Make yourself at home
Hey, Sox, just do what you do at Fenway: Win
Wait, don’t go. Just when we were starting to put names to faces, just when we were starting to remember what a home run looked like and just when we were starting to get used to all the winning — so much winning — the Red Sox left town yesterday nearly unrecognizable from the motley crew that dragged into town at the start of this homestand. Who are these guys? For one, the Red Sox are on a six-game winning streak after a 7-2 homestand, which when combined with the New York Yankees’ downturn landed them back in the top spot of the AL East with a solid three-game lead.
Two, the home run amnesia is over. Yesterday, Chris Young had two, Eduardo Nunez added his fourth in nine games with the Red Sox. Eight different hitters are accountable for the last 10 home runs, and the Red Sox have 17 in their last 11 games.
Three, the overall offense is alive again, scoring exactly six runs on average here per game on the homestand, which was capped by yesterday’s 6-3 win over the Chicago White Sox.
Four, the trading deadline came and went last week and now Nunez, Rafael Devers and Addison Reed have joined the band as smoothly as Ringo Starr, Ronnie Wood and Nils Lofgren.
Five, the band is playing with one smooth, jamming sound now that the David Price sensitivity crisis has subsided, hopefully for good.
The Red Sox are leaving for a five-game foray against the two closest competitors in the division — two games with the Rays in St. Petersburg, Fla., and three against the Yankees in the Bronx.
The Red Sox are playing their best baseball at the absolute best spot in their schedule.
In one week, they’ll be back at Fenway.
By then, we should have a very good handle on the real and true identity of the 2017 Red Sox.
“I think we knew that in spring training — we have a good squad and the pieces that we’ve added throughout the year have all been amazing, all the way to (Doug) Fister (claimed off waivers in late June),” said Young. “Guys are coming in with the right mentality. We have each other’s back and we’re going out there and competing together.”
It’s good for the narrative to note that ever since president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski pointed out, facetiously, a few minutes after the trading deadline that the big-splash Yankees had become the Golden State Warriors of baseball and would never lose again, it’s the Red Sox who have not lost a game while New York has gone 3-4 since.
Starts like the one Fister put up yesterday — three runs allowed over 61⁄ innings — is just the kind of workaday output any team would want from its fifth starter. He is just the latest in a line of starting pitchers and relievers who are meeting or exceeding all reasonable expectations.
That’s been the secret sauce to the Red Sox’ nearly seasonlong flirtation with being near or at the top of the division, but it’s strained belief at times in the worthiness of the team because its offense was so inconsistent.
Now, when the offense starts to click like it has with the deceptively simple additions of Nunez and Devers, the Red Sox start to look complete. When they are balanced like this, they look dangerous. Manager John Farrell said that even when Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramirez return to the lineup, likely on this coming road trip, he will find a way to keep both Nunez and Devers in the lineup. Of course he will. He has to. The Red Sox are better with the new guys. That’s the way baseball organizations are supposed to work: baseball operations put the best talent in the hands of the coaches, who find the best ways to put the talent in the best position to succeed.
It’s taken 112 games for the Red Sox to look as good as they think they are, but there’s no denying the shiny-new-car feeling with this team right now.
“Our offense is definitely producing — we’ve said all the way long that they’ve been just a tick away from really getting hot and these guys are getting ready,” said Fister. “The guys are really starting to come into play and putting a lot of good at-bats together. Pitchers, if we can do our job and keep the ballgame close they’re going to take care of us.”
That’s not just a sound plan , it’s the reali ty that
the
Red Sox are executing. At 63-49, they have tied their season high of being 14 games over .500, just as they’ve matched their season high for a winning streak.
“The pitching overall, the recent surge of power has been a very encouraging thing, we’re comfortable at home,” said Farrell, whose team is 36-20 at Fenway Park, the highest winning percentage (.643). “We play well here. If we can carry some momentum on the road, that’s a good thing.” Great pitching, powerful hitting, continued solid defense — that’s the goal, and just as the Red Sox a re clearly starting to get the hang of it, they up and leave town. They’ll be back in a week. They could do wonders for their image if they returned like the same old winners they were when they left.
‘Pitchers, if we can do our job and keep the ballgame close they’re going to take care of us.’ — STARTER DOUG FISTER On Red Sox offense