Red Sox Week in Review: Wake Me Up When September Ends

Weekly Snapshot: Mon 9/9 through Sun 9/15

Run Differential Last Week: +10 (Overall: +4)

Standing: Third place in AL East (12.0 GB)

Game 144 | BAL 3, BOS 12: O’Neill and Refsnyder become Manny and Ortiz 

Game 145 | BAL 5, BOS 3: Cedric Mullins legacy game hinders the Red Sox

Game 146| BAL 3, BOS 5: O’Neill’s heroics lead the Red Sox to a series win

Game 147 | BOS 1, NYY 2: The Red Sox fail to score in the 10th, leading to a Yankees victory

Game 148 | BOS 4, NYY 5: Fitts has another good start, but the bullpen implodes again.

Game 149 | BOS 7, NYY 1: Bello pitches well as Devers and the Red Sox flex on Gerrit Cole yet again

Game 150 | BOS 2, NYY 5: The nail in the coffin?

The Red Sox needed to be perfect this week to give themselves a shot at October baseball. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Between shaky bullpen performances and inconsistent offensive output, it’s becoming likely that we might be looking to 2025 to see playoff baseball in Boston. At least we still own Gerrit Cole, though….

This three-game set against Baltimore is a series that the Red Sox won, but it needed to be a sweep and certainly could have been. With the season in jeopardy at any given moment, the Red Sox needed to play the hottest stretch of baseball they have all season. On Monday, they started their series against the Baltimore Orioles off in exciting fashion, clobbering the Orioles 12-3. The key performers in this offensive breakout were Tyler O'Neill and Rob Refsnyder. The pair totaled seven hits, four home runs, and eight RBI. This included the duo hitting back-to-back home runs on two different occasions. 

Albert Suarez stymied the Red Sox’s offense in game two of the series. After totaling 15 base knocks in the series opener, the Red Sox struggled to gain any traction on Tuesday. The Red Sox left seven on base and never seemed to have any real momentum swings in their favor throughout the game. Kutter once again threw decent enough but still yielded two home runs, each coming off the bat of Cedric Mullins. At the conclusion of this start, Kutter Crawford had given up a league-leading 31 home runs.  Going back to his last eight starts, Crawford has served up ten homers. Dropping this game 5-3, it felt like a gut punch. Sweeping one of the better teams in the American League isn’t easy to accomplish, but it felt necessary to keep the hope alive. Especially since going into this game, the Orioles had lost four of their last five. 

In the rubber match of the series, Tyler O’Neill once again put the team on his back, smashing a walk-off home run off of Keegan Akin in the bottom of the 10th inning. This capped off an impactful series for Tyler O’Neill. The 29-year-old slugger went 4-12 with three home runs and 6 RBI while drawing two walks. Despite the typical injury woes you see from O’Neill, this has been a very productive season for him. It’ll be interesting to see if the Red Sox entertain giving him the qualifying offer this offseason. While O’Neill and Refsnyder picked up a lot of the offensive slack in this series, Jarren Duran failed to provide a spark at the top of the lineup, going 2-15 with four strikeouts throughout the series. September has been a struggle for Duran. At the time of this series against the Orioles, he’s batting only .236 with a .536 OPS since the start of the month. Duran has also failed to record a stolen base thus far into September, going 0-2 in his only attempts. 

While it’s hard to be upset over a series win, it felt as if the team had to win all three of these games to remain competitive in the Wild Card standings. Time is running out. If there were ever a time for a 2004 ALCS-esque miracle to happen, it would be now. With some positive momentum on their side, The Red Sox headed to Yankee Stadium for a four-game set with the Bronx Bombers in a bid to make things interesting and keep any semblance of playoff hopes alive. 

As much of an optimist as I am when it comes to this team, I fear that this series was the nail in the coffin. The Yankees took three out of the four games against the Red Sox in what feels like a knockout punch. Cooper Criswell gave the Red Sox a very nice start in the first game of the series. He went five and a third innings and only gave up one run on four hits. Unfortunately, the bats didn’t come alive during the game. The Red Sox's only run came off a Danny Jansen home run. The top of the order gave the Red Sox nothing this game. Jarren Duran, Rafael Devers, and Romy Gonzalez went a combined 0-12. It’s really hard to win when the top of the lineup isn’t producing. As good as the Red Sox were on the mound, the team would fall 2-1 in the series opener. The Red Sox only managed one hit after the fifth inning. The team seemed to lack the intensity that they desperately needed. 

The second game of this four-game set is where the white flag seemed to be fully raised on the Red Sox’s season. I feel as if this is a script we’ve all seen play out dozens of times. The offense gave the team a lead early on thanks to Masataka Yoshida and Trevor Story home runs. It wouldn’t be for long though. After another solid start by Richard Fitts that saw him pitch five scoreless innings, Zack Kelly was brought into the game and things unraveled fast. Kelly would give up consecutive walks and then a single to Gleyber Torres that drove in a run. This prompted Alex Cora to put in Cam Booser who immediately walked Alex Cora to load the bases. Aaron Judge strolled to the plate with the bases loaded. His struggles since appearing on “Paw Patrol” have been well documented. It had been 16 games since Judge had sent a ball out of the park, a personal record for the slugger. Right on queue, Judge sent Cam Booser’s 2-0 pitch into left field and over the fence for a Grand Slam, giving the Yankees a 5-4 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish. I feel as if everyone watching the game knew this was the spot where Judge was going to break out of his slump, and sure enough, it happened. This might’ve been the most demoralizing loss of the season given the situation the Red Sox are in based on the standings. It truly felt like the end. The bullpen has been extremely spotty all season and this is another instance of them letting the game slip away. In response to their struggles and in need of fresh arms, the Red Sox demoted Booser and Kelly after the game and opted to promote Bailey Horn and Zach Penrod. Setting up Penrod for his MLB debut. 

After Friday’s demoralizing loss, there’s one positive takeaway from this series. Rafael Devers and the Red Sox still own Gerrit Cole. After plunking Devers with a pitch in the first inning, Cole did something that will forever make Red Sox fans smile, he put up four fingers as Rafael Devers came to bat in the fourth inning, opting to intentionally walk the slugger. Cole’s struggles against Devers have been well documented at this point, but it was still a surprise to see Cole back down from the challenge of facing Devers. This decision would immediately blow up in Cole’s face, as it would be the catalyst for a three-run inning by the Red Sox’s offense. Devers and the Red Sox would get to Gerrit Cole once again in the fifth inning. This included a two-run single by Devers. Cole would exit the game with the Yankees trailing 7-1, a score that would hold for the duration of the contest. This game had a layer of drama to it, as Red Sox manager Alex Cora insinuated that Cole intentionally hit Devers with a pitch. After the game, Cora was quoted as saying “I felt like he hit him on purpose. He doesn’t want to face him. Whether Cole hit Devers on purpose is up for debate, but there’s no doubt that he isn’t comfortable facing him. 

Sadly, defeating Gerrit Cole would be the only bright spot during this series. The Sox dropped the series finale 5-2, most likely ending any type of playoff aspirations. The Red Sox have fallen to 22-32 since the All-Star break. The lack of consistent offensive production and reliable bullpen arms have hindered the team's success. At this point, it seems as though the most we can hope for is an above .500 finish. This is shaping up to be a disappointing end to a once-promising season. Mathematically speaking, it’s still possible for the Red Sox to sneak into the postseason so let’s all lock in and hope for the best. Anything’s possible in baseball. 

Trending Storyline:
September 14th saw the MLB debut of Zach Penrod. At the age of 27, the left-hander entered the game and proceeded to throw a scoreless eighth inning. He struggled with finding the strike zone a bit, walking one batter in the process but ultimately, he got the job done. Penrod also threw two-thirds of a scoreless inning in the series finale against the Yankees.

Looking ahead:
After a day off on Monday, the Red Sox will head to Tampa Bay to take on the Rays in a three-game set before returning to Fenway to take on the Twins. The series against the Rays is winnable, and then a sweep of the Twins would be vital. The Red Sox still have to leap the Mariners and Tigers in the standings as well. Let’s see if the bullpen can keep it together, and if the offense can produce. 

Monday, SEP 16: OFF DAY

Tuesday, SEP 17: Red Sox @ Rays - RHP Nick Pivetta v. TBD,

Wednesday, SEP 18: Red Sox @ Rays - TBD,

Thursday, SEP 19: Red Sox @ Rays - TBD,

Friday, SEP 20: Twins @ Red Sox - TBD,

Saturday, SEP 21: Twins @ Red Sox - TBD,

Sunday, September 22: Twins @ Red Sox - TBD