Another befuddling Red Sox series not about the loss so much as the less
Great teams become more than the sum of their talent. The 2019 Red Sox are markedly the opposite.
COMMENTARY
You’re probably aware that the New York Yankees have 13 players on their injured list, among them expected lynchpins Aaron Judge, Luis Severino, and Giancarlo Stanton. That list might be 14 or 15 before it’s 12: On Sunday, Gio Urshela (batting .351/.415/.509 at third) took a pitch off his wrist and DJ LeMahieu (.310 with nine doubles and 15 RBI) came out with a stiff knee — he’d fouled a ball off it Friday.
“It’s like we have a new face in our locker room every day,” Luke Voit told reporters on a boisterous Sunday in San Francisco. “It’s fun, man, because no one thinks we should be winning these games and everyone on our club, before the game and after the game, is cheering for each other and happy. Our confidence is through the roof.”
They are boisterous because the Yankees are 12-3 since April 12, best in the majors. The Red Sox, after 2-1 and 5-2 losses to Tampa Bay this weekend, are 11-17 period.
One series win in nine tries. Under .500 at home and about to welcome Oakland, which slapped them about during that opening road trip. These Red Sox are not lost, necessarily, but they are something just as bad.
They are less. Less than the sum of their parts. Less than even the lowest reasonable expectation of what they should be. Less, despite their willowwisp starter with the 0-5 record and the $145 million extension no one seemed terribly troubled about proclaiming he’s seeing the same preparation from them as a year ago.
“I keep saying the same things over and over, but it’s a step in the right direction,” Chris Sale said on a somber Sunday in the Fenway Park clubhouse, his seven innings of four-hit, eight-strikeout baseball not enough for multiple reasons. “Nobody wants to hear that. Love to be sitting up here talking about wins and all that, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. I’m grinding. I’m trying to find a way.
“You got to find a way to win.”
In Arizona (16-13), they lost a marathon game on Sunday, but they fought to the end, scoring two in the 15th inning after giving up three. In Minnesota (16-9), they got six games with the Orioles early and won them all. In St. Louis (17-10), to cap a 7-2 homestand, Paul DeJong crowed “we can find ways to win anywhere” and point to examples.
In Boston, Alex Cora sees “flashes” and notes “I honestly feel like we’re not that far.”
Truth be told, I see them too. You probably do as well. I also see pieces of the 2018 team in all those early season surprises. Things that team, things — just as an example — every great Patriots team did that were about more than talent or luck or even anything quantifiable. They won when they were supposed to, and they won when they weren’t.
Some teams have it. The 2013 Red Sox certainly did. The 2018 Washington Nationals, who were just about everybody‘s pick and simply never came together, certainly didn’t.
“You play 162 games. It’s a marathon, and it shows you who you are,” Nats GM Mike Rizzo said after an 82-80 season. “We’ve earned the record that we have.”
That’s where these Red Sox are the most troubling. Because you can’t underestimate them. You can’t think they’re going to linger under .500 for several more weeks. There’s no logical reason to, especially not with the starting pitchers allowing three earned runs or fewer in 14 of 15 games.
And yet, Jackie Bradley Jr. can’t bring in Yandy Diaz’s shot to the garage door in center on Sunday, which is what makes Rafael Devers’s latest error sting and turns a 2-0 hole to 4-0. Offensively, 13 straight at-bats with runners in scoring position without a hit. It’s having the sixth-best OPS in the American League with runners in scoring position rather than the first of a year ago. It’s being 13th in the AL when there’s a runner on third and less than two outs in 2019 versus second in 2018.
Why? Maybe it’s some grand character flaw, some weakness that sprouted after all the success of a year ago. Maybe it’s nothing more than small sample size or poor execution in the moment.
It’ll change over the long haul if it’s the latter.
Probably. Unless it doesn’t.
The offense is disjointed on a good day. Bradley Jr., Eduardo Nunez, and Steve Pearce are among the worst bats in the majors — the World Series MVP is 4 for 39 with 17 strikeouts, his swing-and-miss rate nearly double a year ago. Mitch Moreland has been the most pleasant surprise, and he’s not even 10 percent better than league average given his sub-.300 on-base.
The Red Sox still have four legitimate offensive threats in J.D. Martinez (provided this back issue is nothing), Xander Bogaerts (.208 with RISP vs. .342 a year ago), Andrew Benintendi, and Mookie Betts (merely very good as opposed to superhuman). They’re still regularly dominated, with listless showings like Sunday’s hardly unique.
“Sometimes you don’t even understand,” Bogaerts told reporters. “Trying to find answers, but it’s so weird … It just hasn’t all clicked yet. I think we have to continue to get better, real quick.”
It’s probably too simple to just point at Michael Chavis, the youngest and hungriest player on the roster, and see his success as proof of what everyone else is lacking. After all, he is just 6 for 24 with an overeager error in the ninth on Sunday, albeit with those 6 hits averaging about 400 feet per.
Yet these kinds of seasons have flipped on less. His passion and energy can only boost a room facing a simple-sounding task that’s undone plenty of potential contenders.
Just keep working. The results will come.
I mean, they have to, don’t they? Right?
That’s the hard part. We know it’s a marathon. We know they have the pedigree. We know they’re so, so much better than this.
That doesn’t always equal wins. It certainly hasn’t as we ready to flip the calendar.
