Red Sox offense primed to bounce back against upcoming schedule

The Red Sox offense should heat up as the schedule lightens up

In the 19 games that the Boston Red Sox have played since the July 30 trade deadline, fans have watched the team collapse in every facet of the game. The team, which once held a four-game lead in the AL East, has slid out of the second wild card slot and now face a six game deficit for the division lead. After playing 13 out of 19  games against teams over .500, the Red Sox offense is presented with a key chance to break out of their slump with nine straight games against teams that sit under the .500 mark.

While there is not one specific player or unit to blame for the team’s struggles, in the three week stretch since the trade deadline the Red Sox have averaged 3.4 runs per game (excluding 20 runs against Tampa and 16 against Baltimore as outliers); a number that is down from the five runs per game average in the 104 games prior.

The offense has failed to deliver clutch hits in key moments that seemed to come every other day for Boston when things were going well. In the month of August, Boston hitters have left 121 men on base and are hitting just .195 in high leverage situations, a drastic drop off from the first three months of the season.

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While the stats are enough to give you a picture into just how bad in key situations the Red Sox have been with a sky-high strikeout rate, the team just simply is not passing the eye test in key spots any longer.

Take the seventh inning of game one of Tuesday’s doubleheader. After the bottom of the Red Sox lineup was able to load the bases with three hard hit balls off Yankees reliever Jonathan Loaisiga, Boston was given a prime opportunity to steal back a game that they should have won. After a Travis Shaw line out the Red Sox were able to turn the lineup over and put the big bats in a position to be the hero. Of course Kiké Hernandez worked a 3-0 count before extending the strike zone on two pitches and striking out, taking all of the wind out the Red Sox sails, and Hunter Renfroe was set down on three straight pitches.

In the nine games leading up to a pivotal four-game series in Tampa, Boston will host the last-place Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins before heading to Cleveland to face a struggling Indians squad, three teams that rank in the bottom half in ERA in all of Major League Baseball.

After being unable to carry over a three game thrashing of the Orioles last weekend the Red Sox offense is in a prime spot to catch fire against weaker teams and use that momentum to propel them back into the Wild Card slot and place themselves back into the conversation for the AL East title.