In most circumstances, a walk-off win in extra innings of a September game at Fenway Park with playoff implications would be cause for much celebration.
“It’s what you live for,” Nick Pivetta said after a clutch September performance of his own. “It’s very exciting, an exciting time.”
And while Tyler O’Neill’s three-run bomb over the Green Monster to seal a 5-3 win and clinch an exciting three-game series victory over the Orioles provided plenty of excitement, the sad reality is… it didn’t really change much at all.
Tyler O'Neill sends a #walkoff HR way over the Monster! pic.twitter.com/nRtMZdBOo1
— MLB (@MLB) September 12, 2024
“We just won a series against one of the best teams in the big leagues, but obviously in our situation it’s not enough,” Alex Cora said. “We’ve got to continue.”
Boston entered the day four games out of the final AL playoff spot, and that’s exactly where they ended it. You can thank a feisty Twins squad that overcame multiple deficits to earn a 6-4 win over the Angels for that.
At least Kansas City, now 2 1/2 games clear of Minnesota, helped the cause with a 4-3 loss to the Yankees, who themselves benefitted from old foe Boston’s triumph over Baltimore to extend their AL East lead over the O’s to 1 1/2 games.
In a vacuum, a Sox series that featured three solid efforts from the rotation coupled with just enough timely hitting — much of it from the red-hot O’Neill, who homered thrice and drove in six — is encouraging.
If you want to walk away from it feeling encouraged, I certainly won’t stop you. For me “tempered and cautious optimism” would best describe how I feel coming out of this series.
“We won two series here at home,” said Cora, making reference to his team taking two of (should have been all) three against the White Sox last weekend. “For some people it doesn’t feel great. But for us, it does.”
If nothing else, the Sox have certainly shown they can hang with the O’s this season. After dropping five of their first six meetings, Boston concluded the season series with five wins in eight games.
That would come in handy if, you know, you actually make it to the postseason…
O’Neill and Pivetta have been doing their parts to make that happen. TO’s (as Cora calls him) contributions have been well documented. Pivetta, meanwhile, has been rounding into form at the right time, allowing no more than two runs in each of his last three starts.
I’ve questioned in the past if Pivetta was mentally tough enough to hack it in this market, but he’s done a lot to quell those concerns this season. And right now, he’s approaching the situation with the absolute right mindset…
“I think it’s more a sense just kind of staying in the moment,” Pivetta said after spinning six innings of one-run ball and punching out nine Orioles. “I know I’ve said this before, but I will continue to say that. I think it’s more about being where we are right now, kind of being where our feet are and trying not to get too far ahead.
“Every single time you think about the singular goal of the singular game that we have each night, we’ve got to win that game and then continue to propel forward. Once you start thinking of the future, it gets too much, there’s a lot going on. Just focus on every single game.”
Their next singular game?
“Now we go to New York and try to play good baseball there,” Cora said.
The Sox meet the rival Yankees for the final time this season for four games in New York. On the mound, Boston will start out by giving the ball to the red-hot Cooper Criswell — he of the 2.12 ERA over 17 innings in his past four starts. Tanner Houck and Brayan Bello will go in the middle two games of the series before Kutter Crawford wraps things up on Sunday.
New York took two of three from the Royals and has been playing “stop and start” baseball for a while now. The Yanks have won consecutive games just twice during a 17-game stretch while going 8-9.
Last time they got together, the Bronx Bombers took two of three in a high-scoring three-game set on July 26-28 at Fenway. New York scored seven runs in all three matchups while outscoring Boston 23-19.
It feels like these Sox would be hard-pressed to replicate those 19 runs — even over four games — with the way they’ve (haven’t) been swinging the sticks of late. It seems that the pitching will have to rise to the occasion if the Sox are going to pull out another series win.
Hopefully it would mean more than this one against Baltimore just did…
Gethin Coolbaugh is a columnist for Boston Sports Journal. Follow him at @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter.