Story, Sox may have saved season by improving offense
BOSTON — Finally, after almost a year of Alex Cora publicly pleading for his hitters to show a little more discipline and make a little more contact, the Red Sox’ manager seems to have gotten through.
And may have saved the 2022 season in the process.
Remarkably, the Sox entered Monday 10 games back of the first-place Yankees in the American League East, just as they were two weeks ago on May 10, when they finished a homestand with a five-game losing streak.
They’ve made no ground in the division in that time, but by going 9-3 over the last 12 games, the Red Sox at least kept themselves afloat.
More important, they look alive. Fenway Park was lifeless during the last homestand, but looked as loud as ever as they cheered Franchy Cordero’s walk-off grand slam on Sunday.
Cora has a theory.
“I had this conversation with my mother,” he said. “She watches the game and now she’s able to compare teams. ‘Oh, the Mets are playing with energy and you guys are not playing with energy.’ I’m like, ‘well, they’ve got 25 wins, we only have 12. That’s how it works.’
“One thing (former Sox manager) Ron Roenicke always told us, ‘they get along, regardless’. If it’s a good team or a team that’s’ struggling, the clubhouse is the clubhouse. It’s just the perception, right? They’re not winning, well, obviously if they’re not winning they’re going to be quiet. When they’re winning, the other things come into play. I think energy comes from offense.”
The Red Sox offense woke up and the numbers are simple: when they stop chasing bad pitches, they score more runs.
They were the worst team in baseball at chasing bad pitches through May 9, swinging at 32% of the junk they saw. Starting with the series in Atlanta on May 10, they cut that number down to 29%. Low and behold, their contact rate jumped from 74%, 24th in baseball, to 77%.
You guessed it, they started scoring more runs, too.
Since May 10, the Sox rank first in baseball with an .854 OPS, second with 32 doubles and third with 19 homers in 12 games.
“That off-day, after when we went to Atlanta, after Mother’s Day, that was a good day for them,” Cora said. “They showed up here early and talked and all that. They had a team dinner that night. I think it was the first time they were able to do something off the field… That trip kind of helped them out to do more stuff and then the off-day in Texas, they were able to play golf.”
Cora said the team had big plans for their off-day this Mondaytoo.
“That helps,” he said. “We always preach that. Just get together.”
Scoring more runs helps too. Since May 10, the Sox have three players who rank in the top-10 among all MLB hitters in OPS: No. 3, Rafael Devers, 1.314; No. 7, J.D. Martinez, 1.194; and No. 8, Trevor Story, 1.173.
Top prospects to IL: Red Sox top prospects Triston Casas and Marcelo Mayer have both been placed on the injured list with their respective minor league teams.
Casas, the Red Sox’ No. 2-ranked prospect according to Baseball America, was put on Triple-a Worcester’s seven-day injured list with an ankle injury, retroactive to Sunday. There is no timetable for the first baseman’s return, but it reportedly shouldn’t keep him out long.
Casas, who is expected to make his major league debut at some point this year, is ranked as the No. 16 overall prospect by Baseball America. He is slashing .248/.359/.457 with six homers, 22 RBI and an .816 OPS through 39 games for Worcester this season.
Mayer’s persistent right wrist soreness made the Red Sox want to fly him to Boston to undergo imaging and he was diagnosed with a sprained wrist, according to reports.
The shortstop was placed on Low-a Salem’s seven-day injured list last Friday.