It’s official; the Boston Red Sox are currently undergoing an absolute meltdown. After finding yet another way to disappoint in the first game of today’s doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays (a walkoff home run on the first pitch thrown by Matt Barnes), this team has now lost eight of their last nine games.
Making matters even worse is the fact they have do it all over again later tonight in the second game of the doubleheader. There have been signs that the Sox were heading towards a slump, and now we are here. The lack of activity from the Sox at the trade deadline only makes things more confusing.
Either way, Boston is in danger of losing out on a playoff spot at this point. They are now three games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in first, and the New York Yankees and Blue Jays are two and three games behind the Sox in second, respectively. They need to figure things out, and fast.
Playing the red hot Blue Jays certainly isn’t helping anything, but Boston just lost two of three to the woeful Detroit Tigers, so this isn’t an isolated incident. They need to right the ship, and they need to do it soon. Here are three things the Sox need to do in order to break out of their current slump.
Boston Red Sox slump buster No. 3: Get healthy
For most of the season, Boston hasn’t really dealt with many players heading to the injured list. Their lineup has stayed in tact for the most part, and they’ve only had a couple relievers hit the shelf for a week or two.
That has changed to open the second half of the season. Players are starting to drop like flies, whether it be injury or COVID issues, and it’s starting to mount.
Danny Santana and Christian Arroyo both hit the injured list right after the All Star break, and their versatility has been sorely missed. Arroyo in particular had been a revelation in the lineup, and his ability to consistently get on base hasn’t been replicated by his replacements.
In the bullpen, Matt Andriese has been on the injured list for some time, and he was joined by Darwinzon Hernandez a few days ago. Hernandez has been one of the better relivers for the Sox this season, and has left fellow lefties Josh Taylor and Austin Davis a lot of outs to pick up.
The lineup has only been hit harder this week. Recent call up Jarren Duran hit the COVID list yesterday, and was joined by J.D. Martinez today. This all goes without mentioning Chris Sale, who’s been on the injured list all season, or Kyle Schwarber, who was picked up at the trade deadline.
To say Boston has been hit hard with injuries lately in an understatement. The fact that it has coincided with this slump is only making things harder. Unless their healthy players start to pick it up, Boston is going to need to get healthy soon if they want to get back on the right track.
Boston Red Sox slump buster No. 2: Get some strikeouts
Boston’s most recent win was a 4-1 victory over the Tigers. The lineup hit some home runs which was great, but the pitching staff did something they hadn’t done in awhile, and that we get some strikeouts. In total, Boston’s pitchers struck out 18 batters that contest.
Boston’s pitching as a whole has been regressing for a month or two now, and while part of it is due to them regressing to the mean after a hot start, another is their inability to get hitters out. While pitching to contact is good sometimes, Boston’s pitching staff has been getting carried away with it, and they are losing outs as a result.
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Let’s take Nathan Eovaldi’s meltdown in the fifth inning of last night’s 12-4 loss to the Blue Jays. Not counting an intentional walk to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Eovaldi faced eight batters that inning, and got to two strikes on five of the batters he faced. Of those five batters, he only managed to get one of them out.
When the count is in your favor as a pitcher, your chances of getting the batter out increase drastically. The fact that Eovaldi couldn’t get out of this inning just amounts to poor pitching. You can argue it’s a one time incident, but recently it hasn’t been.
Boston’s pitching staff admittedly doesn’t feature a ton of guys who will rack up strikeouts, but the numbers have been at an all time low this season. They were frequently racking up double digits K’s per game early on in the season as a unit, but have only managed to do four times over the last 13 games.
This could be labeled as picky, but this is an issue that is costing the Sox games right now. Their starters haven’t been able to get deep into games lately, and this is a big reason why. They can’t get guys to strikeout anymore, which means more batters are getting on base, which then leads to more runs.
Getting back to controlling counts and attacking hitters needs to be emphasized in future games. Opposing lineups are wearing down Boston’s starters by simply forcing them to burn pitches on them because they can’t strike them out. Until they can figure out how to sit down hitters, Boston’s pitching is most likely going to continue to struggle.
Boston Red Sox slump buster No. 1: Start hitting with runners in scoring position
While the Sox rotation has taken it’s fair share of heat, the lineup hasn’t. That should change. To put it bluntly, Boston’s lineup has been downright atrocious during this slump, and proved that point by wasting a phenomenal outing from Nick Pivetta earlier this afternoon.
Over Boston’s previous two series against Tampa Bay and Detroit, they only managed to go 6-41 with runners in scoring position. Those numbers have only gotten worse during this series with Toronto.
Let’s again look at yesterday’s 12-4 loss to Toronto. Prior to Eovaldi’s meltdown, Boston had the bases loaded in the top of the fifth with two outs, and sent Martinez to the plate. Martinez tamely popped out to first to end the threat. They loaded them again in the seventh, only to have Hunter Renfroe pop out to shortstop rather than first base.
Even in today’s game, the Sox were gifted a call when Alex Verdugo wasn’t ruled out at first after he failed to touch the first base bag. Xander Bogaerts had runners on the corners with two outs, yet ended up fouling out to end the threat. Moments later the Sox would lose again.
If Boston’s lineup can’t drive in runs, they are going to continue to lose games. They were constantly mashing through teams earlier this season, but have gone ice cold as of late. Maybe the only guy hitting well right now is Renfroe, and that’s a big maybe.
If Boston wants to win more games, they have to capitalize on these chances like they were doing earlier in the season. The three pop outs mentioned earlier paint the picture of a lineup trying to do too much when all they need to do is get on base. The players are undoubtedly feeling the pressure here, so it makes sense that they are overcomplicating things at the plate.
Boston has struggled with runners in scoring position for most of the season, but the fix to this problem is applicable to all situations. They need to stop overcomplicating things at the plate; not every at bat is going to lead to a home run, but it’s starting to feel like these guys think it’s home run or bust at this point. Focusing on getting back on base and generating some runs will help this team win more games. It’s what helped them get to this spot in the first place, isn’t it?