The Boston Red Sox had arguably the best week of their underwhelming 2019 season last week, winning five of seven combined games against the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees. A week later, however, they’re in danger of putting together their worst week of the campaign, one that might ultimately doom their championship defense for good.
Boston understandably felt good after winning three of four against the first-place Yankees last weekend, but they weren’t able to carry over any sort of momentum against Tampa Bay, another team it’s chasing in the American League East. The Red Sox, more specifically Boston pitchers, were pounded in the three-game set at Fenway Park. The Rays swept away the Red Sox, a sour ending to a homestand that begins so promising and now sets up a make-or-break four-game series this weekend in the Bronx.
If things don’t go well this weekend for the Red Sox, it’s all but over. Sure, there’s a chance the team regains its 2018 form and goes on some sort of run, but we’re into August, and what have you seen from Alex Cora’s bunch that makes you believe that’s possible? Again, it’s not out of the realm of possibility, but it’s just hard to imagine at this point, meaning anything less than a split this weekend could be devastating.
The Red Sox finally appeared to find themselves last weekend against the Yankees. After winning the first three games of the series, Fangraphs gave the Sox a 61.4 percent chance to make the playoffs. All things considered, that wasn’t bad. But Chris Sale turned in another stinker Sunday night, and then the Rays swept a three-game set from the Sox, and here we are now. The Red Sox’s chances of making the postseason are now below 40 percent, according to Fangraphs.
Much was made about Boston’s trade deadline inactivity, but if you watched the two games following the deadline, it’s easy to see why Dave Dombrowski was hesitant to make a move and mortgage the future for a team that can’t get out of neutral. Even adding a depth bullpen piece or two wouldn’t have done the Red Sox much good when Rick Porcello was giving up six runs for the fifth time this season Tuesday night. David Price couldn’t pitch out of the fifth inning Wednesday, marking the sixth time in his last nine starts he failed to log at least six innings. And with the Red Sox trailing 4-2 after two Thursday night, it was more of the same.
“We’ve got a big challenge coming up this weekend, and if we’re going to be involved in whatever talk for the playoffs, it better start tomorrow,” Cora told reporters Thursday night.
There’s at least one person on the Boston roster playing like they understand the magnitude of the situation. Shortstop Xander Bogaerts did all he could Thursday night, going 4-for-4 with a pair of home runs. He’s now hitting .400 (18-for-45) with four homers and nine RBIs since the start of this pivotal 14-game stretch against the Rays and Yankees, but he’s not getting a whole lot of help.
“I think it might be probably the most disappointing losses of the season so far,” Bogaerts told reporters Thursday night after Boston’s home record dropped to a woeful 27-29. “It’s a crucial time, and it’s a time that we need to win as much. It feels like getting one win is really hard to come by right now. We’ve got to find a way to forget these last few games, try to remember the good times and try to go on a run again.”
They have been saying the same things all season, and this might be the club’s last chance to finally speak it into existence.
That can all start Friday night at Yankee Stadium, and it obviously will need to begin on the mound with a pitching staff that has allowed an unsightly 37 runs on 55 hits in its last five games. If they can’t do that, it’s going to be a long march to the end for a team whose season will end the same way it began: by underachieving.
