Offense goes cold as the Red Sox lose two out of three to the Blue Jays

Final Thoughts

The WooSox offense put on a firework display in Syracuse on Thursday. Though they lost the game 10-8, the Red Sox Triple-A affiliate launched drew ten walks and homered five times of the Mets pitching. Ryan Fitzgerald hit his fifth home run and raised his OPS to 1.206, top prospect Tristan Casas hit his fourth home run, and Yolmer Sanchez increased his OPS to .981 with a solo shot.

I bring this up because the major league offense simply isn’t getting the job done. Some of the blame can be placed on established stars like Kike Hernandez (.579 OPS) and Trevor Story (.591) not meeting expectations, but when you’re seven through nine hitters are giving you absolutely nothing, it’s hard to consistently score runs. If this inept offense continues, believe that some of the guys raking in Wooster are going to find themselves in Boston.

On a positive note, the pitching staff continues to exceed expectations. The bullpen has been money all season, and the Red Sox got two solid starts from Eovaldi and Houck. Pivetta was the one pitcher who struggled this series, but if he builds on the improvements he showed in the last two innings on Wednesday, a strong pitching staff will get even better.

The Red Sox now travel to Tampa Bay for a critical three-game set against the Rays. Because of the upcoming series in Toronto and Houck’s vaccination status, the Red Sox were forced to shuffle their rotation. Whitlock will be making his first major league start on Saturday, and Houck will be the one piggybacking Rich Hill on Sunday. Those two, along with Friday’s starter Michael Wacha, should give the Red Sox a chance to win each game. The bigger question is whether the offense can take advantage.

Series MVP: Phillips Valdez (3.0 IP, 1 H,  0 ER, O R, O BB, 2K)