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For Red Sox, 22 Games To Go

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The weather is turning a little cooler, school is back in session, and football is on TV again. It’s the unmistakable signs of fall and with it, the nearing of the major league postseason.

As Red Sox starter Doug Fister said after Wednesday’s Sox win, “It’s definitely a fun time of year, getting anxious for what may be to come.”

Where We Stand

At the start of the day on Friday, Boston is 79-61 with a 3½ game lead in the division. There are 22 games remaining in the regular season. The Sox’ Magic Number is 20.

The American League race in the East remains contested, while in the West and Central divisions the leaders are undisputed. The Astros, so solid all season, are 13½ games ahead of the second-place Angels. The Indians, who start the weekend with a 13-game win streak, hold a 10½ lead over the surprisingly solid Twins.

In the senior circuit, the Nationals and Dodgers have a strong grip on first place with 17 and 11½ game leads in the East and West divisions, respectively. The National League Central, meanwhile, is as tight as the AL East with the Cubs leading the pack by four games over both the Cardinals and Brewers.

The Road Ahead

The Red Sox face the Rays for three games starting Friday then enjoy a day off before taking on the Athletics for three next week.

After that, it’s the final road trip of the regular season with three against the Rays, three more at Baltimore, and then three at Cincinnati. The Sox then finish the regular season at Fenway with three last games against the Blue Jays and then four against the Astros.

If It Ended Today

If the postseason began today the Twins and Yankees would square off in a winner-take-all, one-game wild card contest. The winner of that game would face the Astros in an AL Division Series.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox would face the Indians in the other AL Division Series with Cleveland having home field advantage by virtue of their better regular season win percentage (.597 for the Indians, .564 for the Sox).

Over in the National League, the Rockies and Diamondbacks would face off to become the wild card winner, earning the right to take on the Dodgers in an NL Division Series. The other NLDS would match up the Cubs and Nationals, with Chicago owning home field advantage.


Dead: Red Sox Offense Goes Missing Again

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For Red Sox Nation it wasn’t the worst possible weekend, but it was close. The Red Sox dropped three of four weekend games to their division rival, the Yankees.

Fortunately, a win on Friday on a solid outing by Doug Fister and home runs by Andrew Benintendi, Eduardo Núñez, and Hanley Ramírez, leave the Sox with a 3½ game lead in the division.

In Thursday’s 6-2 loss, Eduardo Rodríguez matched up poorly against New York’s heavyweight, CC Sabathia. E-Rod managed just 5.0 IP of work and allowed five runs on 10 hits, including two home runs in the process. On the other side, Sabathia gave up just one run on four hits over 6.0 IP.

Saturday’s outing by Drew Pomeranz was solid through five innings, but fell apart with three quick New York runs in the sixth. The Sox mustered just one run on six hits to lose that game 5-1.

Hoping for a split seemed plausible with Chris Sale starting Sunday’s game, but the Yankees were unimpressed. They knocked Sale around for seven hits, including a season-high three home runs from Chase Headley, Matt Holliday, and Todd Frazier. It was just the sixth time in Sale’s career he’d allowed three or more HRs.

Sale is now the first starting pitcher to make at least five starts against the Yankees in a single season and not record a win since the Blue Jays’ Mark Buehrle went 0-4 in five starts of 2014. 

Manager John Farrell sent Sale to the showers after 4.1 IP then paraded Boston relievers, one worse that the other, until the trio of Matt Barnes, Heath Hembree, and Blaine Boyer mopped up the last 2.1 innings of the game without allowing more damage. Joe Kelly was charged with one run, Robby Scott with two.

But it was Addison Reed who got the worst of it in the sixth inning. With two outs and the bases loaded, New York catcher Gary Sánchez, still alive despite obviously missed strikes by home plate umpire Sam Holbrook, reached safely after the Yankees challenged the out call by first base umpire DJ Reyburn. The overturned call allowed a run to score and kept the inning alive. It was 4-1, a game still in reach.

Immediately, though, Starlin Castro struck for a bases clearing double followed by an Aaron Judge blast that plated two more. Just like that, it was 9-1.

Red Sox Bats Go Dead Silent

Find fault with the Yankees, find fault with the umpires. OK. But understand that once again, the Red Sox offense simply didn’t show up. Boston has scored two or fewer runs in each of their last five losses. Sure, there were three home runs in game two of this series, but then no others.

New York outscored Boston 21-9. They outhit the Red Sox 41-22. 

And perhaps worst of all, the Red Sox didn’t get a single hit with runners in scoring position until the 9th inning of the final game. For 35 innings, the Red Sox went 0-for-25 with runners in scoring position. They left 30 men on base, 12 in the first game alone.

Boston batters struck out 15 times on Sunday, tying a season-high.

And New York’s damage to Boston hasn’t come just in this series.

This season, with runners in scoring position, the Red Sox have 48 hits against the division-rival Blue Jays, 29 against the Orioles, 23 against the Rays, and just 20 against the Yankees.

Fortunately, that’s the last time the Sox will face the Yanks in the regular season. Boston finishes the 2017 series with New York on the short end, 8-games-to 11. It’s their third loss to the Bombers in the last four seasons (11-8 in 2016, 8-11 in 2015, 7-12 in
2014). 

Turn The Page

The Red Sox head home to face the Blue Jays starting Monday. Toronto is 3-7 for their last 10 games. For the Yankees, it’s a road trip to face the Orioles. Baltimore is 8-2 for their last 10.


Red Sox Lead East By 5½ Games

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After a bruising weekend in which the Red Sox were swept by the Orioles over three games, the trip to Toronto came just at the right time.

While the Yankees faced the exceedingly hot Indians and lost three in a row, the schedule gave the Red Sox the Blue Jays and Boston came away with three solid wins.

The 2017 Red Sox join the 2001 Sox team as the only major league clubs ever to take eight games in a single season in Toronto. The Red Sox are also the only visiting team with eight straight wins in a season at the Rogers Centre, which opened in 1989. At 130-101 no American League team has a better winning at Rogers Centre than the Red Sox (.563), not even the Blue Jays (.546).

After a 1-4 June and and an 0-4 July, Red Sox starter Rick Porcello finished August at 5-1.

On Wednesday Porcello worked 6.2 IP allowing just one run on six hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.

Porcello has now lasted at least 6.0 IP in each of his last 25 road starts, a streak that dates back to May 28, 2016. In the last 100 seasons, the only other Red Sox pitchers to go that deep in 24 or more straight starts are Oil Can Boyd (33 games), Roger Clemens (24 games), and Tex Hughson (Two streaks of 24 games).

Moreland Powerful Off The Bench

Once again, the Sox broke a low-scoring affair with six runs off Toronto relievers. Mitch Moreland, pinch hitting for Chris Young came through with a two-run home run in the seventh inning and then two more runs on a single in the eighth. It was Boston’s first pinch-hit home run since Aaron Hill’s last September 27 against the Yankees.

Not since Mike Carp’s grand slam on September 11, 2013 had a Red Sox pinch hitter connected for four RBI in two or fewer at-bats.

The ten Red Sox hits on Wednesday included a double and a home run for Hanley Ramirez. He now leads the club with 21 HRs, including two in the last two games. Ten of Ramírez’ last 16 hits have gone for extra-bases (six doubles, four home runs).

With a 5½-game lead in the American League East, the Red Sox now face the second place Yankees for four games in the Bronx starting Thursday.


Orioles Sweep Red Sox

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After two shellackings by the Orioles on Friday (16-3) and Saturday (7-0)—not to mention a 13-6 beatdown by the Indians on Thursday, it really seemed as though the Red Sox would pull out a win on Sunday.

Instead, the Sox fell 2-1 for the first Orioles three-game sweep of the Red Sox since 2015 and the first one at Fenway since September 8-10, 2014.

Baltimore gave the Sox plenty of opportunities, allowing eight hits and eight walks on Sunday.

Boston starter Doug Fister did his part, too, stumbling for two first-inning runs, but otherwise keeping the birds in the park and off the scoreboard for 7.0 IP. In this case, “stumble” isn’t a turn of phrase. Fister said postgame the balk call against him, his first since 2011, came as a result of catching his cleat in the first. Boston relievers Addison Reed and Craig Kimbrel each worked a scoreless inning.

But even against Baltimore’s mediocre pitching the Sox couldn’t muster more than one lonely run in the sixth inning. In both the fifth and sixth innings the Sox loaded the bases—and left them loaded. The Red Sox now have 13 inning-ending, bases-loaded strikeouts this season, their most such strikeouts in a single season since 2014 (18).

In all, Boston left 13 men on base, going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position on Sunday.

Eight Hits, Eight Walks…and a Loss

Sunday’s was just the 19th game in all the major leagues where a team mustered eight or more hits plus eight or more walks and still came away with a loss. It was the first such game for the Red Sox since June 22, 2016.

The last time the Orioles allowed as many hits and walks to the Red Sox and still won the game was April 30, 2010. It has been over 10 years since Baltimore managed that at Fenway Park (May 11, 2007).

Yankees Creep Closer

Meanwhile, in New York, the Yankees capitalized on five Mariners’ errors, all coming in one inning. Seattle’s five errors were the most in an inning in club history. The last major league team to make five errors in one inning was the 1977 Chicago Cubs, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

New York now trails Boston by 2½ games in the American League East.

On Monday the Red Sox will open a three-game set in Toronto against the Blue Jays, who are 3-7 for their last 10 games. Conversely, the Yankees will host three games against the hot Cleveland Indians, who are 7-3 for their last 10. The Red Sox will play in the Bronx starting next Friday night.


Yankees, Tigers Suspended

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This being RSNStats, the typical articles here cover news and stats for Red Sox Nation. But as this might affect the Sox, we’re breaking tradition to cover the aftermath of Thursday’s rock-em-sock-em game between the Yankees and Tigers.

In case you missed it—or even if you didn’t—enjoy it again here:

Today, MLB Chief Baseball Officer Joe Torre handed down the following sanctions:

  • Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera has received a seven-game suspension for inciting the first bench-clearing incident and fighting.
  • Yankees catcher Gary Sánchez has received a four-game suspension for fighting, including throwing punches.
  • Tigers (and former Red Sox) pitcher Alex Wilson has received a four-game suspension for intentionally throwing a pitch at Todd Frazier of the Yankees while warnings were in place for both sides.
  • Yankees catcher Austin Romine has received a two-game suspension for fighting, including throwing punches.
  • Tigers manager Brad Ausmus has received a one-game suspension for the intentional actions of Wilson while warnings were in place.

All five were also penalized with fines, though the amounts were not disclosed. Suspension are effective starting tonight, unless appealed.

The Red Sox don’t face the Yankees again until next Thursday, August 31.

The following who were involved in the mêlée will receive fines, but no suspensions:

Two other Yankees, first baseman Garrett Cooper and outfielder Clint Frazier were fined for being on the field while being on the disabled list.