Time for Kinsler to snap out of it
The Red Sox thought they addressed their problems at second base on July 30, when they acquired Ian Kinsler from the Angels.
But the way the 36-year-old played over two months here hasn’t been enough to solidify himself as the everyday second baseman.
Kinsler was on the bench last night when the Sox returned home to finish their final six games of the regular season. He doesn’t have an extra-base hit in his past 14 games, in which he’s hitting just .170 with a .196 on-base percentage and .366 OPS.
“I mean, he’s not swinging the bat the way he’s capable of,” Sox manager Alex Cora said. “Seems like he’s a little bit late on fastballs. Today he has an off day and we’ll talk to him.”
The Red Sox primarily acquired Kinsler for his defense at second, which has been as advertised for a former Gold Glove winner. He still has elite range and deft touch as he turns double plays.
But offensively, the power-speed combination that Kinsler has been known for hasn’t been on display. He’s hit just one homer in 33 games and has been caught stealing three times in nine tries.
“One thing for sure, I would love him to be a little more aggressive early in counts,” Cora said. “I know that’s who he is. He’s been a leadoff guy. Probably he feels he should work the count. He’s a guy that he can catch up with the fastball. It’s just a matter of when he’s catching up with it. And it’s like 0-1, 0-2, it looks like he’s behind in the count a lot. But with two strikes it’s not that easy.
“I’ll talk to him a little bit about it. Like he mentioned something about bunting a few weeks ago and Mookie (Betts) told him, ‘We don’t do that here.’ So we’ll talk, and hopefully he’s more aggressive. Because I do feel that he’s getting some pitches that he can drive early in the count. But he’s not attacking.”
Kinsler’s competition at second base, Brock Holt, is peaking.
“The way Brock is swinging the bat, he’s a guy that we count on,” Cora said. “He’s playing today. We’ll throw our best lineup on a nightly basis in the playoffs. Whoever we feel can do the job that night.”
Holt now has an eight-game hitting streak after going 1-for-3 with a double in the 6-2 victory over the Orioles. He is 12-for-27 with three homers in his past 11 games.
Asked if values hot streaks when determining his playoff lineup, Cora said, “It doesn’t matter. We know that there’s match-ups we can take advantage of it, regardless of who, if it’s a righty versus a righty, lefty versus a lefty. We’ll talk. We’ll start digging into the information. One of the teams we know, we know really well. The other one, we don’t know honestly. So we’ll talk about it. But I think small sample size really doesn’t matter.”
Price faces key start
David Price will take the mound for what could be his final start of the regular season tonight.
Price could pitch on normal rest on Sunday in the season-finale against the Yankees, but the Sox may not want Price to face the Yankees, who pounded him for three homers his last time out. Price may be on a pitch count tonight. “We’ll sit down with him to see how he feels and go from there,” Cora said.
Chris Sale will make his final start tomorrow and should throw about 90 pitches. Rick Porcello finishes Friday. The Sox are still deciding who will start the final two games.
Is it better to have starters push 100 pitches to be ready for the playoffs or scale back to be better rested?
“All depends,” Cora said. “Whatever they feel they need in the last start. They’re different guys. I talked about my experience last year (with Hosuton). With Justin Verlander, he wanted 120 pitches in his last one. With Dallas Keuchel, he just wanted whatever, it didn’t matter. I think he threw a simulated game here actually. They’re different guys. We’ve done a good job the last two weeks slowing them down, keeping them five innings or X amount of pitches. So this week is more how they feel.”
Bogaerts bounces back
Xander Bogaerts was in the lineup after making a late exit with shoulder soreness on Sunday. He went 2-for-4.
“Then he tested, he was OK afterwards, and he told me last night he’s OK,” Cora said. “I called him this morning, ‘You’re playing,’ he’s like ‘Thank you.’ ” . . .
Eduardo Nunez is still out with a left hamstring strain. He ran the bases yesterday and the Sox are hoping he can play tomorrow or Friday.
“Obviously we would like him play this week,” Cora said. “We saw what happened last year. It doesn’t have to do with the knee, it’s just the hammy, but at the same time we have to see how he feels and how he plays out there.” . . .
Former NESN play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo will be calling both Red Sox games this weekend on national outlets. He’s been the Padres play-by-play man since NESN let him go two years ago, but he’s working Saturday’s Red Sox game for FOX and Sunday’s finale for TBS.
“Looking forward to seeing many friends,” Orsillo wrote on Twitter.