The Red Sox Strut: Final week of the season

Now, to fully understand what the Red Sox Strut is, it means to have reason to walk with a confident, proud air around you. Some people mistake it for vanity, arrogance, or being pompous. This incorrect assumption is not what we mean. The Strut is about knowing that your deeds showed off your amazing skills to the baseball-loving public.

PITCHER:
The Red Sox season has officially come to a close which means that this is the final Red Sox Strut for the season. Boston had an interesting final week. Coming off of the announcement that Mike Hazen would be promoted to GM and some very solid play from the young lineup they had been sending out, they looked to finish the year by trying to play spoiler to the Yankees and a meeting with former manager Terry Francona and the Indians. They brought everything they had to New York, but looked like they had already cashed out in Cleveland.

The Red Sox took three out of four from the Yankees. The Yankees only needed that one victory to cash their ticket to the playoffs. The winning pitchers were Eduardo Rodriguez, Rick Porcello and Alexi Ogando with Wade Miley getting the start. Rich Hill turned in another solid performance in the loss to New York. The Sox were swept by Cleveland with Henry Owens, Craig Breslow and Porcello getting the losses.

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Rodriguez went six innings in his outing giving up seven hits and just one run. Miley was inconsistent and once again, got into trouble in the middle innings going just five total innings with nine hits, four runs, four walks and giving up a three run lead. Hill went six innings giving up just two runs on four hits and adding six strikeouts in the 4-1 loss to NY. Breslow was given a start in Cleveland to save some of the young arms and gave his best effort, but came up empty-handed. He’ll most likely be playing in a different uniform next season. Unfortunately, Henry Owens looked horrible in his start against the Indians pitching only 4.1 innings and giving up ten hits, seven runs and four walks. Owens was very inconsistent in his time in Boston and may not be starting 2016 with the big-league club.

While the bullpen had its fair share of work, especially in the Yankees series, they weren’t dominant by any means and don’t really deserve the honor of getting to strut. The final Strut of the year is awarded to Rick Porcello. He had two very decent starts in the final week of the season and has given Sox fans reason to believe that he can be a contributor in the middle of the rotation next year. He was able to get eight good innings in against the Yankees giving up six hits and four runs with eight strikeouts. The Red Sox need more starters to go more than just five or six innings. Although Boston lost in his second start in Cleveland and the Indians scattered ten hits against him, they were able to squeeze seven innings out of Porcello and he only gave up two earned runs. He also tossed seven strikeouts. Porcello really calmed down when he returned from the midseason DL stint, utilized his bread-and-butter sinker and was able to fool some batters adding a lot more strikeouts. And for that effort, he’ll get to Strut into the offseason.

POSITIONAL PLAYER:

It was a tale of two series for the Red Sox offense during the final week of the season. They hit the ball all over the park in New York and scored a good amount of runs, but they couldn’t get anything going in Cleveland. They scored two runs on five hits in game one versus the Indians, no runs on three hits in game two and one run on seven hits in game three.

Sep 30, 2015; Bronx, NY, USA; Boston Red Sox first baseman Travis Shaw (47) is congratulated in the dugout after hitting a three-run home run against the New York Yankees during the first inning at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sp

In assessing who should be allowed to Strut for a positional player, it looked like the usual suspects once again. Xander Bogaerts had an OK week going 6-26 and adding a few walks, but only had one RBI and didn’t have a major impact in any of the victories. David Ortiz had a nice week going a whopping 5-for-11 with four RBI and another homerun, but his lack of at-bats due to sitting out three out of the seven final games pretty much removes him from the running.

It looked like Mookie Betts would be strutting for sure, but his rut in Cleveland hurt him. He had a great series in New York getting two hits in each of the four games with five RBI, four runs scored and two huge homeruns in Wednesday night’s victory, but he didn’t get one hit in Cleveland going 0-3, 0-3 and 0-5 with no RBI. He did add some great play in the outfield as he always does, but it wasn’t enough to get him over-the-top.

The most impactful and consistent hitter of the week was none other than the often forgotten Travis Shaw. Shaw went 8-for-26 on the week for an average of .308. He only had one game in the final week without a hit, and was still able to add an RBI and a run in that contest against the Yankees. He also added six RBI and two big homeruns – both homeruns came with two outs at the time and were crucial in getting victories. Shaw also played a solid first base as he always does. He’ll get to Strut into the offseason as he makes a very strong case to be the starting first baseman for Boston heading into the offseason.

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