Strange season deserves a playoff push
SAN FRANCISCO — The Red Sox are a weird team.
They are 25-19 against the 12 teams holding playoffs spots, but 30-28 against everybody else.
They are one of six teams averaging at least five runs a game. But they also lead the majors in errors.
They’re over the league average in stolen bases and under in home runs. Has any Sox team ever done that before? The starting pitchers have the fifthworst ERA in the majors; the relievers have the fourth best.
They have a backup catcher (Jorge Alfaro) who’s a terrible catcher and a backup second baseman (Justin Turner) who’s usually their 38-year-old designated hitter.
Their highest-paid player (Chris Sale) has appeared in only 11 games and their second-highest paid player (Trevor Story) hasn’t played at all.
The Sox have twice allowed Little League home runs, the embarrassing spectacle of a batter touring the bases after a series of defensive blunders.
They also ran into a triple play Tuesday on a routine fly ball to center field with runners on first and second. The 8-3-5 triple play was only the second in major league history. The first was in 1884. The Civil War veterans in the stands were aghast, and that was a tough bunch.
What better place for a weird team than San Francisco and beautiful Oracle Park, where a man in an Adrian Gonzalez Red Sox jersey — really, buddy? — stopped me near the Willie Mays statue on Friday afternoon and asked if the Red Sox should be sellers or buyers.
It is tempting to say the Sox should sell. It feels inevitable they will tease us against a soft schedule through mid-August before collapsing during a 10game stretch against the Astros and Dodgers.
A team with a poor rotation and porous defense is doomed to fail. That’s usually how it works. Even if the Sox manage to snag a wild card, it’s hard to imagine them advancing very far given all their weaknesses.
The trade deadline hits Tuesday and the Sox have a bunch of veterans who would be attractive chips. Maybe that would be the smart move. But the unusual aspect of this season also suggests the Sox should lean into their weirdness and go for it.
The Orioles have the best record in the American League powered by a group of talented young players with little playoff experience.
The Rays started 30-9 and are 32-34
since. The Rangers are 25-23 since June 1.
The American League can be had, so why not the Red Sox?
This is not to suggest that Chaim Bloom blow up his vaunted plan. But stick with the plan while determining which players in the minor leagues the Sox can live without. Then trade for at least one starting pitcher and a reliable second baseman.
Bloom owes the clubhouse more than catchphrases about the future. The Sox were on the verge of collapse after being swept by Miami at home in late June and they pulled it together by winning 15 of 20.
Alex Cora, the coaches, and the players have done well in salvaging the season. They deserve more than two bullpen games every five days. The Sox can’t wait for Sale, Tanner Houck, and Garrett Whitlock to come back to address their rotation.
Bloom owes the fans something, too.
It’s hard being a Sox fan. Tickets are expensive, it’s impossible to find parking near Fenway Park without paying $50, and leaving your seat to get a beer is an adventure.
Then again, leaving your seat might be a good idea if it’s facing center field or behind a pole.
It’s great that the organization has better prospects; that’s important.
All hail the plan.
But the product being sold at the park and on NESN matters, too.
Trading Kiké Hernández was a good start. That was addition by subtraction and maybe one of the two Triple A pitchers they received from the Dodgers will be helpful.
But there needs to be more than that. Maybe the Sox can grab a starter from the Cardinals or take a shot at landing Mets lefthander José Quintana.
This is off the wall, but maybe the White Sox’ Tim Anderson could fit at second base. He seems like a player badly in need of a change of scenery.
Get weird. Do something. This season makes no sense but it’s been fun lately. There’s a lot to be said for more fun.