Two weeks from tonight, the Red Sox will likely face the Yankees for Game 1 of the Wild Card series in New York. Not only that, but assuming the Yankees are unable to chase down the Rays and then choose to stack their rotation with Cam Schlittler at the top, the Sox will be facing a power right hander on the road in a game the opponent has to win and also has a solid bullpen to lock things down.
In other words, they’ll be facing a situation rather similar to what confronted them in Texas on Tuesday night:
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Jacob deGrom is a power right hander worthy of a Game 1 start, and still has a fastball that sits in the upper 90s.
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The Rangers are just one game behind Houston for the AL West lead, so they need to win to keep pace.
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The Texas bullpen has been strong all season, and they’ve only lost one game when leading after six innings.
So for all the red herrings that run rampant in September baseball, tonight’s performance by the offense isn’t one of them. This is as close as you’re going to get to a practice run for the setup on September 29th, and I’m sorry to say, the Sox failed miserably!
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They struck out 15 times.
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They went hitless with runners in scoring position.
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Not a single Sox player batting one through eight managed an extra base hit.
If you rank all 71 plate appearances in this game by leverage index, the Sox were actually at the dish for 11 of the 13 highest moments. However, they didn’t manage a single hit during any of them. Meanwhile, Texas cashed in with a Corey Seager single and an Elias Diaz double during their only two high leverage at bats of the night.
In the end, this game perfectly illustrated what I consider to be the biggest problem with this Red Sox team: As good as they are at working together as a group, and as good as they are at pounding the pulp out of subpar pitching, and as good as they are at taking advantage of cracks in an opposing bullpen, they don’t seem to have the artillery necessary to match up when the war turns nuclear.
Tonight, they faced a great starter, who despite only lasting five innings managed to strike out eight. That was enough to link directly to a deep and reliable Texas bullpen that shut things down the rest of the way. This scares the hell out of me because this is exactly how I fear a Sox loss most likely plays out during a short playoff series. The Sox spend the whole night needing just one or two big hits, but the one that truly matters never comes. The opponent bridges a power starter to a potent bullpen, and the Sox just don’t have an answer. They certainly didn’t tonight.
Studs
Nick Sogard: For all the lousy results at the plate in this game, Sogard was the exception. His third inning homer knocked in both Boston runs, and he then later added both a sac bunt and this tremendous double play on defense to end the Texas fifth:
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The bullpen: Brayan Bello, Alec Gamboa, Wyatt Olds and Jovani Moran combined to go 5.1 scoreless innings and give the Sox a chance to come back.
Duds
Wilyer Abreu: Looked totally overmatched in this game. 0-4 with three strikeouts.
Andruw Monasterio: Pinch hit with the platoon advantage and the bases loaded in the eighth inning. He struck out on 97mph heat.
Patrick Sandoval: This one is obvious, and in a game earlier in the season he’d be the No. 1 dud for this dreadful performance in which he gave up four runs in just 2.2 innings. But let’s face it, this guy isn’t going to sniff a meaningful inning in October unless he somehow sneaks into the absolute last spot on the pitching staff and a game goes about 17 innings. So while he stunk again, and he’s a frustrating watch, and that 44 pitch second inning was a complete debacle, nothing he did here is a threat to carry over into the playoffs.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the offense.
Play of the game:
This play is worth noting because not only did it result in what turned out to be the winning runs, but it also underscored why many fans find themselves holding their breath every time a ball is hit towards Trevor Story nowadays.
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