After a roller coaster season, the Red Sox find themselves in playoff purgatory

The Red Sox have clinched a postseason spot. It was… anticlimactic.

The Sox allowed 4 runs before recording a single out yesterday and never made it a competitive game against the Rays, only securing their playoff berth via the Braves defeat of the Astros. They are just 9-8 over the month of September and have dropped each of the last 2 series. The team’s OPS+ of 84 is the lowest monthly mark they’ve posted all season — yes, even worse than the dreadful April (albeit just barely).

After a remarkable roller coaster of a season, we find ourselves in a weird spot. In terms of on-field results, nothing of consequence has really happened this month. The most important things that are happening relative to the Red Sox right now are happening in the trainer’s room. Will Willson Contreras and Ceddanne Rafaela recover in time for the playoffs? Can Roman Anthony find his rhythm after a lengthy injury stint? What can Garrett Crochet and Tanner Houck do, if anything, to salvage two otherwise lost seasons?

This entire month of September baseball has felt less like a playoff race and more like a second spring training. The games don’t matter. It will be an actual, physical struggle to play the final few games of the season. We’re in playoff purgatory.

But the sting of Champagne last night was real. Playoff baseball is coming. And the truth of the matter is that if the Sox give us a memorable October, we won’t care how September felt.

Use this space to talk about whatever you want and, as always, be good to one another.