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Boston Red Sox can beat out New York Yankees for the division

By Adam Ziobrowski

BOSTON, MA - APRIL 11: Tyler Austin #26 of the New York Yankees fights Joe Kelly #56 of the Boston Red Sox after being struck by a pitch Kelly threw during the seventh inning at Fenway Park on April 11, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - APRIL 11: Tyler Austin #26 of the New York Yankees fights Joe Kelly #56 of the Boston Red Sox after being struck by a pitch Kelly threw during the seventh inning at Fenway Park on April 11, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 01: Mookie Betts #50 of the Boston Red Sox catches a fly ball hit by Starlin Castro #14 of the New York Yankees (not shown) during the fourth inning at Yankee Stadium on September 1, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 01: Mookie Betts #50 of the Boston Red Sox catches a fly ball hit by Starlin Castro #14 of the New York Yankees (not shown) during the fourth inning at Yankee Stadium on September 1, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images) /

One of the most underrated stats in baseball, fielding percentage, will be one of the keys to the Red Sox beating the Yankees.

As it stands right now, the Red Sox are statistically the better fielding team. Boston owns a .985 fielding percentage (40 errors) and the Yankees own a .983 fielding percentage (45 errors). However, nearly half of the Red Sox errors come from Rafael Devers, who has committed 15 on the season. That is the second most in the entire league.

That’s important to note because now just 25 errors are split between 12 Red Sox players. The only other member of the Sox with at least five is Xander Bogaerts, who has exactly five errors on this season. Everyone else has three or less.

Although the Yankees don’t have a player like Devers with a lot of errors, 19 players have committed at least one this season. The Red Sox have only had 13 players commit at least one.

It’s clear the Red Sox have been the better fielding team this season. To beat out the Yankees they must continue to be the better fielding team. As any baseball fan knows, errors lead to unearned runs. Unearned runs will break a team in an instant. The goal is for the other team to earn their runs, not give them away.

So for the Red Sox, free runs must be a thing of the past. Of course, errors will happen, it’s the nature of a game that’s built on failure. However, errors have to be limited and can’t come at bad times. An error in the 8th inning of an 11-0 game won’t kill a team. On the other hand, an error in the 8th inning of a 3-2 game just might.

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