Truly, one of the great streaks in modern day sports has come to an end…
For the first time all season, the Boston Red Sox lost a game on Sunday. Coming in at 9-0 and outscoring opponents 58-20 on the seventh (first?) day of the week, the Red Sox finally faltered in an 8-4, extra-innings loss to the Detroit Tigers.
Oh, and remember that challenge Alex Cora issued his team to go out and win the Tigers series? Well, they almost did, but ultimately… they didn’t. Boston held a 3-0 lead after four innings before Brayan Bello gave up single runs in the fifth and sixth before giving up the tying and go-ahead runs — both courtesy of Justin Slaten on the mound in relief — to flip the script.
Instead, the loss secured a series split with a Tigers team that, while also hovering around .500, is a team these Red Sox should have been able to beat three times out of four.
Rafael Devers momentarily saved the day in the eighth with his 11th home run of the season to tie it (and had a couple of really nice plays in the field...) before reliever Cam Booser took the mound in the 10th and coughed up four runs to seal a disappointing loss. Boston had more than one chance, too, with Connor Wong coming to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded in a tie game, only to tease a long ball with a flyout to deep right to force extras.
Andy Ibáñez: CLUTCH. pic.twitter.com/KpyE8Fs2lt
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) June 2, 2024
Also with the loss… you guessed it, Boston fell back to .500 at 30-30. That’s sixty games in, nearly 40 percent of the regular season down, and the Red Sox remain unable to jumpstart their season with any sort of real run.
“We know where we at, man,” said Cora before playing the rookie card. “We’re playing with five rookies today, so we’ve got to be realistic with where we’re at. We’re playing good baseball, that’s the thing.”
Are you really playing good baseball though, Alex?
Staying afloat works early in the year to keep you from having a big hole to dig out of. Yet as the season progresses, the missed opportunities begin to add up. Then one day, you look up and you’re more than 10 games out of first and starting to slide in the wild card race…
“We had a chance to be in three out of four, didn’t happen,” Cora added. “But for some reason with this group, we don’t get frustrated. You know, we just keep teaching the game and try to help them to be better.”
Starters snap back into form
Perhaps the biggest positive in this series was watching the starting pitching back into form a bit.
After a bumpy turn-plus through the rotation, Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck, Cooper Criswell and Bello combined for a 3.04 ERA across 23 2/3 innings.
Before Bello gave up two in the seventh (again, thanks Slaten…), that ERA number would have been down to 2.28, which is more in line with their early-season success. But even an ERA around 3 is encouraging given what looked like another potential “wheels falling off” stretch…
“Going into the seventh, we felt comfortable with him,” Cora said of Bello. “They get the two hits there, and we went to Slaten. I think overall today (Bello) was OK.”
The same can’t be said for half of the ‘pen, as both Slaten and Booser faltered with chances to pitch their team closer to victory.
Booser had a chance to limit the damage to one run in the 10th, but instead gave up a two-out, two-run single to Javier Baez to make it 7-4 before Carson Kelly tacked on an RBI double. Boston went down with a whimper in the bottom of the 10th.
Javy brings 'em both home in the 10th! 💪 pic.twitter.com/7FGUTX60Be
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) June 2, 2024
I mean, when Javy Baez is turning the lights out on you with big hits in 2024 … yikes.
“They put good at-bats,” Cora said. “There were some matchups there that we liked and others that we didn’t, but that’s where we were in the bullpen. We were one pitch away from getting out of it.”
Enmanny being Enmanny
Tyler O’Neill’s loss is Enmanuel Valdez’s gain.
Valdez struggled in his first stint with the big league club this year, batting just .156 (14 for 90) in 28 games before being demoted to Triple-A Worcester, where his offensive struggles continued to the tune of a .230 average (17 for 74) over 20 games.
Nevertheless, the 25-year-old infielder made the most of his latest opportunity at the big league level after being called up to fill O’Neill’s roster spot when the veteran outfielder landed on the 10-day injured list with right knee inflammation.
After going 0 for 1 with a strikeout as a pinch hitter in Thursday’s series-opening 5-0 loss to Detroit, Valdez was the driving force in the Red Sox’s 6-3 victory on Saturday after a 3-for-4 day that included a pair of homers, a second-inning solo shot and a two-run blast in the sixth.
Have a day, Enmanuel Valdez!
— MLB (@MLB) June 1, 2024
His 2-run shot is his second of the day! pic.twitter.com/tUJgFSFFuM
It was the first career multi-home run game and second career three-hit affair. Valdez also established a new personal best with three extra-base hits, logging a fourth-inning double in addition to his homers.
“I feel very happy to be able to help the team win,” Valdez told NESN through a team interpreter after the game. “I know that (Ceddanne) Rafaela did it last night, and for me to come today (Saturday) and help the team win and do my part to help the team win, that’s big for me.”
"For me to come today and help the team win and do my part, that's big for me."
— NESN (@NESN) June 1, 2024
Enmanuel Valdez on hitting 2 home runs in the win over Detroit@WebsterOnTV | #RedSox pic.twitter.com/Ma0ZpcDRLN
It’s interesting that Valdez mentioned Rafaela, who was a key cog in Friday’s 7-3 victory with a two-homer day of his own. Valdez and Rafaela have taken similar paths to Boston, with both debuting during the 2023 season and showing flashes of offensive potential soon after.
Valdez doesn’t come with the same pedigree as Rafaela, but there’s clearly something there with Valdez. He doesn’t profile as an everyday player at the moment, nor do I expect he ever will, but he certainly could carve out a role as a utility player here.
Valdez doesn’t have the same positional versatility as Rafaela, making only one of his 75 career appearances away from second base at shortstop, but with Vaughn Grissom headed to the injured list again, there will be plenty of opportunity for him to earn playing time going forward.
And with the way David Hamilton has struggled at short, you might even consider giving Valdez another shot there. Can he really be that much worse? He isn’t a plus defender and did struggle in the field when he came up last season, but again, the bar isn’t very high with Hamilton…
Either way, the opportunity is there for Valdez to carve out some playing time. He seems like he’s well on his way to taking it this time around…
Grissom injury a blessing in disguise?
It seems like Grissom can’t catch a break to begin his Red Sox career.
The 23-year-old “second baseman of the future” is back on the shelf after suffering a right hamstring strain in Saturday’s game, forcing the team to play him on the 10-day injured list a day later.
"Very unexpected. Feel like I was just seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. So, it sucks."
— NESN (@NESN) June 1, 2024
Vaughn Grissom on straining his right hamstring today vs Detroit | #RedSox pic.twitter.com/0G7UnThzcJ
“He feels like it wasn’t as bad as in spring training,” Cora said of Grissom, who missed a large chunk of the spring and the beginning of his first regular season with Boston recovering from. Cora added that Grissom’s latest hamstring injury was “mild.”
You never want to see any player get hurt, but a break for Grissom might not be the worst thing in the world. The team didn’t say whether or not he would require a rehab stint before returning, but logging some more games in Worcester to get his confidence up could be beneficial.
The fact of the matter is Grissom isn’t big league ready, plain and simple. After showing promise in sporadic appearances over his first two years in the majors with Atlanta, Grissom has looked entirely lost at the plate. He is slashing .148/.207/.160 with 19 strikeouts and only one extra-base hit across 23 games this season with Boston.
In an ideal scenario, Grissom would be allowed to continue his development down on the farm. Of course, the Sox’s shallow roster construction required the team to thrust him into a spot he clearly was not ready for. Grissom may very well turn out to be a franchise cornerstone for years to come, and as I wrote recently, the verdict is truly still out on the trade even as Chris Sale tears up the league with the Braves (save for Saturday’s eight-run clunker against the A’s).
In another blow to Boston’s depth, up-and-coming outfielder Wilyer Abreu suffered a freak injury after falling down the dugout steps Sunday and twisting his right ankle. Cora said Abreu will undergo treatment and be re-evaluated by Tuesday.
Furthermore, the team placed Romy Gonzalez on the 10-day IL (retroactive to May 31) on Sunday with a left hamstring strain. The team also transferred Garrett Whitlock to the 60-day IL following his UCL surgery this week. Cora noted that he doesn’t expect Gonzalez to be out of action for very long.
Utility man Jamie Westbrook was elevated to the big league roster as was he of a billion second chances, Bobby Dalbec. Westbrook even had a chance to play the hero, making his major league debut in the ninth with runners on first and second before working a walk to load the bases for Wong. Dalbec, thankfully, was only called upon as a defensive replacement in the 10th…
Atlanta comes to town
Speaking of the Braves, they’ll be at Fenway for a quick two-game series beginning on Tuesday.
As alluded to above, it will not mark the return of Sale to the mound at Fenway after he pitched on Saturday. Of course, you’d expect he will be with the team, so I’m sure he will get a nice video tribute and ovation from the Fenway faithful — a well-deserved one, at that.
Boston figures to be catching Atlanta at a good time — at least as good as it gets when facing them — as the Braves have dropped six of their previous 10 games.
It’s the second series of the year between the Sox and Braves. Atlanta swept a two-game home set back in early May, outscoring Boston 9-2 in the process.
Tuesday’s series opener should feature a pitchers’ duel of sorts as Red Sox defacto ace Kutter Crawford (2-4, 3.29 ERA) opposes Braves left-hander Max Fried (5-2, 2.97).
Crawford should be extra motivated after struggling in his last two starts, pitching to a 9.58 ERA, allowing 11 runs in 10 1/3 innings. After posting a sterling 1.65 ERA in five April starts, Crawford struggled in May with a 5.14 ERA — not to mention, the Red Sox have lost each of his last five starts.
On Wednesday, Pivetta (2-4, 4.08) gets another crack at it against Atlanta righty Spencer Schwellenbach (0-1, 5.40 ERA). Pivetta will also be looking to turn the page somewhat after a mixed bag in his Thursday start versus the Tigers, where he fanned a franchise record-tying eight straight batters in the first few innings before allowing two runs over 5 1/3 innings in a hard-luck loss.
A series win is always nice, but I think a split is the most realistic outcome that Sox fans can hope for here…
“We got a tough one coming up with the Braves,” Cora said. “Hopefully we win it and then go to Chicago and have another good weekend over there. It will be good for us this week to kind of like gain some momentum.”
Gethin Coolbaugh is a columnist for Boston Sports Journal. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter.