Boston Red Sox: A make or break weekend against the New York Yankees
The playoffs are still (barely) in sight for the Boston Red Sox with the upcoming four-game series against the New York Yankees a make-or-break weekend.
A final nail in the coffin in the 2019 season could be awaiting the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park this weekend.
Win at least three games over the New York Yankees and hopes of making the playoffs can remain plausible. Anything worse than at least a split, however, and the slim glimmer of light might be withdrawn completely.
Heading into the series, the Red Sox are firmly entrenched in fourth-place in the wild card race, a smooth 6.5 games back. Even a 12-6 record since August 13 hasn’t done much to move the needle, as Boston has remained between four and seven games back during this stretch.
The teams Boston has been chasing – Tampa Bay, Oakland, and Cleveland — continue to win as needed. And the schedule doesn’t exactly lend a lot of favors, one way or the other.
After this series against the Yankees, Boston will have 18 games remaining. Losing the series could possibly push the Red Sox as far as 10 games back. Only six of these 18 games will be at home. Normally, that might even sound more harrowing, but Boston at Fenway Park this season has been far from normal.
The Red Sox are 35-36 at home and 40-29 on the road, giving some credence of hope to maintaining a playoff push. So does a four-game series at Tampa Bay, where a sweep could swing things drastically.
Throw in six games against Baltimore and Toronto, plus some National League foes in San Francisco and Philadelphia, and the Red Sox still have a chance at finding themselves in the playoffs.
They just really need to win three out of four this weekend to even have this be a strong consideration.
Pitching just to get by
The Yankees have owned the Red Sox – a difficult sentence to write — in 2019. Boston is 4-11 against New York and has pitching lined up for this weekend that is not too encouraging.
Unless, that is, Jhoulys Chacin inspires fear into an opponent, something that he hasn’t done in 2019. Chacin was 3-10 with a 5.79 ERA with Milwaukee in 2019 and hasn’t pitched in the majors since July 24.
While the bullpen has been a more solid bunch over the last month, relying on them for likely the entirety of the first two games of the series is daunting.
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And Rick Porcello (12-11, 5.63 ERA) has been up-and-down all season. He gave up eight hits and six runs in four innings in his last start. But in the three starts prior, he tossed 16 innings while only giving up six runs total. Plus, he’s 0-1 with an ERA of 11.45 against the Yankees in 2019.
The offense will be expected to carry things, but not the one who only had four hits in a 2-1 loss to Minnesota on Thursday. To win three of four, we’re talking eight to ten runs per game and crossing the fingers that the staff has enough.
Chasing down the competition
The three teams ahead of Boston have been swapping spots over the last month. Currently, it’s Tampa Bay and Oakland leading the charge.
The Rays, aside from hosting the Red Sox four times, have two games with the Yankees and a west-coast swing where they will play the Dodgers and Angels.
Oakland might have the easiest trek, with 13 games against Detroit, Kansas City and Seattle. These are by no means “gimme” games but the task of winning is slightly more tangible. Some help from the Houston Astros might be nice as Oakland has four games left with them.
Cleveland, meanwhile, has lost five of their last seven games. They still have six on the docket with Minnesota and a three-game set at Washington to close out the season.
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The Red Sox will certainly need some help along the way, even with three wins or a sweep this weekend. Even a split could still see Boston manage to sneak in. Picking up only a win or getting swept could all but finalize a 2019 postseason without the Boston Red Sox.
Leaving a fandom with a tough, bitter pill to swallow and a quiet October for baseball in Boston.