Another year, another chance for Red Sox to turn a something first half into something lasting
The Red Sox, to whatever degree of surprise you consider it, have played themselves into position.
COMMENTARY
Credit to NESN for not using the four-day All-Star break to air two dozen replays of the Ceddanne Rafaela Walkoff Game. Would’ve been an easy call. The moment this hot streak became more than just kicking around National League chaff. The cherry on a 10-win sundae.
I’m trying not to be too wet a blanket here, given both the humidity and this year’s efficiency at obliterating joy. The thing the Red Sox had cooking to end last weekend does smell unmistakably like last summer, though, when Jarren Duran’s team went 10-3 into him winning All-Star MVP in Texas after a young(er) Roman Anthony won the skills showcase at the Futures Game.
“It’s basically proving everybody wrong. We need to stay hungry, be humble, stay hungry, play hard, and be quiet about it and keep proving, man,” Kenley Jansen, last year’s Hall of Fame closer making a late Boston stop, told reporters at the break. “Just keep proving everybody wrong.”
“I think this team has put themselves in a position where we have to take them seriously,” added Craig Breslow, not yet fully embracing his talents as a word salad spinner.
There really is alarming frequency in the parallels. Because it ended in 81-81 purgatory, you’re forgiven for forgetting how it got there. The post-break Red Sox got swept at the Dodgers, got walked off and blown out in Colorado, lost two of three to the Yankees, then faded across August after a five-move trade deadline proved a net negative.
If you can name all five, NESN ought to let you on its morning show.
Not to be confused with 2023, when Boston won five in a row into the break, 8 of 12 coming out of it, and was in the hunt until Kyle Barraclough Night in late August made clear how broken it all was. Or 2022, when a 78-win team was somehow MLB’s best for six weeks. Last-place baseball, as we know all too well, rarely is a line straight down.
When we last spoke, Rafael Devers, San Francisco Giant, was fresh. Initial impressions have me burning that link — .202/.330/.326 in 25 games, limited to DH by back and groin and Will Clark is a psychotic issues. And, after being baseball’s worst offensive team in the dozen days after the trade, the Sox have been its best since — more than seven runs per game, .310 batting average (with a screaming .345 average on balls in play), and the lowest strikeout rate in the game.
Hot weeks don’t forgive the negligence that led us there. Also, since I’m in a reminding mood, Alex Verdugo’s All-Star snub was a regional crisis two Julys ago. Small sample sizes are nasty business.
What does it all mean? The same it did then. The Red Sox, to whatever degree of surprise you consider it, have played themselves into position. Now comes the redeeming part.
Garrett Crochet has been everything dreamed of, throwing the most innings in the game and on the short list of its best starters. Rafaela is having a Duran-esque breakout, albeit with only mild improvements in his abysmal chase and walk rates. (His 1.307 OPS in 42 July plate appearances includes one free pass.)
To me, the offense — powered by Rafaela, a resurgent Trevor Story, Duran, and Anthony the past two weeks — should take a backseat to talking about the pitching, which has excelled during this run. Lucas Giolito has shaved more than a run off his season ERA, holding Toronto without an earned run in seven innings before dominating Washington and Colorado.
Brayan Bello has leaned heavier on his fastball and gotten increasing better results from his sinker, putting together an excellent six weeks despite striking out only five batters per start. Its sustainability, and how much its a step toward being the superstar that felt promised, can be a question for another day.
We are, yet again, talking ourselves into something here. Because there is something brewing.
Too often the last few years, that’s been as far as it’s been allowed to go.
There was plenty of logic in the spots Breslow picked at last year’s deadline, and blaming him for the degree they didn’t work isn’t entirely fair even before considering the unknowns about how much further he wanted to go. Whomever needs to be the one to approve the Sox sticking their neck out in a few weeks best do so.
The saving grace season of the past seven years, 2021, only exists as such because of … Kyle Schwarber, the unquestioned highlight of Chaim Bloom’s tenure his deadline acquisition from a selling-off Nationals team. Maybe this year’s Schwarber is righty starter Joe Ryan of the Twins. Maybe something finally happens with Marlins righty Sandy Alcantara. Maybe it’s another solution to a first-base mess in Tampa’s Yandy Diaz.
The Red Sox hit Wrigley Field this weekend in a playoff position, in an odds-on spot to reach October, despite dealing Devers. Despite the loss of Alex Bregman for seven weeks and Triston Casas for all but a forgettable 29 games. Despite Walker Buehler being a bust and Tanner Houck being even less.
Optimism coming out of the break? Old hat. Old news. A reminder of the old days.
Do something with it for a change, and make sure the Savannah Bananas aren’t a contender for the highlight of our baseball summer again.
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