Picking Up The Pieces After Another Lost Weekend
Boston drops three of four in Toronto: Sale is coming back,Perez demoted, the offense awakens, and the Rays are on deck
Before getting into it, I want to say thanks to everyone who has been reading. My most recent post, The Season Is On Fire, broke my personal record for most read article. That was gratifying, but it was also read by way more people than the number of subscribers I have. So, if you’re reading and you’re not subscribed, please, subscribe! It’s free! It’s fun! It’s about the Red Sox, so if you like the Red Sox, this is a great time to subscribe. And given how they’re playing, if you hate the Red Sox, it’s an even better time to subscribe.
So thanks, everybody, for reading, and now, let’s get into it.
What is there to say?
I’ve been sitting here for 10 minutes now and I honestly don’t know. There are times when something happens on a baseball field hundreds if not thousands of miles from me and it takes my breath away. That’s the power of sport. Sometimes it shoots you up off the couch like your butt just exploded (though happier than that), and other times it leaves you dumbfounded, searching for any word to explain what you just saw. That’s how I felt. I imagine if you were watching you felt similarly. It was heartbreaking, shocking, and day-ruining. Sunday, the Red Sox were a simple out from getting out of the inning with their two run lead intact and likely coming out of Toronto with a split, which, let’s be honest, given the way Boston was playing, would’ve been a gift from on high. Instead, we’re all stuck trying to figure out how what happened could’ve possibly happened.
To state it plainly, the Red Sox lost three of four in Toronto and sit, thanks to Tampa winning again, four games behind those Rays for first place in the AL East. If you want a positive spin on things, after the way the Red Sox played in Detroit it was a legitimate question whether or not the Blue Jays would win every game of the series by eight runs, but they didn’t, so that’s something, I guess.
I’ll try and frame this in the form of good news, as much for my sanity as for yours.
Martin Perez was demoted!
Friday I posted that the Red Sox season was on fire. It was, and remains so. I suggested four different ways the Red Sox could improve their odds of putting out the fire, and the Red Sox took one of them, or half of one of them. Progress! I’m not in the business of dancing on someone’s grave, metaphorically or literally, or in this case, celebrating a demotion, but it was clear Martin Perez was not getting the job done in Boston’s rotation. The Red Sox recognized this likely well before the actual demotion was made, but with Chris Sale coming back soon (more on that later) it was an easy decision to make and Perez was banished to the bullpen… where he came in after Game One of the series had gotten well out of hand. He gave up a run on two hits in his only inning of work. He wasn’t seen again in the series, which as I said above, included three one-run games, so that’s good news again, or at least a tiny sip of it.
Pitching in the two middle games was good!
Red Sox pitching had given up 62 runs in the previous nine games following Game One of the just-completed Jays series. That works out to… a billion runs a game. So it was a great sign that the Red Sox got good starts from Tanner Houck and Nick Pivetta on Saturday. Pivetta in particular looked in command, issuing only a walk to go with five strikeouts and a single hit in his six innings of work. Had it been a regular game and not one of MLB’s bastard seven inning double-header games, I’m sure Pivetta would have continued pitching into the seventh. Regardless, if the Red Sox are going to make a run at the division as opposed to sinking like a lead-encrusted stone, they’re going to need some decent starters to do it.
I do think those starters are here, or will be shortly. Which brings me to…
Chris Sale is on his way to Boston!
Shockingly, the team did not heed my suggestion to bring Sale up immediately and have him start in Toronto this weekend. Instead, Sale started in Triple-A and threw 4.2 innings against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders (they’re the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Triple-A). Sale allowed two hits and three walks while striking out eight. Afterwards he pronounced himself ready to go. The plan is reportedly to have him pitch against the Orioles next Saturday, which makes sense as the Orioles are somewhere in between a Triple-A and a MLB team and so represent a nice middle step.
This is great news for a floundering team. Replacing Perez with Sale, even if he might still be a bit rusty, will be a huge lift. In fact, just having him on the mound and in the rotation will be a huge lift mentally for the team, I’d imagine. Heck, it’s a huge lift to me now, and I’m just sitting on a couch wishing my water glass would magically fill itself up. If only Chris Sale were in the rotation now! I’m thirsty!
The return of Sale will put the population of the Red Sox rotation back to six, depending on how you classify Tanner Houck, who went 3.2 one-run innings against the Blue Jays on Saturday. A rotation of Sale, Houck, Eovaldi, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Pivetta isn’t a healthy Dodgers rotation, but it’s reasonably strong. Of course, that leaves out not just Perez but Garrett Richards. Richards pitched Sunday against Toronto and was effective if not actually good, allowing three earned runs in five innings. But if you start to look at other things, like there was a fourth run allowed but it was unearned as the runner got to first on a Rafael Devers error (let’s ignore it was Richards who got him the rest of the way home). Further, Richards only managed to strike out two in those five innings. Also, three runs in five innings isn’t actually good.
We’ll see how the team handles it, but we’re getting into mid-August, the division lead is gone, and the Rays are building a big lead of their own. In addition, the Yankees and Blue Jays are coming for the Red Sox Wild Card spot. The time to rest starters through a six man rotation is over. The best starters the team has should be in the rotation as soon as possible, and right now that does not include Richards.
The offense woke up
Despite dropping eight runs on the Blue Jays yesterday, the Red Sox lost. Continuing our positive look at things, however, it was encouraging they were able to score eight runs. The last time Boston put that many runs on the board was July 19th, also on the road against the Blue Jays. Between then and now, the hitting was meager at best. The team struggled in all aspects, simply getting on base was difficult, and as soon as runners were on it was almost guaranteed they would be stranded. Unlike in recent days, the middle of Boston’s lineup lead the way.
We’ll have to see if this breaks up the team’s negative momentum or if it’s just a blip I mention in two weeks when bemoaning the team’s continued lack of hitting. It’s probably worth pointing out that, after this upcoming three game series against Tampa in Boston, the Red Sox schedule is the following:
Three games vs Baltimore
Three games at New York AL
Three games vs Texas
Three games vs Minnesota
Three games at Cleveland
That’s 15 games against hittable pitching and, other than the Yankees, three last place teams and four teams with negative run differentials.
The Red Sox have struggled lately against bad teams, so there are no gimmes here, but having Sale back will help and presumably at some point trade deadline acquisition Kyle Schwarber will come off the IL as well.
The division isn’t gone yet. Get swept by the Rays this week though and it will be. Sweep the Rays and the Sox will be but a single game back. With Sale and Schwarber on the horizon, there is hope, and maybe more than that if the team can make the most out of the opportunity this series presents.
Bless you for trying to maintain some positivity for us all! It is much appreciated sir!