O’Neill a nice fit in lineup puzzle
ANAHEIM, Calif. — With Trevor Story sidelined, the Red Sox are admittedly trying to figure out how to make the pieces of their puzzle fit. Manager Alex Cora gave a small shrug about the structure of his lineup, which on Sunday featured Tyler O’Neill batting third between Rafael Devers and Triston Casas.
“Is that the correct lineup? We’ll see,” said Cora. “We have to play with it.”
In Sunday’s 12-2 win over the Angels, the fit looked fairly compelling. O’Neill reached base three times, going 1 for 3 with his fifth homer of the season, a walk, and a hit by pitch. He’s hitting .357/.514/.893 with more walks (seven) than strikeouts (six).
“Very disciplined. He knows what he wants to do,” said Cora. “He doesn’t chase. If he does chase, he resets and he gets back to what he wants to do. He can go the other way.”
O’Neill credited work he’s done to ensure little wasted motion in his swing. He’s been able to quickly get the barrel of the bat into the strike zone and on the plane of pitches, allowing him to drive the ball to all fields.
A year ago, O’Neill felt that he’d opened up too early while looking to force power. This year, he’s staying closed and trusting that his strength can permit him to hit for power with a more controlled effort level.
“What I really have to work on is staying short and compact and putting on the brakes [instead of overswinging],” said O’Neill. “As power hitters, we fly open and hit the ball to the pull side. But there’s a process to doing it, and I feel like I really bought into that this year and understanding what’s going to get me to do that consistently.
It’s good. I feel like when I’m swinging I’m putting the barrel where I want to while making sure that I’m on time.
“The work that I’ve been doing has been dedicated toward those things and it’s just figuring out the balance, just putting been putting me in a good spot. The game effort level isn’t too much. It’s a good effort level. The swing is controlled and I’m able to produce with the swing that I have right now.”
O’Neill’s .893 slugging percentage and 1.407 OPS both lead the big leagues, and his five homers are tied for first with Mookie Betts. Cora also spoke highly of his defense, baserunning, and intensity.
“There’s a lot of things that he does well on the diamond,” said Cora. “I honestly believe this is the type of guy that people are going to fall in love with at Fenway because he plays with an attitude, he plays the game hard, and we’ve just got to keep him healthy.”
Story to be told
While the Red Sox and Story have yet to determine the length of his absence — or whether he’ll need seasonending surgery — the shortstop’s description of his left shoulder dislocation as a “significant injury” makes clear that he won’t be back anytime soon. Story will be seen by Dr. Evan
O’Donnell in Boston on Monday, at which point the Sox will have a clearer picture of how long they’ll be without the 31-year-old.
“We’ll just wait for [the examination] and then we’ll make decisions about it,” said Cora. “You have to be prepared and start talking about the roster, how we’re going to do things, how we’re going to attack the day without him.”
Even if Story avoids surgery, a traumatic shoulder subluxation often requires four to six weeks, and more often as many as eight weeks, to recover.
Derek Jeter, for instance, required six weeks to return after an Opening Day collision in 2003 — and that was considered a quick recovery.
Rafaela rebounds
Ceddanne Rafaela was not in the starting lineup, offering him a chance to reset amid a rough start. He entered Sunday hitting .185/.250/.296 while chasing 47 percent of pitches out of the strike zone, the fifth-highest rate in baseball. “His timing’s off,” said Cora. “Late on the fastballs, early on the offspeed pitches. Like the great Carlos
Delgado used to say, ‘You’re in a bad spot if that happens.’ We’ll work on it, but it’s just part of the growing pains.” Rafaela entered Sunday’s blowout as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning and delivered some of his best swings of the year. He went 2 for 3, drove in a pair of runs, and drilled an opposite-field triple off the fence in right . . . Reese
McGuire hit his second homer of the year and stole a base. He became the first Sox catcher with a homer and steal in the same game since Christian
Vázquez on April 6, 2021, and just the 14th Red Sox catcher to accomplish that daily double . . . Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and executive vice president of baseball operations Brian O’Halloran were briefly locked out of their box behind home plate before the Angels were able to locate the key. They took their seats in time for first pitch.