A get-healthy night for the Red Sox, the possibility of a sub-.500 team in October, and backstop supplicants

Tuesday 8/18/26

The Red Sox had a much-needed one-sided win last night in which just about everyone in the line-up had a robust, get-healthy evening. The team scored in six straight innings. Solo homer for Contreras, couple RBI for Abreu, three hits for Rafaela and Durbin (who's raised his average to .257). And most remarkably--these days especially: no Red Sox batters struck out. Anecdotally, and perhaps factually, or at least borderline factually, that's rarer than a perfect game. (And yet another reason to ponder that most magical of games, Game 7 of the 1960 World Series between the Yankees and Pirates, won 10-9 by the Pirates on Bill Mazeroski's bottom of the ninth walk-off in which there were zero strikeouts by either side. A game played on a mid-October Thursday afternoon while people worked and kids were in school.)

Brayan Bello entered after an inning and was effective as he has been in this strange role of his--but hey, it's working and you'll take it. They need to grab one of these next two games and take the series then they finally get an off-day on Thursday before a bad Giants team comes to town. Good opportunity to get back to some winning ways here. Last night was one of those quietly important games, I felt. Arizona isn't a bad team. They're a game back now in the Wild Card race in the NL, so these are important games for them.

The Orioles (team in the third Wild Card spot) and the Rangers (team just out of the Wild Card) lost. The Sox have a six-game lead for a Wild Card Spot right now. The Orioles are three games under .500, the Sox nine games over.

We have some time yet, but it's starting to look like we really could have a sub.-.500 team playing October playoff baseball, which has never happened in a non-shortened (strike, COVID) season. Normally what you see is someone turns it on somewhat, and the playoff records are more or less respectable for those lower-seeded teams. I expect there will be a whole lot of musical chairs being played with that third Wild Card spot.

People are saying that Rafael Devers will be booed when the Giants come to Boston. I think the fans will cheer him and he'll be given quite a warm reception. Now, if Marcelo Mayer was playing, I'd have predicted him getting booed.

The Sox are really going to need Garrett Whitlock back. He's a hugely important player for them with the kind of team they have. They need two guys to lock it down at the end of games. You have to think that his injury is at least in part because of his usage during the team's surge. I swear, pitchers break down more now because of how they're handled. Then they get relied on maybe more than is customary for them, and they're on the shelf.

If and when he comes back, will they just be able to go to him in his normal spots? Or will it be a matter of picking spots? There's a marked difference.

Something I've been meaning to note, which I'll tag on here. I watch catchers frame pitches, and there's no artistry to it now. They all do the same thing: they catch the ball and pull their glove up. Isn't subtle. The "frame," as it were, happens after the pitch has been received. Ideally, it happens in the act of receiving the pitch.

Do you understand the difference? It's how you catch the ball, not jerking your mitt somewhere after. If you watch tape of old Phillies or Angels games with Bob Boone behind the plate, you'll see a master at pitch framing. I've never seen anyone frame pitches like he did. It was all in how he received the ball. There was an artistry to his pitch-framing.

These catchers now look like they're asking for a call that they know they shouldn't get and that they know the umpire knows they shouldn't get. Backstop supplicants. I think it speaks to what we see everywhere in our current. There's no nuance. Very little craft. Or touch and feel on display. Catch the ball low, yank it up six inches. It's crude, broad, and pandering. Which is also how everything is now.