Boston Red Sox Strut: David Ortiz and Craig Kimbrel

The weekly article series where we examine the two players who deserve to strut their stuff for the Boston Red Sox. This week — David Ortiz and Craig Kimbrel.

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.

The Red Sox are rolling! It’s official that they are clearly one of the best teams in the American League and are currently playing their best baseball when it counts. They’ve now won 11 straight and are 6-0 since the last Red Sox Strut with three victories over the Orioles and three over the Rays. All six were on the road. The Sox now find themselves six games up in the AL East.

Boston isn’t exactly tearing the cover off the ball every at-bat or scoring an absurd amount of runs as they did earlier in the season (they scored just over four runs per game this week), but they are getting timely and clutch hitting to help them win close games. They are getting solid performances on the mound, and the bullpen is much more reliable than any other time this season. This all bodes well for a nice October run.

POSITIONAL PLAYER: David Ortiz

During this late season run, the Red Sox have had their fair share of contributions from a variety of players on the team. Dustin Pedroia, Mookie Betts, and the usual suspects all the way down to the new guy, Andrew Benintendi, have taken part in contributing at some point over the last couple weeks. Last week, we saw Hanley Ramirez really step up and make a significant impact to lead this team to some wins.

But how fitting this week to see the unflappable David Ortiz once again leave his mark. He had a great week and helped Boson’s effort against both AL East opponents. His huge three run home run against the Orioles solidified a win for Boston. Then on Friday, his two run blast was all the Sox needed to defeat the Rays 2-1 in a pitchers’ duel.

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Ortiz finished the week with at least one hit in all six games. He had a batting average of .400 after going 10-for-25 at the plate. Those two home runs were his only of the week, but they were big ones. He also added a double and six RBI.

Papi has been the guy from day one that has set the tone for this team. They look like they are on a mission to make his final season a meaningful one. His 37 home runs and 124 RBI are just amazing feats for a 40-year old guy staring down that last month of his career. It’s going to be very tough to overlook Ortiz in the AL MVP battle, but for now…let the man Strut into the final week of the regular season!

PITCHER: Craig Kimbrel

There were quite a few candidates that were eligible to get the Strut honors this week in the pitching department. Both the starting rotation, despite the loss of Steven Wright, and the bullpen have been solidified on this team. This is the most likely reason for putting this team over the top with an eye on both the AL East crown and possibly the best record in the league.

David Price, Drew Pomeranz and Rick Porcello all won their starts and looked decent. Pomeranz barely got through five innings, but that’s what John Farrell has been expecting for quite a while when he is on the mound. Porcello’s victory was his 22^nd. Price gave them seven quality innings with only three earned runs.

But the decision for this week’s Strut came down to three other guys. Amazingly, one of these guys was Clay Buchholz. It’s crazy that we’re still discussing Buchholz as a contributing starting pitcher after the tumultuous season he’s had. He’s been sent to the bullpen multiple times, but at the moment, he looks like he could be the third best starter on the team. He gave Boston a great effort against the Orioles giving up just one run on three hits in seven innings.

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Eduardo Rodriguez also had a very good week, winning both of his starts. In his first start, he gave up just two runs on four hits in 6.1 innings. He also had seven strikeouts. But the second start of the week came in Tampa on Sunday when Rodriguez sat down 13 batters by way of the K! He also gave up one run on three hits, but was only able to get through 5.1 innings. Still, 20 total strikeouts on the week is pretty special. Those strikeouts helped push this Sox team over the edge as they set the franchise record for K’s in a season.

Still, despite the success of the starters this week, I’m going to award the second to last Strut of the season to the closer. There was a ton of skepticism, and deservedly so, about the Red Sox bullpen in the middle of season. John Farrell wasn’t able to establish bullpen roles due to inconsistencies and injuries. Well things have drastically changed. Brad Ziegler and Koji Uehara, along with the resurgence of Junichi Tazawa, have helped. But Craig Kimbrel has also impressed in what is possibly one of the more challenging roles on a successful team.

Kimbrel has been pitching in some tight, meaningful games and looks to have embraced the challenge. His save on Saturday against the Rays was his 30^th of 2016. He finished the week with three total saves and a fourth appearance which he got the final two outs and didn’t allow a hit in a non-save situation. He had five strikeouts total, and although he did give up a home run against Tampa, I liked that he didn’t let it bother him and he finished the job.

Next: David Ross wants Red Sox vs Cubs World Series

While Kimbrel doesn’t appear the guy we thought Dave Dombrowski traded for in the offseason, his contributions cannot be overlooked in 2016. A closer is extremely important in this day and age, especially heading into October. He has turned things around with the rest of the bullpen, looks confident and is throwing his best stuff. Now, he can Strut!

The weekly article series where we examine the two players who deserve to strut their stuff for the Boston Red Sox. This week — David Ortiz and Craig Kimbrel.

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