Who’s your daddy, 2024 Boston Red Sox?
The San Diego Padres, apparently…
A winnable series on paper quickly got away from Boston as San Diego swooped into Fenway Park for the first time since 2013 and — unlike that series in which they got swept — took it to the Red Sox.
Boston suffered losses of 9-2 in the series opener and 11-1 on Saturday to clinch the series loss. Only a 4-1 victory in Sunday’s finale kept the Sox from being swept in a three-game series for the first time since April 9-11 against Baltimore — their only such sweep of the season.
Happy flight.
— Red Sox (@RedSox) June 30, 2024
🔗: https://t.co/QoEkrvnzu1 pic.twitter.com/KUaCeSjGnU
It marked the end of a streak of four consecutive series victories (which could have been five had the Sox and Blue Jays not been rained out in their rubber match last Wednesday) that helped the Sox put a spark back in their season.
“We’re a lot better than what people thought, so we’ll take that,” Alex Cora said. “But at the same time, we need to keep improving."
After being unable to muster much offense in the first two games of the series, Boston’s bats woke up a bit on Sunday with eight hits and a pair of homers to key the victory. It was the usual suspects on offense, with Rafael Devers mashing a first-inning, tow-run homer and Jarren Duran adding a solo blast in the fifth.
“I think we’re in a good spot,” Duran said. “You know, we hit our bumps and bruises, but like we’ve shown some really good things. Like we’ve shown some really good comeback games, and we’ve shown to be able to pitch well and hit well.”
Rafael Devers goes oppo-taco over the Monster! pic.twitter.com/5eAot1GbEO
— MLB (@MLB) June 30, 2024
On the mound, the Sox got a much-needed boost from Josh Winckowski in his first start in the big leagues since May 2. Winckowski worked five scoreless, four-hit innings with no walks and a strikeout to lower his season ERA to 2.80.
“Any time you go out there, you want to keep the team in the game,” Winckowski said. “The early runs obviously help a ton from Raf. You know, let’s you attack the zone a little more comfortably. Felt good out there and just mixed the pitches.”
The win snapped a three-game skid (which, again, is also a little unfair given the Wednesday rainout), something the Sox hadn’t had since dropping four in a row from May 15 to 18. Not letting series get totally away from them is something that will yield positive results in the long run, but now the Sox have a chance to get rolling again.
“The one thing I do believe is that because of the youth and athleticism, we’re not gonna go through stretches that — it might happen, because that’s the nature of the game — (of) losing five, seven games in a row," Cora said. "Because on a nightly basis somebody that is a freak athletic-wise can take over a game and help us win a game.”
Three games in Miami should certainly produce a series victory before what’s sure to be a hard-fought three-game set in New York. With six games after that against the A’s and Royals to lead into the All-Star break, the Sox are still in a good spot to do some damage and help make up Craig Breslow’s mind that this team is a contender (of some sorts, anyway)…
“Keep developing these guys to be better,” said Cora. “The trading deadline is the trading deadline, the standings are the standings. And yeah, we gonna talk about that of course because that’s what people want to here. But at the end, you know, I think we’re doing a good job staying in the moment. Not getting too high when we’re playing well and not too low when we struggle.”
Added Duran, “I think going into the second half, we’re really figuring out where we are as a team and what we can do really well. And I really like the spot that we’re in.”
Waldron honors Wake
Matt Waldron endeared himself to a lot of Red Sox fans on Sunday afternoon.
The only primary knuckleball pitcher in the majors opened the game with a tribute knuckleball to honor the late, great knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who once coached him on the mechanics of the pitch before his untimely death at the age of 57 last October.
.@Padres starter Matt Waldron threw a knuckleball to start the game in honor of Tim Wakefield ❤️@RedSox pic.twitter.com/5ja1JZ7PeV
— NESN (@NESN) June 30, 2024
“I know that Wakefield towed that rubber, and you could feel it,” an emotional Waldron said. “But yeah, it was tough.”
The 27-year-old Waldron learned a hard lesson on Sunday, one that Wakefield knew too well throughout his 19 major league seasons.
The knuckleball can giveth, and the knuckleball can taketh away…
“That’s the first time I’ve gotten damaged by it, so I’m adjusting to that a little bit,” said Waldron, who gave up both of Boston’s homers in the game. “They did a good job attacking that and, you know, their approach is really well. So I’ve got to commend that, but I’ll bounce back.”
Nicely done, @Matt_Waldron10. #DirtyWater pic.twitter.com/nIigEtAj9P
— Gethin Coolbaugh (@GethinCoolbaugh) June 30, 2024
You can count Duran as one who was glad Waldron’s knuckleball wasn’t dancing around very much…
“Honestly, kind of the thing was like we didn’t want to swing at the knuckleball,” he said. “Because you know, it’s a really hard pitch to hit. But you know, we got it up and it wasn’t moving as much when it was up, so we just put some good swings on it.”
No Houck’in way
Tanner Houck has been remarkably consistent on the mound this season, which made Saturday’s disastrous outing all the more surprising…
Houck was shelled to the tune of eight runs, seven earned, on nine hits in a 4 1/3-inning defeat to drop him to 7-6 on the season. The right-hander hadn’t allowed more than three earned runs in 13 consecutive starts before Saturday.
“Just left too many pitches middle with all my pitches,” Houck said Other than that, just kind of sucked.”
Coming into the game, Houck had allowed only two home runs all season. By the end of the day, the Padres had doubled that total.
"The great ones have bad games right? Today, the slider wasn't great. They put some good at-bats,” Cora said of Houck’s outing.
Is it reason for concern? Not really, unless Houck duplicates the effort his next time out. When exactly is that? Well, he’s in line to start next on Friday… in the opener of that pivotal three-game set in New York.
Talk about putting your best foot forward…
Gethin Coolbaugh is a columnist for Boston Sports Journal. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter.