Red Sox Clinch Playoff Berth

[Tedballgame]

What a roller coaster of a season!!! However they got here, they did get here. The Sox have a chance to advance. Considering how bad they were in the first 1/3 of the season, they pulled it together and came all the way back. Congratulations to the Red Sox and the fans who stuck it out. Now, let's beat the Yankees.

[JAG]

it is so embarrassing to have these guys celebrate with champagne after a loss, they haven't accomplished anything until they get through the first round, terrible look in my opinion

[Tedballgame]

2 minutes ago, JAG said:

it is so embarrassing to have these guys celebrate with champagne after a loss, they haven't accomplished anything until they get through the first round, terrible look in my opinion

They made a great comeback this season. They earned their way in even though they did lose yesterday. They deserve to celebrate a little because everyone had them dead in the water in June. They did it without their best pitcher and best position player most of the season.

[King Koji]

Sincerely hoping the Sox lose out and "fall" to 6-seed. Ya know, since its actually better for them, in a sport with an Abomination of a Playoff format.

Go White Sox!!!!!

[moonslav59]

Maybe allow the #1 seed to choose who to play.

The #2 gets 2nd pick...

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

47 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Maybe allow the #1 seed to choose who to play.

The #2 gets 2nd pick...

If the Yankees have to play the Red Sox, they definitely would choose the short series with all games in the Bronx.

There's no way they'd want any playoff games as visitors in Boston -- 2021 wasn't that long ago, and there's a good chance a lot of those insane college fans have younger siblings matriculating at schools right now somewhere in Beantown.

[moonslav59]

4 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

If the Yankees have to play the Red Sox, they definitely would choose the short series with all games in the Bronx.

There's no way they'd want any playoff games as visitors in Boston -- 2021 wasn't that long ago, and there's a good chance a lot of those insane college fans have younger siblings matriculating at schools right now somewhere in Beantown.

The Yanks would choose the CWS.

Texas would be left with the Sox for round 1.

[scs1918]

Yes, the top 2 teams are definitely not picking to play the Sox.

Maybe you should submit that playoff thought during the CBAs next year.

[moonslav59]

Regardless of division winners:

Best two teams by record get byes.

Team 3 picks playoff opponent for first round.

Team 4 plays the other team.

Team 3 series winner plays team 2.

Team 4 series winner plays team 1.

Divisions only matter to help a team make the playoffs, when they might be a top 6 team by record.

[JoeBrady]

22 hours ago, Tedballgame said:

They did it without their best pitcher and best position player most of the season.

If we were told that we'd lose Crochet for almost the entire season, and RA for most of the season, would a single person have guessed 87 wins.  I was pretty optimistic, but I'd have thought we'd be lucky to play .500.  I don't see any way a fan can be disappointed with our 2026 results.  None whatsoever.

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

If we were told that we'd lose Crochet for almost the entire season, and RA for most of the season, would a single person have guessed 87 wins.  I was pretty optimistic, but I'd have thought we'd be lucky to play .500.  I don't see any way a fan can be disappointed with our 2026 results.  None whatsoever.

They were absolutely morose to start the year and got everyone in a bad mood. They played the best ball we may have ever seen for a brief stretch during the summer. They've played about .500 ball ever since even with Roman and Story back in the fold. Very weird season. It's fine for fans to have conflicting feelings about this team. This team has been all over the place from one day to the next. They could go on a run this October. They could lose the first two games and not play any games in October.  

[moonslav59]

It was a major setback losing Crochet, and he sucked in the few games he did pitch, so was part of why we started off so crappy.

What made it worse was the slow return and awful production from Sandoval, nothing from Crawford and Oviedo and the starter yips from Bello. (Houck was expected to miss all or almost all of 2026.) We also lost Early to injury before trading him.

The starter dept did an amazing job despite the Harrison, Drohan, Dobbins and Preister trades.

Bennett was barely mentioned as depth. We traded Perales for him hardly expecting immediate usage. 19 GS 3.78.

Early was considered depth but many knew he's get a chance in 2026. Nevertheless, he would not have been in the initial rotation, if everyone was healthy. 17 GS 3.44 ERA.

Tolle was also not a top 5 starter to begin 2026, and he was actually slotted behind Early. 25 GS 3.02 ERA is an astounding feat.

That's 3 starters not considered as 2026 opening rotation pitchers.

344.1 IP

3.37 ERA (129 ER)

297 Hits

92 BB

349 Ks

Early is gone, and Mead provides some hope for an improved offense for 2027 and beyond, but Tolle and Bennett added to Suarez and Crochet could form a solid 4 combination for 5 years.

[drewski6]

2 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

If we were told that we'd lose Crochet for almost the entire season, and RA for most of the season, would a single person have guessed 87 wins.  I was pretty optimistic, but I'd have thought we'd be lucky to play .500.  I don't see any way a fan can be disappointed with our 2026 results.  None whatsoever.

In the playoffs last year, 5 of the 12 teams that made it had greater than 4.0 runs per game. The Blue Jays, Reds, Dodgers, Mariners, or Yankees

Our 2026 season is TBD.  Either 1) get by the yankees (dont care how if we win) or 2) lose the series to the yankees but score more than 4 runs per game

If we lose to the yankees and the games are like 3-1, 2-0....then what did we really do.  Take a team that wasnt good enough at hitting last year to make a deep run, and then go into these playoffs with a team that wasnt good enough at hitting to make a deep playoff run?

Doesnt sound like the gigantic nobody can question this success, to me.

Yes, so far so good.  But this is one of the occasions, when borderline cartoonish level negativity Fred can be insightful. The goal is not to be an easy out in the first round.

I wont call for Breslows head if we lose 2-0. 2-0 in the yankees, even though at one point in this season I would have called for his head with this outcome.  So Ive come around.  He gets a full reset from me.

But taking a team that couldnt score enough to win in the playoffs and turning them into a team that couldnt score enough to win in the playoffs - Im not going to parade him around on my shoulders.

Also, if we lose to the yankees, it will be his (Craigs) 4th year ended with 0 playoff series won.  If we beat the yankees, I will be glad that we extended him.  But I think that if we lose to the yankees and score less than 4 runs/game, then sure - ill give craig some points this year for the turnaround , but i wont join you in celebrating how awesome he is.

Eventually, the helm of a team who has a slew of first round exits , year after year, becomes a "cant get over the hump guy". The most important games are in October.  Im not Fred. Im not saying Breslow will be that guy if we cant beat the yankees.  But I am saying that a legacy of a GM who lost over and over in teh first round is not a great one.

A book is only as good as its ending.  If we are noodlebats and lose to the yankees because of it, the sour ending will undo a lot of the good (not all of it).

[moonslav59]

No way am I equating the loss of Mead to Judge, but I do think he was meant to/going to be a major impact for this offense. Too bad he couldn't even last a full game.

The return of Anthony became the best hope as AR stumbled out of the pots-trade gait. Story has provided a somewhat surprising boost, but maybe it should be so shocking, since he did lead the team in HRs, RBI and SB in 2025. Also, no 2025 Sox player had more PAs and a higher OPS than Story, other than.... Duran! Among players with 420+ PAs:

.821 Bregman

.774 Duran

.741 Story

.726 Narvaez

.708 Rafaela

The 300 PA to 420 PA crowd of 4 all did better:

.905 Devers

.859 Anthony

.826 Romy

.786 Abreu

It's interesting to not 3 of these 9 players are now on other teams and Romy is fighting to regain form and is currently off the 26 man roster.

We've all but given up on Duran returning to even 2025 form, let alone 2024 form.

Anthony does not look like the 2025 guy, who lacked the power we expected as well.

The savior has been Contreras, and for the second half Durbin. We've gotten great support from unsung guys like Gasper, Jones, Sogard, Seigler, Monasterio and even short stints from Rogers, Cheng & White.

We need at least 2-3 guys from Abreu, Rafaela, Anthony, AR, Durbin and Story to do well in NYC.

[drewski6]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

No way am I equating the loss of Mead to Judge, but I do think he was meant to/going to be a major impact for this offense. Too bad he couldn't even last a full game.

The return of Anthony became the best hope as AR stumbled out of the pots-trade gait. Story has provided a somewhat surprising boost, but maybe it should be so shocking, since he did lead the team in HRs, RBI and SB in 2025. Also, no 2025 Sox player had more PAs and a higher OPS than Story, other than.... Duran! Among players with 420+ PAs:

.821 Bregman

.774 Duran

.741 Story

.726 Narvaez

.708 Rafaela

The 300 PA to 420 PA crowd of 4 all did better:

.905 Devers

.859 Anthony

.826 Romy

.786 Abreu

It's interesting to not 3 of these 9 players are now on other teams and Romy is fighting to regain form and is currently off the 26 man roster.

We've all but given up on Duran returning to even 2025 form, let alone 2024 form.

Anthony does not look like the 2025 guy, who lacked the power we expected as well.

The savior has been Contreras, and for the second half Durbin. We've gotten great support from unsung guys like Gasper, Jones, Sogard, Seigler, Monasterio and even short stints from Rogers, Cheng & White.

We need at least 2-3 guys from Abreu, Rafaela, Anthony, AR, Durbin and Story to do well in NYC.

Trevor Story hater says what?

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, drewski6 said:

If we lose to the yankees and the games are like 3-1, 2-0....then what did we really do. 

The top-2 guys for the NYY have an ERA of 2.18, and the top-3 ERAs are 2.34.This projects to be a low-scoring series.  I would not be at all surprised if none of the games exceed a 7.5 U/O.

[drewski6]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

The top-2 guys for the NYY have an ERA of 2.18, and the top-3 ERAs are 2.34.This projects to be a low-scoring series.  I would not be at all surprised if none of the games exceed a 7.5 U/O.

Then win.  Im not being unreasonable.  Im saying win one series, or score 4 or more runs /game in a losing effort.

Otherwise, its 4 years into Breslows career with 0 playoff wins to show for it.  And he took an offense that wasnt good enough to beat top pitching last year, and didnt improve it.

But you said how you cant see anyone not being happy with 2026 results.   I dont see how the bar is so low where we can be pumping our chests and screaming from joy at 0 playoff series wins in 4 years with 2 straight years ending with a limpstick.

[drewski6]

Im not saying its going to happen.  We can beat the yankees, or maybe the offense will be fine.  But we dont throw parades for teams that are first round exits. And we dont celebrate GMs that have 0 playoff series wins in 4 years.

[drewski6]

Its a results oriented business.  ANd being a first round easy out is not results.

[vegasbob]

If Judge does miss the WC series , it cannot hurt the Sox chances.

 

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

I dont see how the bar is so low where we can be pumping our chests

It'll be ~87 wins despite missing virtually the entire season from the #2 CY SP, and missing most of the season from our best hitter.  It's a better season, injuries considered, than anyone expected.  That counts for something?

[moonslav59]

According to fangraphs we lost the most projected WAR to injuries (12.8 on AUG 18th with another 4 projected to be lost before Rafaela went down.)

I'm not blaming injuries for anything. I'm using this to emphasize how well we've done, thanks in large part to Brez's focus on both quality and quantity of depth.