Outside of Rafael Devers, a dreadful night to begin a dreary-seeming weekend for Red Sox
COMMENTARY
Turns out Rafael Devers cannot beat the Yankees by himself. Red Sox brass would be wise to write that down for a potential arbitration rebuttal next spring.
I kid, of course. Franchy Cordero helped out on Thursday night as well, though the two rockets he hit just went for a fifth-inning double and a sixth-inning lineout that just about took Gerrit Cole’s glove off.
Not quite Devers’s two home runs, Nos. 5 and 6 for him off the all-world Cole. Oh, and there was also Cordero’s misplayed pop fly that ultimately scored the critical New York run in a 6-5 loss.
“I know [Cordero] doesn’t have a ton of experience in the infield,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters. “It kind of drifted on him a little bit. He was wary of the catcher, then you start scrambling and it’s too late.”
It’s fine. Really. Because it sure feels too late.
Trailing the Yankees by 15 games with half the season gone, the Red Sox catching them has felt off the table for weeks, to the point we’ve all just sort of accepted it. (Boston’s 20-6 June actually lost ground to New York’s 22-6, an absurd point I can’t help but repeat.)
And the idea this series is some sort of measuring stick or tone setter for the second half? Thanks to injuries, the Red Sox started Josh Winckowski on Thursday night, they’re starting Connor Seabold on Friday with Michael Wacha likely going to the injured list, Kutter Crawford looks in line for a majority of the innings Saturday . . . even with the Yankees sitting Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo in cautionary calls Thursday, yeesh.
It’s not a representative sample. Or maybe it is, given I think we all knew Wacha and Rich Hill weren’t likely to make 30-plus starts. Either way, this series might be of most value to those who appreciate history, given what New York is doing.
Boston had nine baserunners against Cole and three relievers, putting just three in scoring position in one of the most lopsided one-run games you’re ever going to see. The last ball any Red Sox not named Devers or Cordero hit with any authority was in the fourth inning.
Given the score, Boone called on lockdown-closer Clay Holmes for the ninth, the one-time class valedictorian who’s spun his potential-laden heavy stuff while in Pittsburgh to being the best closer in the game in less than a year. It hardly felt necessary.
So began a potentially defining aspect the rest of the way: Sixteen of the final 80 games of the season are against the Yankees, a gift only if New York opts not to chase 120 wins and starts lining up its playoff rotation on Aug. 1.
Given that pitching array, it feels reasonably safe to assume this will become the ninth straight American League East series the Red Sox don’t win. It’s a profound stat: The Red Sox are 9-19 against division foes, and 36-19 against everyone else. San Francisco is the only other .500 team who comes close to that futility, and it’s barely — they’re 12-12 in the NL West, and 29-28 beyond it.
It still doesn’t feel like a fair assessment of things, given Boston is a better-than-.500 team against better-than-.500 competition. Those 19 division losses include seven with a blown save and eight of their 13 one-run losses for the year — five of those overlap. But I’m reminded of that old line about financial markets, how they “can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.”
“We have some kids that have to step up. It’s part of the equation,” manager Alex Cora told reporters. “We just have to keep maneuvering and jabbing and moving around and trying to win games somehow, some way.”
They need 90 of them, somehow, some way, and they’ve clawed half of them already with 79 games left. Splitting half of their remaining 48 within the East — 15 against New York, 13 with Tampa, 11 with Baltimore, nine with Toronto — would mean they need to close 21-10 against an out-of-division array that includes contenders Houston, Minnesota, and Milwaukee, but also Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati.
Silly conversation for July, of course. But it was this or, spinning off Josh “Wrigley Field is stock standard” Winckowski pooh-poohing the 60-23 Yankees after they tagged him for six runs, mocking up an alternate career where he becomes a food critic unable to be impressed.
I suppose there are worse setups for a weekend than zero expectations, against a team so far ahead, in a league so structured toward ginning up competition among the second-rate, that even a single victory will feel like something.
Getting that single win, however, is no sure thing if Friday was any indication.
Unless they figure out how to get Rafael Devers up 12 times or so.
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