It seems like every time the Red Sox have turned a corner, they’ve found a way to stumble back to square one.
When they won eight straight to move a season-high seven games over .500, they then lost six of their next seven, including a three-game sweep at the hands of the last-place St. Louis Cardinals at Fenway Park.
When they bounced back with four straight wins and a pair of series victories over Seattle and San Diego, they face-planted again and went 5-12 over the next two-plus weeks.
Now, since winning six straight to move back into the playoff picture, the Red Sox have dropped four of five to a pair of unremarkable AL Central clubs, including this weekend’s series against a bad Chicago White Sox team that seems destined to sell off its entire starting rotation ahead of the trade deadline.
As a result, the Red Sox come into the week 40-39, last in the AL East and three games back of the last Wild Card spot with three teams to jump.
They haven’t been bad, per se. They’ve just been… blah.
The Red Sox will hit the season’s official halfway mark on Thursday and to this point the club has been thoroughly mediocre. Both the offense and pitching has come and gone, and the club has consistently been sunk by key injuries and horrible defense.
The season hasn’t been without its bright spots. Brayan Bello looks like the real deal and several of Boston’s other young pitchers have taken important steps forward. Big offseason signing Masataka Yoshida has been a borderline All-Star and rookie first baseman Triston Casas has shaken off his terrible start, batting .267 with an .848 OPS since the start of June.
Chris Sale also looked for a while like he was back to his old self too, but then he suffered yet another injury setback and is now out until at least August. Trevor Story also likely won’t return until around then, and his absence and the club’s inability to find a serviceable replacement has been the biggest reason for the Red Sox malaise.
With those two plus guys like Tanner Houck, John Schreiber and Joely Rodriguez on the shelf, Boston could badly use reinforcements. The club’s flaws are fixable, but given that the trade deadline is still five weeks away and few teams are in obvious sell-now mode, the Red Sox will probably have to try and tread water for another month before meaningful help arrives.
The Red Sox have it in them and they’ve already shown they can compete, now they just have to start being more consistent and stop losing to clubs like the Rockies and White Sox every other week.
By going 3-4 on this past week’s road trip the Red Sox failed to capitalize on a soft spot on their schedule. Now the road gets a lot tougher.
Coming up next the Red Sox (40-39) host the surprising Miami Marlins (45-34) for a three-game set at Fenway Park. The Marlins, who finished fourth or worse in the NL East in four of the past five seasons, have enjoyed a resurgence and currently stand second in their division and first in the NL Wild Card race.
The Marlins’ success has been fueled by Luis Arraez’s historic season at the plate — he was batting .399 entering Monday — and also by the emergence of 20-year-old rookie Eury Perez (5-1, 1.34 ERA). Longtime Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes is also on Miami’s roster, but he is currently on the 15-day injured list with a left hip impingement and won’t pitch at Fenway Park this week. Prior to the injury Barnes had a 5.48 ERA in 24 appearances.
After finishing with the Marlins the Red Sox will hit the road again and play a crucial three-game set against the Toronto Blue Jays (43-36) over the weekend. It will mark Boston’s first visit to Toronto this season, and entering Monday the Blue Jays were three games ahead of the Red Sox for the final AL Wild Card spot.
Boston then returns next week to play a three-game series against the AL West leading Texas Rangers (47-30) before wrapping up the first half by hosting the hapless Oakland Athletics (20-60). Needless to say this upcoming stretch will be crucial for the Red Sox, who must hold their own against a series of contenders if they hope to survive into the All-Star Break.
Red Sox prospects Marcelo Mayer, Nick Yorke and Shane Drohan have been selected to the Futures Game, which serves as a showcase for some of baseball’s top prospects over MLB’s All-Star weekend.
So far Mayer is batting .250 with 12 home runs, 47 RBI and an .813 OPS through 56 games split between High-A Greenville and Double-A Portland. He was called up to Double-A earlier this month and though he’s faced growing pains adjusting to the higher level (.177 average, .256 on-base percentage), he also has five homers in his first 21 games with Portland.
Yorke has spent the whole season in Double-A and is so far enjoying a bounce back year after 2022’s injury-plagued campaign. Drohan has been the fastest riser in the Red Sox system this season and is now regarded as the organization’s top pitching prospect.
Former BC High standout Mike Vasil, now in Triple-A with the New York Mets organization, was also named to the Futures Game.
In addition to his participation in the Future Game, which will be played July 8 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, MLB Pipeline also announced that Mayer had moved up to No. 5 in its midseason Top 100 Prospects rankings. The Red Sox had four prospects make the top 100 in total, with outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela (No. 87), Yorke (No. 91) and outfielder Miguel Bleis (No. 92) all cracking the list as well.
Mayer also ranked highly in Baseball America’s latest Top 100 rankings, which were also released Monday. Mayer comes in at No. 6 in those rankings, followed by Bleis (No. 80), Yorke (No. 86) and outfielder Roman Anthony (No. 94).