Red Sox Strut: Xander Bogaerts, Chris Sale show consistency is key

The weekly article series where we examine the two players who deserve to strut their stuff for the Boston Red Sox. This week — Xander Bogaerts and Chris Sale. 

If you want 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 Boston Red Sox had another interesting and drama-filled week which is now the norm and to be expected when they take on their AL East rivals in the Baltimore Orioles.

The big story after last Monday’s game at Fenway was Adam Jones telling the media that there was a racial slur directed at him from the bleacher area. This led to a full week of debates, articles and social media posts about what fans should do if they hear something like that in the crowd and the overall subject of racism in Boston – a city that has a shady past when it comes to dealing with minorities.

While the Adam Jones incident was bubbling all week, we also had the expletive laden reaction from Manny Machado on Tuesday night after Chris Sale threw a ball behind him. It was a wild scene at Fenway because the fans had just given Jones a standing ovation lending him their support in the wake of Monday’s horror show, then the next batter was Machado and Sale whizzed one by him. Machado was clearly unhappy and let the Sox know about it after the game.

Once that was all out of the way, and we could focus on actual baseball, the Red Sox had another up-and-down week but it definitely ended on a high note. Boston split the four game series with Baltimore and then took two games out of three from the Twins in Minnesota to claim a winning record for the week. The Red Sox remain right in the middle of the AL East with a 17-14 record. Once again, solid pitching from the Sox but they weren’t exactly tearing it up on the base paths early in the week. However, once John Farrell shook up the lineup over the weekend, the bats finally woke up.

Let’s take a look at who helped lead the Red Sox this week and who deserves a chance to Strut!

Strutting Candidates: A Recap of the Red Sox offense last week

The Sox offense started the week slowly once again. They have been in some battles with the Orioles early on this year so I had a feeling it there would be some close matchups. Boston only managed to score 14 total runs in the four game series. That would all change with the weekend series against the Twins in which they exploded to score 31 total runs (meaning they averaged more than ten runs per game for the series) capped off by a ridiculous 17 run effort on Sunday including a ten run ninth inning. That brought their average runs per game for the week up to about 6.4 runs scored.

Unfortunately for Boston, last week’s Strut recipient wasn’t able to keep the streak alive. Hanley Ramirez was OK at times over the course of last week and did have a two home run game, but he also had a couple “0-for” performances, struck out four times and still doesn’t exactly look like the Hanley from the latter half of last year.

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The same can be said for Mookie Betts. After going without a hit in the first game of the Orioles series, he was able to get just one hit in each of the next four games before going 0-for-5 in Saturday’s game where the Sox managed to score eleven runs. He did hit a homerun with two double for the week. Betts was moved down to the leadoff spot later in the week so it will be interesting to see if that trend continues and if it does anything to get him going.

Mitch Moreland added three more doubles to his total for 2017, but he also added four more strikeouts. He went 8-for-26 over the last seven games which is an average of .308 and picked up five RBI over the weekend, but he’s dropped off a bit since he was Strutting a few weeks back.

Dustin Pedroia still hasn’t fully gotten his groove back since returning from the knee injury that was caused by the Machado slide. His batting average for the week was only .222. He did have seven RBI and his first two homeruns of the season this week so things are improving, but he needs to get on base and get that average up.

Jackie Bradley Jr. is still struggling at the plate, so much so that John Farrell ended up sitting him for three games last week. Bradley only managed one hit in 14 at-bats. Chris Young took his place in the lineup and actually made a good case to Strut this week going 6-for-14 with six RBI and two homeruns. If Young can do this on a more consistent basis, he could definitely be Strutting. The Boston Herald’s Jason Mastrodonato wrote an interesting piece on Young staying ready by hitting during David Price‘s rehab bullpen sessions.

The phenom – Andrew Benintendi had a very solid week despite two 0-for-4 performances in the middle of the week. He was moved to the cleanup spot after Farrell’s lineup changes and did well going 5-for-10 when he was hitting fourth. He also had four RBI and two homeruns for the week. I get the feeling that Benintendi will certainly be strutting soon enough.

Strutting Candidates: A recap of the Red Sox pitching staff last week

The Red Sox pitching staff continues to look very solid behind ace Chris Sale and a quality number two in Rick Porcello, but do they have enough arms going forward? Steven Wright will miss the rest of the season after having knee surgery. Boston could really use a boost from a returning David Price, but we will obviously have to wait and see on that one.

Porcello had two quality starts last week despite being the losing pitcher in one of them. He went six strong innings against the Orioles giving up just two runs on five hits and adding seven strikeouts but was handed the L in that outing. Against the Twins, he gave up seven hits but only one run in seven innings and had six strikeouts. He did give up a home run in each start though which is something he needs to improve upon going forward.

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A nice boost for the pitching staff has come from Drew Pomeranz this season. He’s definitely been finding ways to get opposing batters to swing and miss more, but he can’t seem to stay in the game beyond five or six innings. He defeated the Orioles last week after allowing just two runs to score on five hits, but he only managed to get through 5.1 innings.

Kyle Kendrick was given a chance to show his stuff in a spot start, and despite my preseason prognostications, he didn’t look so good in what would be the worst outing of the week for Boston. He gave up six runs on eight hits in only four innings of work so it’s probably back to the drawing board for John Farrell to find a replacement for Wright.

Eduardo Rodriguez was solid once again and has looked much more reliable this season that he did in 2016. He wasn’t able to get the victory over Minnesota but certainly gave the Sox a chance to win.

The bullpen once again looked great when they needed to be. In the losing efforts or when Kendrick’s start really blew wide open, the relief staff wasn’t great. But the main guys that you need to close out games have been awesome for Boston in 2017.

This is becoming a running theme…Chris Sale ladies and gentlemen

Not only is Chris Sale clearly the best pitcher on the Red Sox pitching staff, but he’s also one of the best in the whole American League and possibly all of baseball. He’s fifth in the AL in ERA at 1.92 and would be getting even more attention if the Sox could find a way to score runs for him. He leads the league by far in strikeouts with 73 – second place is Clayton Kershaw with 53! And he’s second in the league in innings pitched proving to be a real work-horse for John Farrell.

This week saw Sale cruise through eight innings against the Orioles in which he gave up only two runs on just three hits and sat down eleven batters by way of the K. He also got Manny Machado fired up as discussed earlier.

Then he finally proved he was actually human in Minnesota on Sunday giving up four runs and walking three batters. He still only allowed four hits though and added another double digit strikeout game to his resume finishing with ten SO’s.

Next: Red Sox catcher Sandy Leon starting to heat up

I’ve been saying it since day one and the guys at NESN are in agreement – Chris Sale has already become a major leader in the clubhouse. It’s through his performance on the field, but also how he goes about his job and his words to the media after games that have proven to his teammates that he is the real deal. I know it’s early, but it already appears to me that Sale is on a mission to lead the Sox to the playoff and to take home the Cy Young. For now though he’ll he have to settle on winning the rights to Strut his stuff!