Red Sox are finding ways to succeed without being a dominant team
A 162-game season is such a long, tedious grind that it is nearly impossible for a team to dominate all the way from start to finish. It does happen on occasion — for example, the 2018 Boston Red Sox —but even the best teams in the league typically run into a few rough patches each season. One of the keys to making the playoffs, winning the division, and winning the World Series is limiting these rough patches and making sure that they don’t last for extended periods of time.
The 2013 Red Sox were great at this. They lost three games in a row on five different occasions, but never lost four or more consecutively. Losing three games in a row is a minor setback—allowing that streak to continue to, say, six or more games could be a season-altering setback.
In the shortened 2020 season, Boston lost at least four consecutive games on four separate occasions, and at one point lost nine straight games. Even in a 162-game season, losing nine straight is potentially the death-knell of the season.
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The 2021 Red Sox are very reminiscent of the 2013 team, and have avoided the long skids of the 2020 team. So far, they have lost three games in a row three times, but have not once lost a fourth consecutive game.
Several times this season the team has slumped multiple games in a row, and has seemed destined for a prolonged skid, one that takes them out of the division race. Each and every time, Boston has responded with a victory.
This past series against the Blue Jays, the Red Sox won game one before getting obliterated in the second and third games in the set. The offense was struggling, and the pitching was getting absolutely rocked. In the fourth game, the offensive woes continued, but Nathan Eovaldi and Josh Taylor were able to shutout Toronto for 8 innings, and turned it over to Matt Barnes with a one-run lead.
Barnes responded by giving up a 2-out solo bomb to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. With the offense struggling, this had all the makings of a gut-punch loss — until the team came through in the bottom of the 9th, with Rafael Devers sending the Boston fans home happy with a walk-off.
The win on Monday against Toronto is just one example of many already this season where the Red Sox have halted a potential skid with a statement win. Baseball has so much inherent randomness, and the season is so long, that sustaining dominance throughout the entire season is something that only a handful of teams have been able to accomplish.
The 2021 Red Sox have not been dominant. But they have been good, and may end up being good enough to win the division when all is said and done. They are currently on pace for 97 wins, and as long as they continue to avoid long losing streaks there is no compelling reason to believe they cannot sustain this pace. They are not a collection of stars, and should not be expected to dominate against the other top teams in the league as the 2018 team did. But they are a group of guys that play hard, and grind out wins when they need them most. Just like 2013.