavant.com, is 31 percent, above MLB's average of 29 percent.
The combination of a lack of baserunners coupled with a tendency to chase outside the zone has been lethal for the team's lineup.
Positionally, the Sox have gotten little home run production from their outfielders, ordinarily a spot where teams get plenty of pop. In terms of at-bats, Alex Verdugo, Kike Hernandez, Jackie Bradley Jr. (since released) and Jarren Duran have the most at-bats in the outfield; together, the quartet has combined for just 17 homers. First base, another spot that historically is a power position, has yielded just 11 homers, good for 26th among all clubs.
The trade Bloom made hours before the lockout, in which he shipped Hunter Renfroe (31 homers last year) for Bradley and two prospects obviously didn't help the outfield power numbers. Bloom calculated that the Sox would benefit from Bradley's defense and could find others to supply what was lost from Renfroe's departure. That proved faulty.
It's not as if there are any easy or readily-available answers in the player development system. The organization's most advanced hitting prospect is, of course, Triston Casas, who is viewed as a potentially elite offensive performer, but despite his size, does not yet project as a real home run threat at the major league level. Bloom counters by noting that Casas is likely to develop additional power as he progresses, and that it's more important for prospects to be good pure hitters with the potential to hit for more power, rather than already having elite power but sizable holes in their overall hitting approach.
Could Bloom target home run power this offseason as a specific need this winter?
"The biggest thing to me, generally speaking, is that you want a roster that fits together, that works and that gives Alex options and is hard to play against,'' said Bloom. "The more quality at-bats you have, up and down the lineup, the harder you're going to be to face. You don't want to over-correct and try to win the last war. We're always going to try to get the best players we can, offensively and defensively. We have a manager who really knows how to use a deep roster and we want to give him that so he has really good options throughout the game.''
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It was 55 years ago this week that a Jack Hamilton fastball caught Tony Conigliaro in the face, sending Conigliaro to the hospital and costing him the rest of that season and all of next.
For those who were there, on Aug. 18, 1967, it was a chilling moment, one they will never forget. Conigliaro was just 22 at the time, living out his boyhood dream of playing for his hometown team and earning a reputation as one of the game's top young sluggers. He had already led the league in homers at the age of 20 and had reached 100 career homers faster than anyone in American League history.
His future and potential was seemingly limitless -- until the sickening thud of Hamilton's pitch could be heard and Conigliaro was sent sprawling to the ground, rendering him nearly unconscious.
Rico Petrocelli, the Red Sox shortstop, was on deck at the time. He was the first to reach Conigliaro. Some five and a half decades later, he can't shake the memory and acknowledged that he's haunted by the images that come back to him every August.
"That's stuck in my mind for all these years,'' Petrocelli told BostonSportsJournal.com. "I was on deck and I could see the flight of the pitch. It was head-high. He went down and the first thing I thought was that he had been hit straight in the eye and was going to lose the eye. Then, I was afraid that he got hit in the temple, which would have been very dangerous. I got over there and kept telling him. 'You're going to be alright, Tony, you're going to be alright.' The left side of his face just blew up, like a balloon.
"(Team doctor Tom Tierney and trainer Buddy LeRoux) were out there in no time and they called for the stretcher. They took him off and brought him to the hospital. Everybody was very concerned, obviously. I was worried about him dying, to be honest. I'd been hit, I'd seen other guys get hit, but mostly off the helmet, or a glancing blow off the shoulder. But this was square in the face. The sound of it was just terrible.''
The next few days, as information tricked in about Conigliaro's condition -- he had suffered, among other things, a fractured cheekbone, a dislocated jaw and severe damage to his left retina -- the quiet assumption in the clubhouse was that the young star's baseball career had been cruelly and prematurely ended.
In the final weeks of the season, released from the hospital, Conigliaro visited the team and even watched some games from the dugout with his teammates. But a return to the ballpark proved to be emotionally devastating for Conigliaro, who, according to Petrocelli, would sometimes weep about his inability to play and contribute.
The Sox would go on, even without their young slugger, to capture their first pennant in 21 years. But they fell short of a championship, losing in the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals. Petrocelli has often thought whether Conigliaro's presence in the Series might have meant the difference between a ring and a defeat in seven games.
"When we talked about facing them, there was always this, 'Geez, what if we had Tony?''' Petrocelli recalled. "You know he would have done something -- get a few hits, knock in a few runs, maybe hit a couple of home runs. And I tell you, as good as (Bob) Gibson, was you couldn't throw a fastball by Tony.''
The 1968 season took place without Conigliaro, too, but in spring training of 1969, he miraculously returned to the Sox. Even more astounding, he hit a dramatic go-ahead two-run homer in the 10th inning at Memorial Stadium on Opening Day in Baltimore.
"Never thought it would happen,'' said Petrocelli. "It's one of the great comebacks in sports. This was amazing. That injury was so major, and then coming back to hit a game-winning homer? We went nuts. My goodness. Just being able to hit the ball....it was great.''
Conigliaro enjoyed a solid season (.255, 20 homers and 82 RBI) and incredibly, had an even better year the following season, establishing career highs in homers (36) and RBI (116). After the season, he was shockingly dealt to the California Angels, and he struggled mightily and retired.
Even then, his career wasn't over. Five years later, at 30, he returned to the Red Sox again, taking advantage of the existence of the DH. Again, however, Conigliaro, his eyesight deteriorated, foundered and retired once more -- this time for good.
Post-career, he tried his hand at singing and broadcasting. He had just finished auditioning for the role of color analyst for the Red Sox telecasts in 1982 when he suffered a heart attack, and later, a stroke. He spent the final eight years of his life in a medical facility, passing away in 1990 at 45.
Decades later, Petrocelli still finds himself wondering: What if?
"I'm asked that all the time and I tell you, and I really believe this, Tony could have been a 500 home run guy (had he not been injured),'' said Petrocelli."With the DH, he could have played a long time. He could hit. He had the perfect home run swing, (producing) long fly balls, with the power to hit to all fields. And he was fearless. He just had that knack. I really think he could have been a 500 home run guy. He was getting better and better each year.
"And that night just ended it.''