This is not to say moving on from Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. made the Red Sox better this year. Those two perhaps are the best defensive outfielders the franchise has ever seen.
But Boston, as a collective, have stepped up to try and fill the void left by the former outfielders. And en route to a 52-32 record, winning eight of their last nine games, we've seen quite a few of those thrilling outfield assists, diving catches and effective base running from the Red Sox.
As manager Alex Cora put it while describing what his team has done well this stretch, Boston still has some athletes on the roster.
"The speed of the game and putting pressure on the opposition," Cora told reporters pregame ahead of their series finale with the Oakland Athletics. "And it seems like against New York, we picked it up. We started doing better things running wise. We put pressure on guys. And it's a brand of baseball we like. We got a bunch of athletes. I hate to repeat myself, obviously, but you know it's not Mookie, it's not is not Jackie. But, you know, they're great athletes too here. We got a bunch of them. Our big guys, they can run the bases, too.
"So I do believe that that's something that I'm proud of this team because they see the game. They see the game and they try to take advantage of situations."
When the Red Sox are playing as well as they are, it's hard to argue against those points.
