Win can’t hide the ugly truth
Series reveals troubling facts
While it’s beyond me how anyone could look forward to a flight to Dallas, I suppose I can grasp the point made by a couple of Red Sox players that they were going to have a “happy flight” to Texas last night.
After all, by winning 8-7 in 10 innings yesterday, they dodged what would have been one gnarly looking four-game sweep to the White Sox.
But the Red Sox can’t be happy campers right now.
That was one ugly and nasty-looking victory and series loss, a set of games that exposed more Red Sox weaknesses than reinforced the buzz to be gained from a winning hand of poker or maybe a few frosty beverages consumed at high altitude on a charter flight.
For every good outcome — and there were a few, which we’ll make sure to mention so as not to be a complete buzz-kill — there was a corresponding alarming development that can’t be ignored for a team that’s in a swoon.
1. The bullpen is in tatters.
Less than 24 hours after Koji Uehara managed to cough up two late home runs and a two-run lead, Junichi Tazawa entered in the seventh inning with a 5-4 advantage to protect and two runners on base. His response to the pressure was to allow a mammoth three-run homer to Jose Abreu and place the Red Sox in a hole immediately after they dug themselves out of one with four runs.
The Red Sox offense did chip away at the two-run deficit over the next two innings to force extras. And Heath Hembree did pitch out of a bases-loaded, noout situation in the eighth. Hembree has been more than respectable this season against right-handers but after retiring lefty-hitting Adam Eaton on a groundout for out No. 3, Hembree earned a shot to be the Red Sox’ new set-up man.
“I think that might be a breakthrough moment for Heath — bases loaded, really no other place to go, threw some pitches in some different locations than maybe otherwise against some lefties, so that might be a significant growing moment for him,” manager John Farrell said.
Good for Hembree, but Tazawa and especially Uehara are instilling very little confidence these days. The club has to make a roster decision by tonight to call in bullpen reinforcements. This homestand pointed out how the right answers will have to come in a trade.
2. If Sandy Leon’s the new Mr. Clutch, watch out.
It’s great that Leon (.524 batting average) is enjoying his 15 minutes of Pudge Rodriguez comparisons, but I’ll take the under when Las Vegas posts batting average odds on him later this afternoon. Farrell was so desperate to win yesterday he replaced starting catcher Christian Vazquez in the sixth inning so Leon could hit. The move paid off — Leon singled in one of the four runs that frame before going hitless in his next two at-bats — but the Red Sox offense is showing its cracks.
Nobody looks worse than Hanley Ramirez, who even though he had two hits yesterday, has seldom looked as punchless and clueless at the plate. He’s been dropped to No. 7 in the lineup, a wise move, but it’s meaningless if David Ortiz is still left without a threatening bat in the No. 5 spot. Ortiz walked three times (once intentionally) yesterday, finally smacking a ground-rule double in his last at-bat.
The offense is still aboveaverage but as we keep being reminded lately, it’s not all-powerful.
3. Bunting is not as easy as it looks, so just cut it out.
Farrell said it was Jackie Bradley Jr.’s decision to bunt for a hit in the seventh inning, an attempt that failed pretty miserably when he popped out to the second baseman. It reminded us of Xander Bogaerts’ ill-advised bunt earlier this season and of other times when the Red Sox have allowed their young players to choose their moments. Making aggressive decisions on the basepaths and running into outs are easier to take than these avoidable and regrettable bunts. Bunting’s a privilege, not a right.
We cannot stop harping about how acquiring another starting pitcher remains the most valuable immediate and long-term need for this club, the one move that can best stymie all of the above-mentioned ills.
If the players had an extra hop in their step when they boarded their flight last night, good for them. They just have to play. It’s their bosses who have to stop the team from continuing to stumble.