When the 2022 Major League Baseball season began, the Red Sox offense looked like it was going to be a legitimate threat not just in the American League, but the league as a whole.
But between injuries and playing desperate baseball, Boston’s bats haven’t lived up to the hype.
Yes, pitching and defense also are areas the Red Sox have struggled with this season, but the offensive struggles were highlighted during the 10-inning 3-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night at Fenway Park.
Toronto took a one-run lead in the top of the 10th when George Springer drove in old friend Jackie Bradley Jr. — who’s having himself a nice series against his former Red Sox team. But even with runners on first and second for Boston with two outs in the bottom half of the frame, they couldn’t get anything done after Kiké Hernández struck out swinging to end the game.
“We have struggled offensively for a while,” manager Alex Cora told reporters after the game, per The Boston Globe’s Julian McWilliams. “I know people talk about the pitching and defense, but offensively, we haven’t done much in a while. The swing and miss, chasing. You start looking at where we rank since June 27, it’s not pretty. It’s late August. It’s the same at-bats. As a group, we have to take pride in that. We’ve got to be better. We’ve got to make sure we swing at strikes.”
When Cora said “it’s not pretty” he wasn’t joking. Check out this excerpt from McWilliams.
Entering Wednesday night, the Red Sox had swung at 33.9 percent of pitches outside of the strike zone since June 27, the seventh-highest chase rate in MLB in that time. Their swing-and-miss rate (11.8 percent) was likewise seventh-highest in the majors over that stretch.
The offense also spoiled a strong night from Brayan Bello, who struck out seven Blue Jays in five innings of work.
The Red Sox are chasing a spot in the AL wild-card standings and if they want a shot to play well into October, the offense needs to start making better decisions at the plate.
