Boston Red Sox can beat out New York Yankees for the division
As we approach the midway point of the MLB season, the Red Sox and New York Yankees are still neck-and-neck in the division race. With the race for the AL East crown so tight, how can the Red Sox separate themselves from the Yankees?
With the rivalry back in full swing, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are wasting to time providing fans with an exciting division race.
As it stands right now, the Yankees own a 1/2 game lead over the Red Sox for first place in the AL East. The third-place Tampa Bay Rays sit 13 1/2 games behind New York, just to give an idea of the dominance the Red Sox and Yankees have had over the rest of the division.
Just when things couldn’t look any tighter, the two teams have split the season series thus far, 3-3. Heading into the upcoming weekend series in New York, now is the time where we can start putting together a full assessment on how the Red Sox pair up with their division foes.
Doing so will also give us an idea of what it’ll take to beat out the Yankees for the division. One thing is for certain, anything the Red Sox have to do won’t be easy. Both teams are near the top in every offensive and pitching statistic.
However, winning the division is more important in today’s game than ever before. Avoiding the one-game Wild Card playoff game means everything when it comes to positioning yourself for a deep postseason run. The Red Sox must find a way to best the Yankees in these few areas.
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.
The Red Sox starters have pitched very well this season. They have had four pitchers, Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello and Eduardo Rodriguez, make at least 15 starts. Those four arms have a combined ERA of 3.41, which is better than their team ERA of 3.52.
Coincidentally, the Yankees team ERA is also 3.41. However, much of that has to do with their bullpen as they own a 2.75 ERA. Also, this is a very interesting stat.
NYY relievers in the month of June not named Chasen Shreve
— Boston Sports Info (@bostonsportsinf) June 25, 2018
All RP
56 APP - 63.0 IP - 0.14 ERA - 0.73 WHIP
22 BB - 82 K - 1 ER
1 ER???
wait, what?
details pic.twitter.com/NZK2y4qgEn
As the Red Sox may have the upper hand with starting pitching, the Yankees bullpen has the slighter edge. This is where the Red Sox need to match the Yankees to take the division.
Both bullpens have similar win percentages. The Yankees ‘pen is 18-10 (.643) on the year as the Sox ‘pen is 14-8 (.637).
On the season, the Red Sox bullpen owns a 3.14 ERA. Not bad by any means. However, that’s not to the Yankees standard.
Hitters are batting just .193 against Yankees relievers while Red Sox relievers have allowed a .219 opponents batting average. Again, nothing wrong with the Sox bullpen here. However, it’s still not to the Yankees standard.
By season’s end, it may be hard for the overall numbers of Boston’s bullpen to match those of the Yankees. However, baseball is a game of streaks. As long as we can see the Sox bullpen dominate over the remainder of the season there should be no worries. If that’s the case, games won’t be slipping away and leads will be held.
If something takes a turn for the worst, the Sox may find themselves slipping out of the division race. The point here is that starting pitching has done their job, there aren’t many concerns there for the Sox besides Drew Pomeranz. It’s all about how the bullpen looks from here on out.
One area the Yankees have dominated this season is beating teams with a record at or over .500. They are 24-9 in such games. As for the Sox, they are 16-13 against teams at or above .500.
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Although that’s not an awful mark, the Yankees have made a surge by beating the tougher teams. However, the Sox have their chance coming up to prove they can win series against playoff caliber teams.
That task starts Tuesday night with a three-game set against the Los Angeles Angels. After that comes three games in New York on Friday-Sunday. Then finally, the Sox travel to D.C. to take on the Nationals. Over the next nine games, it’s ideal, almost vital, for the Sox to go 6-3. That will hopefully mean they go 2-1 in each series. That would show balance and the ability to win series against tough teams.
The biggest series of the three is fairly obvious. When the Sox travel to New York both teams will be looking to separate themselves from one another. The Sox will have to stay clean in the field, pitch lights out, and give run support to take the series. In other words, play near perfect. Taking the series against the Yankees will certainly silence doubters. Taking all three series over the next nine games will definitely silence doubters.
However, this is something the Sox must do for the remainder of the season to beat out the Yankees. The next nine games will be a testament to what’s to come.
These are three key areas for the Red Sox to hone in on to beat out the Yankees over the second half of the season. Again, the division race will be tight all season. In my personal opinion, I believe the division will be decided on game 162. However, these three keys will definitely put the Red Sox in a spot to beat out the Yankees.