Before the Boston Red Sox's June 17 game against the Toronto Blue Jays, team CEO and president Sam Kennedy suggested for the second time that the Red Sox might have to sell at the upcoming trade deadline. Then, the Red Sox performed like they should've committed to selling weeks ago.
Boston didn't muster a single run against the Blue Jays despite taking seven walks in the game. Top prospect Jake Bennett pitched well again, allowing just two runs on three hits with five strikeouts in 5.1 innings, but the bats failed to come through, in typical Red Sox fashion.
NESN commentator Dave O'Brien didn't mince words after the loss. The Red Sox have looked lifeless all season, but the June 17 loss that dropped them to a season-worst 13 games below .500 felt like a turning point.
"That felt like a root canal with no painkiller," he said.
Dave O'Brien said everything Red Sox fans have been thinking after June 17 loss to Blue Jays
O'Brien and Red Sox fans have experienced their brutal play all season and any optimism that existed in the broadcast booth earlier in the year has dissipated. It's not like Boston is being blown out — the Jays only scored three runs in their Wednesday win — but it's 1-38 when its opponents take a two-run lead at any point. The Red Sox haven't once overcome a three-run deficit.
Less than a month from the All-Star Game, the Red Sox are one of the two teams in MLB that has less than 30 wins. The other is the lowly Colorado Rockies. Boston has won just two series at Fenway Park all year and it shows no signs of changing any time soon.
After a hot streak at the end of May (which included a sweep of the last-place Kansas City Royals, a single win against the Atlanta Braves and a series win over the Cleveland Guardians), the Red Sox are back to their early-season ways. On June 17, they left 13 men on base and went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position, and as O'Brien said, it's a horrendous watch.
The players that thrived during the Sox's hot streak, like Jarren Duran and Mickey Gasper, have fallen back down to earth. Marcelo Mayer is still struggling. Masataka Yoshida isn't hitting consistently. The Red Sox don't have the pieces to save themselves with a desperation trade this season. They never did.
Boston has been so unbearable to watch, not because it's being blown out of games, but the opposite. When the Red Sox went down by two runs in the third inning, the game was already over. A root canal with no painkiller might be preferable to watching this team for another night.
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