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Sports Q: Will the Red Sox make the playoffs?
The Red Sox are four games back of AL East-leading Rays and hold a 2.5-game lead in the wild card.
Welcome to Boston.com’s Sports Q, our daily conversation, initiated by you and moderated by Chad Finn, about a compelling topic in Boston sports. Here’s how it works: You submit questions to Chad through Twitter, Facebook, and email. He’ll pick one each weekday to answer, then we’ll take the discussion to the comments. Chad will stop by several times per day to navigate. But you drive the conversation.
It’s pretty amazing that the Red Sox would still make the playoffs if the season ended today considering how they’ve fallen apart over the last couple of weeks. Any chance they fix this and still make it in, or is what we saw for the first three months of the season all a mirage? Will they make the playoffs? – Chris B.
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I suspect I’m in the minority on this after the Sox just completed a 2-8 road trip, punctuated with probably their worst loss of the season Sunday … but sure, they could still make it in.
How does that happen? A few things:
Chris Sale, who hasn’t thrown a major league pitch since August 13, 2019 (a season in which he went 6-11 with a 4.40 ERA), is excellent upon his return from Tommy John surgery beginning with his season debut Saturday … Tanner Houck continues to excel now that he’s getting a real shot in the rotation … The overworked bullpen finds its health and mojo (they ought to release Hansel Robles today, by the way) … Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, and J.D. Martinez all get hot at once … They snap out of this funk, which includes 11 losses in their last 13 games, immediately, beginning with Tuesday’s series-opener against the Rays, who hold a four-game lead in the division.
Is some of that possible? Yep. All of it? Doubtful – I’m especially concerned about the bullpen, which has picked up the slack time and again for the underwhelming starting rotation and is suddenly looking like it’s running on fumes. I believe Sale will be good. Their best hitters will get going again.
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But make no mistake – this has been a collapse. On July 5, the Red Sox beat the Angels, 5-4, to move 22 games over .500 (54-32) and take their biggest lead of the season in the American League East, 4.5 games over the Rays. The Blue Jays were 9 games back on that date, and the Yankees 10.5.
Since then, the Rays have gained 8.5 games on the Red Sox to take over the division lead, while the Yankees have picked up eight games on them and the Jays six.
The Red Sox still have the fifth-best record in the AL and would play the A’s in the wild card if the season ended today. Given how the season is trending, the season ending today seems like their best hope of making the playoffs. I don’t think they’re going to get there. It doesn’t feel like all of this is fixable.
What does everyone else think? Will the Red Sox make the playoffs? I’ll hear you in the comments.
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