Red Sox injury woes coming at an opportune time in the schedule

Red Sox injury woes may not hamper their success

Well Red Sox Nation, as great as this past week’s west coast run was, and it was legitimately great, we do have some issues to worry about. We have a pair of pitchers missing from the rotation and our enigmatic centerfielder is also on the mend. Right as Boston began cooking, they realized they missed some of the ingredients in the recipe. Luckily, the upcoming schedule is friendly, for the most part, and can allow the squad a chance to breathe and succeed.

Nathan Eovaldi, Garrett Whitlock, and Kiké Hernández have all been placed on the IL in recent days and it feels like a gut punch to the Red Sox’s efforts. Boston has already called upon Rob Refsnyder and Kutter Crawford to fill some of the voids and both have already made some waves with the big club, but there’s still a vacancy in the rotation. That spot will most likely be filled by Josh Winckowski, who will be looking for some redemption after his MLB debut.

So, we have an idea of the solutions, but why do I think that the Red Sox will be able to survive in these times? I’ll tell you. The fellas have a nine-game homestand kicking off tonight against the Oakland A’s. The very A’s that Boston just swept out in the Bay Area last week. They’re going to offer the squad the best chance at stealing some games during this injury spell, the next team, not so much.

After the A’s leave Boston the first-place St. Louis Cardinals take their place. The Cards may be in first place but it’s not by a massive margin. The good thing for us is they’re on a bit of a skid as of late, going just 5-5 in their last 10 games. This is the perfect time to get them as they’re not playing their best baseball and the Red Sox are. It’s going to take some serious work but taking 2-3 from St. Louis isn’t out of the cards.

Next in line is the second-to-bottom Detroit Tigers. Earlier this season the Sox made their way to the Motor City where they were able to take two games from the Tigers to win their first series of the season. Boston will be looking to at least do the same at home this time around and secure another few tallies in the win column.

Having players go down with injuries is never good and there surely is never a good time for those moves to the IL to pop up, but this stretch also offers the Red Sox a cushion to work with. Thankfully, we didn’t lose these guys during one of the runs where we have the AL East gauntlet to go through. A few bottom-of-the-barrel squads and one that is struggling to stay on top of the mountain sounds pretty good to me.

The Red Sox have done a phenomenal job in getting themselves out of the hole they were in to show that they’re a much better team than what was being seen early in the season. It may not reflect it in the divisional standings yet, but they’ve at least gotten themselves in the Wild Card hunt and sit in the third and final spot.

It’s hard to imagine a divisional push but we’ve all seen crazier things happen, especially with this team. At the end of the day, they’ve got the pieces to survive this injury flurry and can even take all three series, just a matter of staying focused and keeping course. We’ll need guys to step up in those absences but if we’ve learned anything about this team in the last month or so it’s that they won’t quit. And if one man is down, we can expect the next in line to try and carry his weight until he’s back.