By Chris Ryan
Toronto, ON
The Boston Red Sox enter today’s rubber match in Toronto in first place in the American League, but only three games ahead of Detroit and the YANKEES(?!) for the final wild card spot.
“We’re not even thinking about October,” said Red Sox manager John Farrell.
That’s good, because much like their competition in the playoff roulette in the American League, the Sox are amazingly talented and inherently flawed.
This has been on display in the series here in Toronto. Friday night the Sox mashed against a struggling starting pitcher and overmatched bullpen. They won 13-3. Saturday they went up against Cy Young candidate J.A. Happ and failed to score more than two runs. They lost 3-2.
On this nine game road trip Boston has scored an average of 10 runs per game in their five wins and one run per game in their three losses.
Going into the 8th inning on Saturday the Sox trailed 3-2 and had six outs to find a way to manufacture a run. They never got anyone past first base.
The narrative was simple. The Sox struggle in one-run games. Well, they trailed 3-0 and made it a one-run game (They are 0-6 in their last six one-run games). But, the concern is how many times the Red Sox have been “One swing of the bat away” from winning, as Farrell put it.
I don’t expect this offense to start bunting, but the quality of at bats in these close games needs to be better.
“We’ve got to be prepared each and every time,” said Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who also told me that his focus squarely on winning the division and he’s focusing heavily on the Blue Jays, Orioles and the Yankees.
The Sox starting pitching is as good if not better, than anyone in the league, same with the Dr. Jekyll version of their hitting attack. Defensively their really good. Bullpen is..ah…a work in progress.
There’s still questions also about this team’s intangibles and ability to make winning plays in key situations, that along with winning on the road are extremely important to winning a World Series.
But, take a step back from that and be excited, after two years of bad baseball. The Red Sox are returning home to Fenway Park this week in first place in the American League East in September
