Hits don’t keep on coming
Team-wide slump not shocking
HOUSTON — Pick your poison with the Red Sox this series, pitching or hitting.
Each has been pathetic. But yesterday’s brutal Game 2 Division Series loss exposed the most glaring weakness this team possesses.
That’s its offense, a punchless and moody group of hitters who put their worst on display when the team needed them the most in the 8-2 loss.
It’s not as simple as saying the Red Sox miss Big Papi’s bat.
But the storyline that begins now and will consume the franchise throughout the offseason is who are the Sox going to acquire who can provide needed thunder for a lineup that, we can now say for certain, badly needs sock.
All season long, the Red Sox seemed content to identify their offense as a doubles-hitting, gap-driving team that manufactured runs best it could. They did rank sixth in the league in runs scored with 785, but last in home runs and 14th in slugging percentage.
And while their pitching has not shown up in this series, it was very much the driving force in how the Red Sox won the AL East.
That’s why it’s relatively surprising that the pitching has disappointed so much these first two games.
That the offense has flopped?
We all should have seen that coming.
Full credit to Astros starter Dallas Keuchel and the Astros bullpen yesterday (and Justin Verlander in Game 1) but when a division-winning team can’t mount even a credible threat in a playoff game, that’s a big short-term problem that is a long-term issue as well.
There will be time to explore the solution to the Red Sox’ long-term power needs over the winter.
And winter’s coming soon enough.
As far as this series goes, the Red Sox have their fingers crossed that their offense shows up, or at least is able to take advantage of a slip-up from an Astros pitcher.
It’s a wait-and-see, wishand-hope type of strategy.
With 162 games to play with, that strategy worked.
Down here, deep in the heart of Texas, where the Astros have outpitched and outhit them, it’s won them absolutely nothing.
“Their pitching has been good, we know their first two guys are pretty good but our lineup is, for me, even better, we just haven’t collectively come through, starting with me,” said Xander Bogaerts. “We’ve got to find a way, we’ve got to find a way to get on base, grind out at-bats, that’s the type of team we are, we have to get on base.”
OK, that makes a ton of sense. Pretty obvious. But the reality is, it’s not happening. The Red Sox mustered two runs again yesterday, just like Game 1, but their hit total dipped from a dozen to seven. They had five singles and two doubles. No homers. They drew three walks. With runners in scoring position, they went 2-for-6.
The Astros, meanwhile … they could only hit two home runs yesterday after hitting four the day before. They had three doubles. They had six walks.
The differences are striking.
The comparison is not flattering.
When asked how the offense can respond, Mookie Betts said the answer did not lie in being like the Astros.
“Just be ourselves,” said Betts. “We can’t go out and bang like them and can’t do a lot of things they can do but we can do what we can do. What we do got us in the playoffs and I’m pretty sure it can win us the World Series, too.”
First things first, win Game 3 at Fenway Park tomorrow.
Good luck with that. “It’s not easy, you know? It’s not easy,” said Bogaerts. “But we know we have an offense that’s going to score runs. We can’t score 10 runs like last year’s offense, put up 10 runs, back-to-back-toback games. But, we have an offense that’s capable of putting five, seven runs up any given time.” Capable, yes.
Doing it?
Nope.
“All of us haven’t been clicking right now,” said Bogaerts. “When we get home, we always start playing better. Now we got one more chance to start playing better before we head out, before they kick us out, so we’ve got to do it. We’ve got to come through.”