Boston Red Sox
Maybe they will surprise us, but there have been some troubling signs for the Red Sox of late.
COMMENTARY
Playing nine innings while wondering when and where the 15-year retrospective on the 2011 Sox “Chicken and Beer” collapse is dropping …
1. Considering the unexpected good times that these feisty Red Sox brought to Fenway this summer after the season’s seemingly hopeless start, I’d prefer not to be thinking this while peering into the red-seamed crystal ball on my desk here.
But recent developments have me suspicious that this season, which doesn’t have much in common narratively with last season, is going to end precisely the same way: With a wild-card round loss to the Yankees in the Bronx.
Those troubling developments include a weary pitching staff that entered Friday’s series opener with the Orioles having allowed at least eight runs in four straight games; 14 losses in their last 26; and a disheartening four-game set in New York in which they were outscored 25-3 over the last two games, which may or may not have been some bizarre Yankee tribute to Ron Guidry’s 1978.
The Red Sox look like a safe bet to make the postseason with just 22 games remaining. But their 29-5 stretch this summer made us daydream of more.
They blew their chance to catch the Yankees in the wild-card race last weekend. They almost certainly made their path to a sustained postseason stay more treacherous. This season, at the moment, feels like it’s trending toward a final scene in New York.
But hey, should they surprise us and stick around a while into October, it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve surprised us this season.
2. A smattering of mea culpas have begun filtering into my inbox from Sox fans who gave up on the idea of Roman Anthony coming back from his finger injury to help the Sox this season. All right, fine, the smattering is actually two readers, but that dual smattering is appreciated. Sox fans should have remembered that Anthony truly looked like a future superstar, and one with that brilliant future very near, when he came up last season. But sports radio and social-media gossip poisoned too many minds during this season’s long absence.
3. Think about it: That Yankees playoff series might have gone differently had Anthony — who was their most dangerous offensive player from early July until suffering a season-ending oblique injury almost exactly a year ago — not been absent. From July 4 (the occasion of just his 22nd major league game) through Sept. 2, Anthony slashed .326/.428/.513 with seven home runs and 20 extra-base hits in 222 plate appearances over 50 games, a good-sized sample.
4. I’m glad to remind you short-memories cynics, skeptics, and Felger parroters that Anthony did that in his age-21 season. (You probably should have remembered.) The fortunate thing — and a necessary one during this recent stretch of turbulence — is that he’s performed like the force that he was last season. Tiny sample-size, sure, but he has 10 hits in 22 at-bats in five games since returning, raising his season OPS from .675 to .797.
5. I’m not sure many of the new Caleb Durbin fans around here have noticed, but Alex Bregman — the backup third baseman to Adrian Beltré backup at third base on the Red Sox’ One-And-Done All-Stars — is going to end up with excellent numbers in his first season as a Cub. It probably shouldn’t be called an excellent season per se, as he slashed a mediocre .248/.340/.380 in 107 games through July 31.
6. But Bregman’s August was downright hellacious: .296/.364/.661, with 12 home runs in 28 games. That includes a pair of three-home run games. On the season, he has 24 homers and a .790 OPS, and his 4.7 bWAR is good for a sixth-place tie among National League position players. Might as well ask the question: Would you have preferred the Red Sox allocated the brunt of their offseason free-agent funds to resigning Bregman, who got five years and $175 million, with a full no-trade, from the Cubs?
7. Or do you prefer the alternative that played out, which was signing former Phillies lefty Ranger Suarez for five years and $130 million, and then filling the third-base vacancy by acquiring Durbin, Andruw Monasterio, Anthony Seigler, and a competitive balance pick from the Brewers for pitchers Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan and infielder David Hamilton? I think my decision comes down to how Suarez pitches down the stretch and in the postseason. (He has a 1.48 ERA in 11 playoff appearances, including eight starts.)
8. Presuming the Red Sox do make the postseason, I have no intention of trusting Brayan Bello in important situations once they get there. Bello was a debacle in his one playoff start last year, continued to be one as a starter this season, got sent to Worcester in early June, came back in mid-July, and was excellent in a multi-inning role out of the bullpen. In his first eight relief appearances, he posted a superb 1.23 ERA, with 24 strikeouts and just six walks in 29⅓ innings. But in his last two? Eight earned runs in 7⅔ innings, with just 2 Ks. Do. Not. Trust.
9. The other recently returned regular, Trevor Story, has been a help on offense, with seven hits in 16 at-bats, including a walkoff single in the 10th inning Monday against the Mariners. But at shortstop, he looks like he should be playing second base. Where has his fastball gone?
Get the latest Boston sports news
Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.