The days come off the calendar quickly now for Xander Bogaerts. After Sunday's 13-3 win over the Kansas City Royals at Fenway, there are just 16 games left in the 2022 season and only seven of those at home.
Are those to be the final two series for Bogaerts in a Red Sox uniform? It's possible. Bogaerts has the ability to opt out of his current contract and reap the kind of deal that the game's best shortstops now get. The Red Sox made a pitiful attempt to extend him last March, and while the Sox continue to say all the right things about wanting to keep Bogaerts in a Sox uniform for the remainder of his career, they've yet to make that notion a reality.
So, some uncertainty is associated with every remaining day. Was Sunday the final weekend game at home for Bogaerts? When the Sox return from their upcoming road trip, will be down to just two more Fenway series as a member of the home team?
Much of that is beyond Bogaerts' control.
What remains within his grasp, however, is the steady, superb play he has given the Red Sox since 2013. On Sunday, Bogaerts was a big part of the team's offense --at least at the beginning of the game. His first-inning double banged off The Wall and scored Tommy Pham with Boston's first run. In the third, in his next plate appearance, he reached on an infield single and came around to score.
The double had other significance, too. It was the 1,400th base hit of his career, all with the Sox of course, and made him only the fourth player in franchise history to reach that milestone before turning 30. The other three who accomplished that feat -- Carl Yastrzemski, Bobby Doerr and Jim Rice -- have two other things in common: They each played their entire careers with the Sox, and each was, upon retirement, eventually elected to Cooperstown.
"I didn't know about that until someone told me about it the other day,'' said Bogaerts. "Especially when you're reaching for stuff like that, most of the time, I don't know about stuff until someone comes up and tells me about it, and then I'm like, 'OK, now I'm aware.' I didn't know how close or far I was from it. I know the doubles thing -- I'm a couple away from (another milestone).''
Ever humble, Bogaerts claimed that the trio he joined in the club record books "were all much better players than me. But for me to be on that list is special. on a personal level, (when I think about) how far I've come since I played my first year in the Dominican Summer League...it's crazy.''
The "doubles thing'' to which Bogaerts refers is this: the first-inning double tied him with Dom DiMaggio for ninth all-time in Red Sox franchise history at 307. It also tied him with DiMaggio in another category -- for sixth-pace in extra-base hits by a Red Sox player in his first 10 seasons. Nomar Garciaparra is next on the list at 507.
And there's the American League batting title for which Bogaerts is competing. His 2-for-4 performance Sunday left him with a .316 batting average -- one point behind Minnesota's Luis Arraez, and tied with the Yankees' Aaron Judge.
With the Sox all but officially eliminated from playoff contention, the prospect of winning a batting crown is keeping him focused down the stretch.
"Yeah, it is,'' conceded Bogaerts. "I'm not going to sit here and lie to you. If it happens, it happens. If it don't, it don't. But I'm aware of it. A couple of weeks back, I wasn't even in the conversation. Since then, I've put myself into it. It's something that's within reach. I just try to get even more locked in and I try to go for it. That's how I've always been.''
Bogaerts can see the end of the season coming toward him fast. In other years, that would be ordinary. But this time, given the uncertainty surrounding his future, it's more of a factor.
Is this the beginning of the end of his Red Sox career?
"I haven't really thought about it much,'' he said. "I know it will get to a point where it will it start getting more (real), from five (games remaining) to three to one more. We finish at home, so it's going to be an interesting (last) homestand. So I'll just take it day by day and stay really focused on the job I have to do.''
In that sense, it will be business as usual for Bogaerts, who has always done the right thing and always played the game the right way. But in another sense, he can't help but wonder if these next two-plus weeks represent the end of the only chapter of his baseball career that he's ever known.