Red Sox Strut: Second baseman Dustin Pedroia, LHP Chris Sale

The weekly article series where we examine two players who deserve to strut their stuff for the Boston Red Sox. This week – Dustin Pedroia, 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 haven’t exactly come roaring out of the gate to begin the second half of the season.

It started with an eight-game homestand in which the Red Sox split a pair of series with the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays. They now find themselves in the middle of their final west coast trip, which they began by dropping two out of three to the Los Angeles Angels over the weekend.

Boston remains at the top of the AL East, but their lead has started to dwindle. The standings show they have a 2.5 game lead over the Yankees, although New York is only one game back in the loss column.

The margin for error is slim, which means the Red Sox need to be firing on all cylinders as they enter the dog days of summer. Let’s take a look at some players who are thriving during the team’s stagnant stretch.

Position Player Candidates

As the resident lefty-masher off the bench, Chris Young has been uncharacteristically awful against lefties this season. He enters the day hitting a mere .233 with a .660 OPS against southpaws, throwing a wrench in the team’s plans to sub him into the lineup for Mitch Moreland when there’s a left-hander on the mound. But wait, there’s hope! Young homered off of Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ last week – his first home run against a lefty this year. He was 3-for-9 at the plate for the week, adding a double to that homer.

Mookie Betts was 9-for-29 (.310) with a pair of doubles over his last seven games. He also swiped his 17th base of the season to equal his home run total. No other hitter in the majors has reached at least 17 in both categories this season.

Putting up numbers at the plate isn’t the only way a position player can have an outstanding week. Jackie Bradley hit a pitiful .172 last week, yet still managed to make his presence felt with his glove. First he robbed Aaron Judge of a home run ticketed for deep center field.

Later in the week, Bradley threw caution to the wind by crashing into the outfield wall to make another spectacular catch.

Even when he’s struggling to drive in runs for the Red Sox, keeping the opposing team off the scoreboard is equally as effective.

Pitching Candidates

Drew Pomeranz is tied for fourth in the league in wins after notching his 10th of the season by shutting out the Blue Jays over 6 2/3 innings. The lefty is vanquishing the critics who complained about last summer’s mid-season trade that brought Pomeranz to Boston. He’s allowed two runs or less in six of his last seven starts to lower his ERA to 3.51, which ranks ninth in the league. The five walks he issued are a concern, especially since it’s the second time this month he’s allowed that many free passes in a start. Something to keep an eye on even if it hasn’t come back to bite him yet.

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Hector Velazquez tossed the final four frames of a 15-inning affair with the Blue Jays last week. He kept Toronto scoreless while allowing two hits and a walk in relief to earn the win. Of course he was rewarded by being optioned back to Pawtucket so that the Red Sox could add a fresh arm to the bullpen. The impressive performance should put him back on the radar the next time Boston needs a spot starter, while a case can be made that he should be replacing Doug Fister as the long man in the bullpen.

One of the arms called up to replenish the bullpen when Velazquez was sent down was Ben Taylor. The 24-year old was horrendous during his last big league stint, posting a 13.50 ERA over six appearances in May. He seems to be much improved this time around, tossing 3 2/3 scoreless innings of relief since his return.

Rick Porcello has shown signs of improvement following a disappointing first half. The reigning Cy Young has allowed three runs or less in all four of his starts in July. His latest effort came in a loss, but he matched his season high with eight innings and gave up only five hits. The problem is that three of those hits were home runs. Each was of the solo variety, but they were all meatballs down the middle of the plate. Porcello isn’t making many mistakes, but opponents are punishing him for the ones he does make.

Pitcher how gets to Strut

Chris Sale‘s quest to prove himself as the best pitcher in baseball continued with another strong effort in Los Angeles. The lefty held the Angels scoreless over six innings, allowing only four hits and two walks, while striking out nine.

Sale tallied his 200th strikeout of the season in his last start, becoming the fastest to ever reach that total in American League history. Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez are the only other pitchers to fan 200+ hitters in 20 starts or fewer. Sale’s accomplishment is even more historic in that his 141 1/3 innings are the fewest an AL pitcher has needed to reach that strikeout total.

He’s currently on pace for 331 strikeouts, which would blow Pedro’s franchise record of 313 out of the water. It’s hard to imagine any pitcher in the modern era having a better year than Pedro’s epic 1999 season, but Sale is making an impressive run at it.

Next: Devers promotion a response to thin trade market

Sale leads the league in virtually every important pitching category: 141 1/3 innings, 12 Wins, 2.48 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 12.74 K/9, 7.69 K/BB, 181 ERA+, 1.97 FIP and 4.7 WAR. Forget the Cy Young, Sale is putting together arguably the best pitching performance by an AL starter since the turn of the century.