This team needs help
Dombrowski, Farrell on clock
We don’t sense that Dave Dombrowski and John Farrell are getting a whole lot of sleep these days.
Last night’s 4-3 loss to the Blue Jays made it clear that they will not be getting much more of it between now and the July 31 trade deadline.
There is work to be done to improve the Red Sox.
That the bullpen is starting to sag and needs a reliably nasty new arm is as acute of a need as is the team’s need for a new third baseman.
And their offense needs a shakeup that goes beyond the inevitable arrival of that new third baseman. The lineup needs to be not only reshuffled but restocked.
Regulars like shortstop Xander Bogaerts and first baseman Mitch Moreland, who are struggling, need to take a break. As manager, Farrell can finesse making that happen and rejigger the lineup as drastically as he’d like — nobody would object.
While Dombrowski waits to strike a deal for another reliever and the right third baseman at the right price, he should also be looking to see what other bats are out there.
The Red Sox need more reliable pop than they’re getting, and it’s awfully hard not to see that and realize that it could take more than another third baseman in order to get it.
Is Dombrowski content, for example, to wait for Hanley Ramirez to heat up as the designated hitter in the middle of the lineup or is the president of baseball operations going to go out and find a big new bat that can do the job better?
Somehow I don’t think the sight of three ground balls to short and a line drive to third for Ramirez last night left Dombrowski with a very satisfied feeling.
Yes, the Red Sox are in first place in an AL East in which no team is a powerhouse, but they have not been playing or showing real well since before the AllStar break. The Sox have lost 7-of-10 and are averaging just under three runs per game in that stretch.
And the bullpen, a rock for most of the season, has begun to sway. Over the last two weeks, the relievers have posted a 4.14 ERA, a full point and then some over their full season ERA of 3.03. Help is needed. Dombrowski and Farrell can provide it.
It’s going to take work, beginning with the lineup.
“There’s definitely some thoughts about trying to shake things up a little bit,” Farrell said. “Right now, Bogey’s been in a little bit of a stretch of games where he looks like he’s kind of lunging or jumping a little bit at the plate where the timing is not quite there. And you know, whether or not Mitch has been affected by the broken toe or it might have got him in a little bit of a different habit, that’s possible. But still, these are guys that we’ve got to get on track and like I said, I think we’ll look to do some things to shake it up a little bit.”
The Red Sox were able to mount a three-run rally in the seventh inning to tie the series opener, an error by Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman leading to three RBI from Brock Holt (sacrifice fly), Mookie Betts (single) and Dustin Pedroia (double). It was an impressive surge, but it was isolated and it was not enough.
How many times has that happened lately?
Quite a bit.
In this 10-game stretch, the team has been shut out twice and scored more than three runs only twice.
As good as the pitching has been overall, this team is going to need to start scoring more runs more often if it is going to take that next step where it can begin to act like the powerhouse everyone in the clubhouse keeps saying is about to emerge.
While we try not to twiddle our fingers too dramatically, it’s evident change is not going to just happen because the players think they haven’t played their best baseball yet.
It’s going to take Farrell and, especially, Dombrowski to get the help this team needs to be its best.
“Right now we’ve got a couple guys that are swinging the bat, three or four guys that are swinging the bat well,” Farrell said. “We’ve got some other guys that are working through some things and, not uncharacteristic, where guys are going to go through some ups and downs. But Pedey’s come up big here of late, particularly with men on. But to string some base hits together, that’s been a little bit of a challenge of late.”
The Red Sox are challenged of late.
They’re not a bad team by any means.
It’s just that they have so much room for improvement.