Once upon a time, the Boston Red Sox were sitting on top of the American League East while the New York Yankees were stinking up the Bronx.
Once upon a time, the Red Sox were the comeback kings of baseball. They were resilient, clutch, had good pitching when it counted. Most of all they were having fun.
Where did those days go? Following a three-game sweep at the hands of the Yankees, the same team they dominated at the beginning of the season, the Sox are the team that sucks, and the fun has all but evaporated out of the clubhouse.
In losing 14 of their last 20 games, Alex Cora’s team find themselves suddenly on the outside looking in at even a Wild Card spot. The hitting has gone basically silent during that stretch except for a couple of offensive explosions and the bullpen has blown lead after lead.
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The Boston Red Sox have gone silent in all phases of the game
Now 69-54 on the season, the desperation is now setting in. The team has Chris Sale back, but now Nathan Eovaldi, Eduardo Rodriguez and Wednesday’s losing pitcher Nick Pivetta can’t find that consistency on the mound they had at the beginning of the season.
Offensively, they all seem to go silent at the same time. Rafael Devers, who owns the Yankees, suddenly couldn’t get a hit during the three-game series and both J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts struggled at the plate as well. When those three aren’t hitting, it seems any starting pitcher has their number.
Once upon a time there was a lot of fun in that dugout, but suddenly a team exceeding expectations are one silent bunch of pretenders.
"“It’s very quiet today, I’ll tell you that,” Cora said following the game, via MLB.com. “It’s very quiet in the clubhouse, and understandably so. It’s a different feeling than early in the season when we came here and did what we did. All that stuff is in the past. It’s part of the season.”"
Unfortunately for Red Sox fans, that sounds like a manager defeated.
Boston Red Sox strike zone: Nick Pivetta struggles big time
The Boston Red Sox needed a strong starting pitching performance on Wednesday to avoid the three-game sweep to the Yankees and they simply didn’t get it.
As good as Nick Pivetta has been in similar spots all season long, he added to the bleeding in the Bronx lasting just 1 2/3 innings in the 5-2 loss.
In giving up 4 hits and 4 runs, Pivetta put his team in a big hole offensively, which seemed that much bigger given the lineup’s struggles at the plate. Still, Pivetta offered some optimism after the game which shows his confidence in what his team is capable of moving forward.
"“We’re just hungry for more. We just have to stay steady, stay fast through this little bit of a stretch,” Pivetta said in a Zoom call, as transcribed by NESN. “We have an off day tomorrow, which will be really good, get some energy get some rest. Get some energy moving forward. It’s just focusing on game to game and going out there competing every single day and doing our jobs. We’re very confident in ourselves and we’ve done a really good job up to this point.”"
Actually, the Red Sox as a team has done a good job up until late July. With a 6-14 record since July 29. In that time they have not only surrendered the AL lead to the Tampa Bay rays, they have now fallen behind a Yankees team that still has their share of issues.
In pinpointing that every team goes through ups and downs during the long 162-game marathon, Pivetta knows adjustments need to be made. If they don’t start sprinting now, it will be very hard to cross that finish line first or even second in a race they have given back to the rest of the AL East.
Boston Red Sox manager minute: “We got beat”
The mark of a good manager is making the necessary adjustments from series to series and for the most part Alex Cora has done that.
If you remember, it was after the last series in New York in which Cora made a lineup adjustment that really sparked the offense. Will he be able to do the same after this series?
The Boston Red Sox manager has a day to try to reshape and re-inspire this ball club. He not only has to get those bats going again, but he also must get the entire team back on track. The bats, the starting pitching, the bullpen. It was all a disaster during this three-game series against the Yankees.
"“We got beat. We got beat in every aspect of the game,” Cora said. “They pitched better than us, they hit better than us, they played better defense than us. It’s that simple. We’ve got an off-day tomorrow [Thursday]. We’ve got to be ready for Friday. That’s the way I see it.”"
Perhaps the team was on too much of a high following their prior series against the lowly Baltimore Orioles or perhaps they overlooked the Yankees after beating them early in the season. Whatever it was, the display of bad baseball the last two days (three games) is the opposite of what this same Red Sox team showcased through the end of June.
They simply must put it all behind them and they must do it now or else they will wear the masks of pretenders into the offseason. If that happens, the organization only have themselves to blame for not making the moves the needed to at the MLB Trade Deadline.