To say things have gone bad for the Sox in the four games they’ve played since the All-Star Break is an understatement. The Red Sox are 0-4 since the break despite having held the lead in EVERY SINGLE GAME.
Heading into the ASB this team was hot, going 10-3 from June 30 through July 14 with series wins over the Yankees and Royals, two teams they are fighting with for a Wild Card berth. Their starting pitching was delivering, the bullpen was (mostly healthy) doing their part, and the offense was humming, but the four-day ASB seemingly came at the wrong time for this young team. All of the magic they had in June and early July has gone missing at the worst possible time.
Let’s take a look at how these last four games have played out.
Friday – 4-1 loss to the Dodgers. Nick Pivetta went 6 scoreless innings giving up only two hits and handing a 1-0 lead, courtesy of a Jarren Duran homer, to the bullpen. Zach Kelly pitched a clean 7th before leaving with one on and one out in the 8th. Brennan Bernardino, who has been great this year, took the ball from Cora and proceeded to shit his pants. Facing the top of the Dodgers order, Bernardino allowed a ground-rule double to Ohtani, intentionally walked Will Smith to load the bases, and surrendered the most predictable grand slam ever to Freddie Freeman and his preposterous veneers. A 1-0 8th inning lead turns into a 4-1 loss.
Saturday – 7-6 loss to the Dodgers. Brayan Bello gave the Sox 6 innings of 3-run ball but was actually in line for the win after a Tyler O’Neill 2-run home run in the top of the 7th made it 4-3 Sox. After a quiet 8th, Kenley Jansen took the ball in the top of the 9th with a 1-run lead, looking to slam the door on his old team. Jansen, who also has been rock solid this year, surrendered a no-doubter home run to the leadoff man, old friend Kike Hernandez, to tie the game. Tyler O’Neill led off the top of the 10th with his second 2-run dong of the game (thanks, ghost runner), to give the Sox a 2-run lead going into the bottom of the 10th. Greg Weissert (eye roll) got the call for the bottom of the 10th and coughed up the 2-run lead giving up hits to Andy Pages (who?) and, again, Kike Hernandez to push the game to the 11th. The Sox couldn’t score in the top of the inning meaning all the Dodgers had to do was push that ole ghost runner across to win, and they did via a walk-off hit by Will Smith. The Sox bullpen blew two late leads in this game falling 7-6 to the Dodgers.
Sunday – 9-6 loss to the Dodgers. Rome Gonzalez (double) and ASG MVP Jarren Duran (home run) teamed up in the top of the first to give the Sox a quick 2-0 lead, but home run machine Cutter Crawford quickly gave those runs back in the bottom of the inning via a 2-run shot from Freeman. From there the Dodgers treated Crawford like a pitching machine hitting 4 more home runs off him in his 5 innings of work, including a 476′ shot from the gamblin’ man, Shohei, that some say still has not landed. The Sox tried to mount a rally late but this game was never in doubt after the Dodgers took a 6-2 lead in the 5th. Although the lead was brief and came in the first inning, this was another blown lead for the Sox.
Monday – 9-8 loss to the fucking Rockies. With Tanner Houck on the bump against one of the worst teams in the league, this game felt like a perfect get-right game for the Sox. Both starting pitchers cruised through the first two innings. After the Sox went quietly in the top of the third, the Rockies exploded for 4 in the bottom of the frame. Boston tied it up on a Jamie Westbrook 3-run shot in the top of the fifth before each team added one more run in the late innings pushing this game to extras. The Sox took a 7-5 lead in the 10th, but Colorado quickly tied it on 2-run home run surrendered by Zach Kelly. Both teams failed to score in the 11th, but when the Sox only managed to score the ghost runner in the 12th before the Rockies won it in the bottom of the inning, getting 2 off of Bailey Horn. Two more blown leads, albeit both in extra innings, sink the Sox again.
So what now?
Going into the unofficial second half, the three areas of need for this team were, in no particular order, a right-handed bat, a starting pitcher, and bullpen help. After four games, those needs are even clearer. James Paxton, an over-the-hill lefty that we’re all familiar with around here, was able to keep the Sox lefty-dominant lineup relatively quiet on Sunday in a game that ended up being his last as a Dodger after his release on Monday. Another right-handed bat in the middle of the order, like Justin Turner, would have surely helped keep the Sox within striking distance of the homer-happy Dodgers in that game. The other two games in the Dodgers series highlighted the need for bullpen help with late-inning blown leads leading to two Red Sox losses. It’s not hard to imagine the Sox could have won the series 2-1 if they had even one more solid bullpen arm.
Then there’s starting pitching. My goodness. Through 99 games, the Sox have received pretty solid starting pitching despite injuries (remember Garrett Whitlock), a few rough outings from Bello and Crawford, and more starts (12) than anyone wanted to see from Cooper Criswell. BUT, as innings mount and guys wear down, the need for a sold, if unspectacular, starter is becoming glaring. Houck, Bello, and Crawford have all shown signs of fatigue recently and are all on pace to eclipse their career-high in innings pitched by the Patriots’ first preseason game. Pivetta has been great both before and after an early season DL IL stint, but he’s a 31-year-old known commodity with a career ERA (4.78) almost a run higher than his 2024 ERA (3.87). One more starter who can take the ball every 5th game would do wonders for this team, a team that has not announced their starter for tonight’s must-win game in Denver.
Going into the ASB, all signs pointed to the Red Sox front office being buyers at the break, but with his recent skid, this humble blogger is getting pretty nervous that John Henry’s puppet Craig Breslow will do the same thing Bloom did at the deadline the last two seasons. Nothing.
Let’s all hope that these games emphasize their known areas of weakness and pushes the front office to act now while praying it doesn’t make them second-guess this team’s ability to win and sit on their hands (or sell) at the trade deadline.
