The Red Sox dropped their third straight game against the Rays this evening, falling to 47-42 in the process. That puts them in a three-way tie with the Mariners and Blue Jays for the American League’s final two Wild Card spots (a game and a half back of Tampa Bay).
Despite the recent dip, Boston remains in the thick of playoff contention. They’ve spent the past few weeks down a handful of their top arms, but they’re expected to welcome a few pitchers back in the coming days. Jen McCaffrey of the Athletic tweets that Nathan Eovaldi, out for a little more than a month with back inflammation, is expected to take the ball Friday night against the Yankees. He’s likely to be joined on the staff by Garrett Whitlock, whom McCaffrey adds is also slated for a likely weekend reinstatement. Whitlock has missed a similar amount of time battling hip inflammation.
Eovaldi will step back into a starting rotation that has subsequently seen Rich Hill and Michael Wacha also land on the IL. Whitlock, on the other hand, is expected to transition back into a multi-inning relief role. An elite late-game arm during his rookie season, the righty has started nine of his 13 appearances this year. Club personnel have suggested in recent weeks they prefer Whitlock as a high-leverage stopper who’s capable of working multiple innings out of the bullpen. He’ll team with closer Tanner Houck and breakout righty John Schreiber among the top options for skipper Alex Cora in the later innings.
Matt Barnes was formerly in that mix, but he’s had a nightmarish past 12 months. A deserved All-Star in 2021 after an excellent first half, the right-hander struggled enough down the stretch to be scratched from the initial postseason roster. That continued for the first couple months of this year, as Barnes posted a 7.94 ERA with career-worst strikeout and walk numbers before being placed on the injured list on May 31 with shoulder inflammation.
Boston transferred Barnes from the 15-day to the 60-day IL prior to tonight’s game. The move created the necessary 40-man roster spot to reinstate catcher Kevin Plawecki from the COVID-19 list. That rules Barnes out for 60 days from his initial placement, meaning he won’t be eligible to return until the end of the month. The 32-year-old figures to be ready for reinstatement around that point, as he’s made a pair of rehab appearances in complex ball over the past few days.
The Sox could also be facing an absence for Matt Strahm, who suffered a left wrist contusion after being struck by a comebacker last night. Chris Cotillo of MassLive writes that the southpaw is listed as day-to-day after x-rays came back negative. That’s also true of second baseman Trevor Story, who has a right hand contusion after being hit with a pitch in the same contest. Story told reporters he’s hopeful he can avoid the injured list, but that’s dependent on how he heals over the next few days.
Boston is surely hopeful Strahm will be able to dodge the IL as well, as he’s been arguably the club’s top left-handed bullpen arm. Through 27 2/3 innings, he owns a 3.58 ERA. Strahm has punched out a strong 27.1% of batters faced against a tidy 5.9% walk rate. He figures to remain in a high-leverage position for the remainder of the season, but the impending free agent is hoping to expand his role next year.
Strahm recently told Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic he’s hoping to land a rotation opportunity on the open market. That’s not completely unfamiliar territory, as he was a starting pitching prospect throughout his minor league tenure. Strahm has made 25 starts in the big leagues, 16 of which came with the Padres in 2019.
The 30-year-old pointed out to Rosenthal that he has an atypically deep repertoire for a reliever, featuring five pitches. According to Statcast, he’s used each of his four-seam, slider, curveball and sinker at a greater than 10% clip this season. Strahm has also consistently avoided free passes in recent years, and he’s never been prone to dramatic platoon concerns. For his career, he’s been a bit more effective against right-handed hitters (.230/.296/.397) than lefties (.254/.326/.402). That trend has continued in 2022.
That combination could make Strahm a dark-horse rotation candidate for clubs this winter, similarly to the Angels giving Michael Lorenzen a rotation job after a few years of bullpen work in Cincinnati. In the interim, he figures to remain a key reliever (assuming health) as Boston jockeys for a playoff spot.
Miracle that they have played as well as they have.
Not like it matters. The top wildcard spot belongs to the Orioles soon enough
Honestly, I wouldn’t doubt it.
It’s going to be awkward when the O’s signal to their fans that they still have no interest in competing by trading away Mancini and a couple bullpen arms, including Lopez, in the next few weeks.
Lord – I completely agree. It would be a cruel, cruel twist of events if the O’s become sellers while in the thick of the WC race. If they don’t want to be buyers that’s fine, but allow the players a taste of a playoff run and possible postseason experience. That will benefit them a great deal in future years.
Most Os fans don’t expect them to mortgage future for this season. Still building. It’s the returns that make the difference. Lopez has years of control left, don’t trade him for a Dominican teenager
I agree. This isn’t like early in the rebuild, where everyone needed to be traded. That’s no longer a necessity. But imho, they still need to see what the market is.
Every year, at least one rebuilding team derails themselves by thinking they need to make a run, when they aren’t ready for it. As much progress as the O’s have made, there is still a decent chance of them finishing last, albeit with a very good record.
In the middle of a Sox post an all Os thread breaks out. Crazy. Lovin’ it!
Jeff – That’s because most Sox fans are not like Joe Brady, we acknowledge how well Baltimore has played and we don’t arrogantly think the Red Sox are guaranteed to finish ahead of the O’s by default.
If the Sox get eliminated from playoff contention, I’ll be rooting for the O’s. It’s a great underdog story.
And BTW directly across the street from Tropicana Field, there’s a huge Orioles flag hanging from a 5th floor condo.
It’s all these pitching injuries this season that make me wonder why teams like KC and COL wouldn’t want to be sellers in this market.
strangely loyal. refreshing if not misplaced at times
trust me they arent playing that good, recent weeks aside, they are unable to beat their own division which will completely f..ck them soon enough, think about it, if they played Baltimore right now, they would be favored to win.
optimistically though, strahm has been incredible
Strahm has always been good out of the pen, but then someone moves him to SP and he struggles and the gets injured. Some guys are just better in the BP.
Let’s not forget Josh Taylor should be coming back soon too.
I hope Josh figures it out, he has done terribly so far
Aside from the garbage bullpen and Frankenstein starting rotation, they also can’t hit and have a terrible manager.
Milt – You are 100% correct. The rotation should soon become good again with Sale, Nate, and hopefully Wacha all healthy again. I’m not counting on Hill though.
But the managing has been God-awful. Cora refusing to use JD the other night as a pinch hitter was inexcusable … pinch hitting Wong instead? Unreal. And his insistence in using Brasier and Diekman during winnable game situations is disgusting, it’s Robles all over again. You’ve got two excellent relievers in Schreiber and Houck, use them for multiple innings! But with Cora it’s never about winning, he’s a total joke.
LOL!
2nd in RPG
8th in SP ERA
8th in RP ERA
Joe – Please stop trolling the real Red Sox fans.
Pretty sure Milt was talking about RECENTLY … ya know, when they’ve actually been playing against good teams instead of crap teams.
Their OPS in July is a pathetic .687 and they’ve scored just 54 runs in 13 games.
Compare that to May when they had an OPS of .822 and scored 159 runs in 28 games.
Okay, over the past 28 days then:
OPS is #6
SP is #8 in ERA
RP is #8 in ERA
Not that much of a difference.
That said, I assume that you have been in touch with Milt if you know that he was talking about recently.
Joe – There you go again, providing bogus information like Baghdad Bob.
They played only 3 games against the AL East in June, the last three games of the month in Toronto.
19 of their 20 June wins were against Non-AL East teams.
Only 5 of their 20 June wins were against teams with winning records.
Your intentional attempts at deception don’t work with me, you should know that by now.
I see the haters are in full celebration mode again.
I don’t remember when I started joining these discussion groups, but even as far back as 2007, it’s always been the same. Lose a few games, and the haters saturate the joint. Win a few games, and they disappear like a fart in the wind.
Maybe so but it’s why players come to Boston because the expectation level to win is so high. You do want to win right?
You think fans hating on players/coaches helps win championships. Now thats a new take. Many players put Boston on their ‘no trade’ list for this very reason. But, whatever helps you sleep at night.
badco – You are, of course, 100% correct that real Red Sox fans want the team to win. We don’t like losing and aren’t pleased with the management and direction of the team, obviously.
11-23 against the AL East is disgusting.
You do want to win right?
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Of course, but I fail to see what my wanting to win has to do with the haters coming out every time we lose a few games.
Joe – Where are the haters here? I see Pwndroia, Samuel, Dewey, Badco, Milt posting here. None of them are haters.
Okay Amanda is, but she’s always around.
Good thing you aren’t supervising or managing anybody. You’d be too afraid to point out mistakes or call out poor performance because of your fear of being a “hater”.
You’d make a great DA in a liberal city like NYC or Baltimore though. No arrests and no charges, don’t want to be viewed as a “hater” right?
Time to start banging on trash cans to keep your job
Unfortunately they cannot beat an AL East team in a series. They needed a closer and to sign Schwarber in the off season. They did neither. Dalbac should not be allowed anywhere near a batters box. He cannot hit period and strikes out way too much. Schwarber’s 28 homeruns would look great about now. Dalbac needs to be in the minor leagues and Bloom went “Cheap” on the first base position.
Every night when they are winning the 9th inning is an adventure. They have no consistency at the closer position.
Story killed this team with his struggles early. His 220 batting average is not cutting it either. Bloom had better sign Boggarts or they will burn him at the stake in Boston. I have had enough with this team letting their good “homegrown” players leave via free agency or trading them away.
Al – I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Henry seems to be spending resources on Liverpool instead of the Red Sox because he views this year as yet another “building year” and he said some of the decisions could be “painful” he feels signing homegrown stars is not a priority, he said keeping teams together is difficult and they have to make tough decisions at times.
Sure sounds like he’s preparing Red Sox Nation for a selloff or at least trying to stop fans from expecting them to GFIN.
Henry seems to be spending resources on Liverpool instead of the Red Sox
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You know, most people probably think the Red Sox are over the payroll cap.