While the Red Sox have almost played their way out of the postseason, their center fielder has done nothing to play his way out of the MVP race.
In fact, Jacoby Ellsbury, easily the team's best player this dreadful month, has actually found time to beef up his resume.
Ellsbury homered two times Sunday afternoon. It provided all the offense in a 6-2 loss to the New York Yankees and gave Ellsbury several notable milestones.
He is now the first player in Red Sox history with 30 homers and 30 steals in the same season (57th in baseball history), and the second blast gave him 100 RBIs. Ellsbury is the seventh player in major league history with each of those numbers as well as 200 hits in the same season, joining Larry Walker, Hank Aaron, Alex Rodriguez, Ellis Burks, Vladimir Guerrero and Alfonso Soriano.
"He's risen to one of the finest players in the league," manager Terry Francona said. "I used to brag about Johnny Damon all the time. This kid is right…I mean this is unbelievable, and it's fun to watch."
Unfortunately, the joy in watching Ellsbury has been tempered by the play of so many others. Ellsbury is hitting .374 (37-for-99) with six home runs this month. The rest of the lineup is at .260 with 14 homers in September.
That, plus the atrocious pitching and defense, has led to a 5-18 month that may push the Sox out of the playoffs. In one way, such a scenario would hurt Ellsbury's MVP candidacy, since voters often lean toward players on playoff teams. In another, it's only been amplified, for anyone who has watched the Red Sox this month has seen one exceptional player, and 39 other guys trying to keep up.
"I mean, we can't lose sight of that," Francona said. "We're frustrated, but you can't lose sight of what this kid's done for us."
