What will September hold for the Red Sox? RSN could be watching the Red Sox in the playoffs or football.
For Red Sox fans September is either a curse or an exhilaration depending upon the current condition of the team we have such a profound and sometimes regrettable attachment to. The pleasure and the pain as poets or Lenny Kravitz would state. September is where it will all come together or completely collapse as a baseball version of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
Baseball thought process is at times utterly stupid and September is representative of it. The rosters expand in the fury of a pennant race as teams change standings positions daily in the hunt for an elusive Wild Card slot. I have never quite understood the necessity of the expansion. I can certainly comprehend the need to check prospects, but in such a crucial time? I editorialize and back to the Red Sox.
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The season will be decided in September. The schedule allows the Red Sox to meet division foes to settle their grievances Mano a Mano. There will be no excuses given for missing a contest unless an appendage has been severed and even that may not be legitimate. The pressure will be on and how the team responds will decide how we scrounge for playoff tickets.
Historically, there is enough recent evidence to clearly show the need for the best of performances in September and with a touch of October but let’s start with a dud. The sad story of the 2011 season is well documented regarding an adult beverage and a feather tasty morsel – the famed beer and chicken. The Red Sox were a 98% lock to make the playoffs and proceeded to go 7-20 (.259) and miss out.
"“And I find that I’m smiling gently as I nearSeptember, the warm September of my years.” – Sinatra"
The gargantuan plummet had some September of 2010 roots when that Red Sox collection finished at 15-15 (.500) down the stretch to grease the skids for 2011 and for the unceremonious exit of manager Terry Francona.
The championship years of this century have a common September thread and it is excellent performance going into the straightaway. In 2013 the team closed out 16-9 (.644) for first place an eventual championship.
The 2007 team also finished first and had a 16-11 (.593) September before raising another flag. In 2004 the Red Sox didn’t finish first, but did go 21-11 (.656) to catapult them into the amazing and historical dismantling of the dreaded New York Yankees. Even the traumatizing loss in 2003 saw an impressive 17-9 (.654) sprint to the finish.
A player can make or break his remembrances to Red Sox Nation with an exceptional September show – just think Mike Napoli. Maybe David Price will go 5-0 and the rest of the misery of 2016 will evaporate? Will the manager finally make consistently cognizant in-game decisions? A blunder in bullpen management – say a Fernando Abad – or using a valued pitcher as a pinch runner could mean the end.
A win in September is the same as a win in April is a baseball axiom I never really bought into. The pressure is on in September while in April the team is diligently working on getting a team identity. That is well established by September. You know who should be in what role and at what time. Injuries mean goodbye and not rest and recuperation at Pawtucket.
The free agents to be realize this is value time. A hot playoff series and especially a hot streak throughout the playoffs can maximize value as it did for Pablo Sandoval. Long term reputations are also established and that means the greatest clutch hitter in team history – David Ortiz.
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Sometimes September comes early and that project of the future becomes a present day reality as it did with Jacoby Ellsbury. Maybe it will with Andrew Benintendi? September is the time of potential heroes and goats – what will it be this September?
Sources: Baseball-Reference