BOSTON — Score another one for the immovable object.
Hanley Ramirez, playing the role of unstoppable force, slammed into the left field wall located in foul territory while chasing a fly ball Monday at Fenway Park. The three-time All-Star is listed as “day to day” with a left shoulder sprain, meaning he could avoid a disabled list stint if things check out OK in the coming days, but the Red Sox absolutely are holding their collective breath while awaiting an update.
The Red Sox, a team seemingly built around its offense, have mustered up just 14 runs over their last five games. They entered Monday leading the majors in runners left on base, and they subsequently went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base while suffering their fourth straight loss — a 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays.
The offense, at least in a small sample, isn’t in a good place. If you take Ramirez out of the equation, you’re essentially kicking a carcass. Things really can’t get much worse, but an offensive revival sure becomes exponentially more difficult to come by.
This isn’t to suggest the Red Sox are totally incapable of turning things around offensively at the drop of a hat, with or without Ramirez. There are enough legitimate weapons up and down the lineup that Boston should be scoring runs at a better clip. Perhaps they will soon.
But losing your team leader in homers and RBIs at a time when the offense is sputtering and the pitching remains inconsistent can be devastating, at least in the short-term.
“We’ve got some guys on the bench that can play the game well as well, so we’re not necessarily going to try to replace him,” Mookie Betts said after Monday’s loss of the possibility of losing Ramirez for any period of time. “Just everyone (needs to) pick up, make it a group effort.”
A “let’s stick together and do our part” mantra is nice on the surface. It’s also the only avenue the Red Sox can take at this point.
And sure, a lineup-wide uptick in production would do wonders sans Ramirez. Heck, it would do wonders even with Ramirez firmly entrenched in his usual cleanup spot.
But this Red Sox team needs energy right now. It needs a spark. And Ramirez’s bat was one of the few sources of liveliness that remained intact, as his ability to change the game with one swing is unmatched elsewhere on the roster, with the exception of maybe David Ortiz.
The Red Sox stayed levelheaded Sunday after the New York Yankees completed a three-game sweep in Boston’s own barn, but even John Farrell seemed a bit frustrated after the team’s fourth straight loss, offering a challenge of sorts to his inconsistent starting rotation.
“Ideally, you’d like to keep the game under control from the outset. And that’s not just with Clay, that’s with everyone,” Farrell said after another up-and-down performance by Clay Buchholz. “That’s a major league starting pitcher that you’re hopeful that consistency prevails where you give your offense a chance to get on track.
“We can’t think that going into every game we’re going to put up seven or eight runs. That doesn’t happen in this league.”
Farrell’s right. Runs are at a premium across Major League Baseball, which is why the Red Sox’s offensive potency — or expected offensive potency — figured to be such a game-changing force. The presumption was Boston could simply outslug its opponents, and it wasn’t exactly a wild presumption based on the dearth of starting pitching in the American League East and the talent installed in the Red Sox’s lineup.
But the Sox suddenly are seeing the pitfalls are stacking up too heavily on one side of the ball. If the hope was that a dynamic offense would offset uninspiring mound work, what then happens when the bats — the supposed source of fear, energy and success — hit a wall (figuratively speaking)?
Well, the Red Sox have been finding out in recent days. And the outlook only became grimmer Monday when Boston’s most unstoppable force within the “unstoppable force” was stopped dead in his tracks.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
