Red Sox Face Crucial Homestand After Nightmarish Road Trip
By Tyler Maher
When the Red Sox left Boston for the West Coast last week, spirits were high. The Sox had just swept a two-game series from the juggernaut Atlanta Braves, improving to eight games over .500. And with the trade deadline coming up, reinforcements were hopefully on the way.
Fast forward one week, and Boston’s situation is suddenly much more precarious. The team heads into Thursday’s off day after an ugly 2-4 road trip that featured two walk-off losses and was capped by a squandered 3-0 lead on Wednesday in Seattle. And thanks to Chaim Bloom’s inactivity at the deadline, help isn’t coming anytime soon.
Chaim Bloom says the Red Sox are “ready to roll with this group.” Says he’s hoping this team might be able to do something but didn’t want to do anything that could interfere with their growth in the future. “We really like this group.”
— Tom Caron (blue checkmark redacted) (@TomCaron) August 1, 2023
Red Sox Schedule
The Red Sox now face a 10-game homestand that has the potential to make or break their season. It starts with a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays, who currently lead Boston by 2.5 games for the final Wild Card spot in the American League. The Blue Jays play on Thursday as well, so that lead will either be two or three games when they come to town on Friday.
That means the Red Sox will have a chance to gain back some ground in the Wild Card race, or fall farther behind if their struggles continue.
After that, they have an easy four-game series against the dreadful Kansas City Royals. That’s followed by three games against the mediocre Detroit Tigers.
So all in all, there’s a good number of winnable games coming up for Boston. It also helps that the Red Sox have played well at home this year, going 30-23 with a plus-42 run differential. They’ve been even better lately, too, winning nine of their last 11 games at Fenway.
It’s imperative that the Sox turn things around and play good baseball during this stretch. Because if they don’t their playoff hopes might be gone by the time it’s over.