The Boston Red Sox did not look like a particularly urgent bunch in their first week-plus of games coming out of the All-Star break.
Anything but has been the case over the last week and a half. When it’s mattered most, the Sox are continuing to pile up series win after series win after series win.
Boston followed up series triumphs over Seattle then Texas with an important victory in a three-game set in Kansas City. The Sox shaved a game off of their 2 1/2-game deficit in the AL wild-card race while creating a three-game lead over the fifth-place Mariners.
Were it not for some timely hitting by Royals All-Star Bobby Witt Jr., the Red Sox may very well have earned a sweep in KC. Of course, “almost” doesn’t count for anything… except in horseshoes and hand grenades.
All in all, the Sox did what they were supposed to do. Sweeping their way into the postseason just wasn’t going to happen. It’s about winning series’ and
What I liked
The urgency.
Oh man, did I like the urgency…
Alex Cora has talked a lot about “not getting too high, not getting too low” over the course of a 162-game season. That certainly has merit, but at some point, it becomes a detrimental approach if your end goal is to make a playoff run.
That point is now. The Sox entered their mid-week series in KC with less than two months remaining in the regular season and a multi-game deficit in the wild card hunt.
And they played like it.
The offense showed out in the first two games to keep an also-talented Royals team at bay. The pitching, while far from perfect, was effective enough to produce a favorable end result.
At various points during the series, NESN’s commentators said the games had a playoff-like atmosphere. While none of them may have actually been a playoff game, it’s highly encouraging that the Sox treated them like one.
And in the playoffs, it’s anything goes. You can typically throw your traditional gameplan blueprint right out the window. They’re unpredictable, they’re messy, and they’re all about getting to the finish line by any means necessary.
That’s the way the Sox approached these games in Kansas City, even though they didn’t win all of ‘em. But guess what? You’re not going to win all of your games in the postseason, either…
Romy Gonzalez swung the bat well this series, and with power. He only played on Monday and Wednesday, but that didn’t stop him from launching two 400-foot bombs and driving in five runs in the course of five at-bats. He’s slashing .284/.336/.477 for an impressive .813 OPS.
I had never been particularly high on Gonzalez and his place on this team, but it appears he has the tools and make-up to carve out a Steve Pearce-type role on this team. Cora seems to be pushing all the right buttons there…
Then there was Chris Martin. The veteran left-hander displayed zero rust in his return from a shoulder injury. Fifteen pitches, 10 strikes. Three strikeouts. No hits, no walks, no runs. That’s the Martin the Sox will need to make a bonafide postseason push.
And of course, Ceddanne Rafaela. What more can you say about that guy?
What I didn’t like
As solid as James Paxton was in the opener, the rest of the starting pitching left a little — to a lot — to be desired.
Brayan Bello pitched “OK.” His three runs on five hits and three walks with six strikeouts on 89 pitches in a 4 2/3-inning no-decision Tuesday didn’t bury the Sox. He pitched well enough for them to win… because they won 6-5.
But it represented a regression from a solid string of four consecutive starts of at least five innings — and three of them six or more. It wasn’t enough to ring the alarm bells over — again, the Royals are a good team, too.
As for Kutter Crawford, the alarm has been ringing for a while now. And unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be possible to reset it this season…
Crawford’s season is as good as cooked in my book. After another stinker in Kansas City — 3 2/3 innings, six runs — all earned, five hits, four walks and only three strikeouts — it’s pretty clear that he’s running on fumes. That makes four consecutive starts with five-plus runs allowed and no more than five innings pitched in each. A whopping 22 earned runs in 18 2/3 innings.
Normally, with the Sox in such a tight spot with no room for error, I would be against giving some of your more key players a breather. But we’ve reached the point where Crawford is actively hurting the team each time he takes the mound.
It would be beneficial to all parties for Crawford to go down with a phantom injury and miss at least one turn in the rotation — frankly, maybe even two would be beneficial at this point.
That’s also why I felt it was so important to bring in more than just one starter or long innings-eater type of arm at the deadline. But what’s done is done…
What’s next
The Sox won’t exactly have a soft landing after a positive stay in Kansas City.
Boston returns home to face the AL West-leading Houston Astros in a three-game set beginning Friday. The Sox are in line to send Tanner Houck and Paxton to the mound to bookend the series, with a TBD currently on Saturday.
The good news is that the ‘Stros have been a streaky bunch of late. Prior to winning the last two of their three games at rival Texas, they had lost four in a row —- including dropping a series against the Rays. Houston also dropped two of three against Pittsburgh and is 9-9 in its 18 games since the All-Star break.
The Sox will contend with a couple of decent arms in Ronel Blanco and Hunter Brown to open and close the series. Spencer Arrighetti and his 5.33 ERA will be the reward in Saturday’s game…
All in all, it looks like a winnable series. And the good news is, they’ll have another crack at the Rangers immediately following this series before heading to Baltimore for a four-game gauntlet. So the Sox have a very good opportunity to keep stringing together some significant momentum.
It would behoove them to take advantage of that…
Gethin Coolbaugh is a columnist for Boston Sports Journal. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter.