Article: Red Sox Week in Review: Is the Ship Righting Itself?

[Maddie Landis]

Weekly Snapshot:

• Record Last Week 3-3 (Overall 32-35)
• Runs Scored Last Week: 47
• Runs Surrendered Last Week: 43

Standings:

4th in the AL East, 8.5 GB 1st Place

4.0 WCGB

Scores:

Game 62 (6/2) | LAA 7, BOS 6

Game 63 (6/3) | LAA 4, BOS 3

Game 64 (6/4) | LAA  9, BOS 11

Game 65 (6/6) | BOS 6, NYY 9

Game 66 (6/7) | BOS 10, NYY 7

Game 67 (6/8) | BOS 11, NYY 7

Transactions:

• 06/02/25: Optioned Nate Eaton to Triple-A Worcester
• 06/02/25: Activated Romy Gonzalez from the 10-day IL (left quad contusion)
• 06/03/25: Recalled Cooper Criswell from Triple-A Worcester
• 06/03/25: Optioned Richard Fitts to Triple-A Worcester
• 06/03/25: Signed free-agent Breylin Cruz to a minor league contract
• 06/03/25: Sent Chris Murphy on a rehab assignment to Double-A Portland
• 06/03/25: Placed Nick Burdi on the 15-day IL (right foot contusion)
• 06/04/25: Signed Eddison Septimo to a minor league contract
• 06/05/25: Outrighted Blake Sabol to Triple-A Worcester
• 06/07/25: Recalled Josh Winckowski from Triple-A Worcester
• 06/07/25: Selected the contract of Robert Stock from Triple-A Worcester

TL;DR Breakdown/Highlights

Angels series: Aside from Brayan Bello, who had a passable outing (lacking run support), the Red Sox’s starting pitching was abysmal. Richard Fitts gave up five earned runs in one single inning, and Lucas Giolito gave up eight earned runs in 1 2/3 innings. The Red Sox narrowly avoided being swept by the lowly Angels thanks to Ceddanne Rafaela’s 299-foot walk-off home run.

Yankees series: I’ll start with the positives. The Red Sox ended up winning the series, taking two of three from the Yankees. On Friday night, Marcelo Mayer hit his first major league home run!

The Yankees fan who caught the ball graciously returned the ball to Marcelo and received a signed bat from him.

Again, much to everyone’s surprise, Trevor Story had a strong performance and bolstered the team’s offense. Story went hitless in the first game of the series but turned things around in the subsequent games. He hit five RBIs in Saturday’s game and recorded two hits and one RBI in four at-bats on Sunday. Story holds a .320/.393/.520 slash line in June. Maybe he’s heating up in support of Pride Month? He has been a notoriously streaky hitter throughout his career, but if he can sustain this level of production while Alex Bregman is injured, the team’s offense will benefit from it.

Over the past week, the starting pitching has been the Red Sox’s biggest issue, not their offense. (This is baseball, and the team might pull a reverse Uno card on fans this week.) Nonetheless, the Red Sox are finding ways to score without Alex Bregman. Abraham Toro is also on a hot streak, and he hit a second-deck home run on Sunday night. Rafael Devers, Trevor Story, Abraham Toro, Carlos Narváez, and Kristian Campbell hit five total home runs on Sunday. Both Campbell and Story seem to be moving out of their slumps.

Garrett Crochet and Hunter Dobbins looked solid in their respective outings as well, each throwing at least five innings  On the other hand, Walker Buehler yielded seven runs (five earned) in two innings. Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Volpe hit home runs in the first inning off him, which irked me. Aaron Judge is currently having another historic season, and he’s a future Hall of Famer, so I give Red Sox pitchers a pass when they face him. However, Buehler gave up home runs to two of the Yankees’ most overrated, underperforming players in the first inning. For a pitcher fresh off a World Series win against the Yankees, Buehler should have pitched better.

The Red Sox return home for a six-game homestand, featuring a three-game series against the Rays before playing the Yankees in another three-game weekend series.

Random Stats:

• 5/26 – 6/1 Slash Lines
• Good weeks:
  • Marcelo Mayer: .333/.429/.833, 242 wRC+
  •  Abraham Toro: .417/.444/.667, 202 wRC+
  • Kristian Campbell: .294/.429/.529, 171 wRC+
• Bad weeks:
  • Wilyer Abreu: .200/.167/.200, -20 wRC+
• Red Sox starter’s 7.01 ERA in the first inning is the second-worst in the majors behind the Colorado Rockies.
• Rafael Devers leads the American League in RBIs (57).
• On Saturday night, Roman Anthony launched a 497 ft (115.6 mph EV) grand slam versus the Rochester Red Wings. Anthony’s home run recorded the farthest hit distance among Red Sox players between Triple-A and MLB this year.
• Whether you’re looking at traditional fielding metrics or modern analytics, Kristan Campbell is by far the worst defensive second baseman in the league. Like Jarren Duran, Campbell’s struggles are related to the mental side of the game, and when he plays with confidence, things click for him.
• The 2025 Red Sox’s offense is an anomaly. See below for their offensive rankings in the American League:
  • 127 doubles (1st)
  • 330 runs (2nd)
  • 318 RBIs (2nd)
  • 617 strikeouts (2nd)
  • 83 home runs (3rd)
• Despite these numbers, they rank first in the league for strikeouts with runners in scoring position (183).

Website Highlights:

Three Red Sox Prospects Named Player Of The Month For Their Respective Leagues by Nick John

Connor Wong Has An Uncertain Future With Red Sox by Finley Rogan

Can Ceddanne Rafaela Emulate Pete Crow-Armstrong's Breakout? by Maddie Landis

Looking Ahead:

June 9th – Tampa Bay Rays (Baz) at Red Sox (Bello) – 7:10 pm EDT

June 10th – Tampa Bay Rays (Pepiot) at Red Sox (Giolito) – 7:10 pm EDT

June 11th Tampa Bay Rays (Littell) at Red Sox (Buehler) – 7:10 pm EDT

June 13th  – Yankees at Red Sox – 7:10 pm EDT

June 14th  – Yankees at Red Sox – 7:15 pm EDT (Fox coverage)

June 15th   – Yankees at Red Sox – 1:35 pm EDT

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