Unless they lose out and another American League team wins enough to take their place, the Boston Red Sox will make the playoffs. But for the past few games, they haven't looked like the postseason team fans have gotten used to.
The Red Sox on September 15 lost to the Texas Rangers, a desperate club in the hunt, in a familiar way. Jacob deGrom cruised through five, three-hit, two-run, eight-strikeout innings against Boston and the bullpen followed with a flawless evening — the Sox fanned 15 times, left nine men on base and went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.
Nick Sogard plated the only runs of Boston's 4-2 loss. Depth and bench players have been critical to the Sox's success throughout their July and August hot streak this season. Though it's great, and even necessary, to get offensive production from unexpected places, the Red Sox also need output from their best players to thrive in the postseason.
The Sox's offense was slow, failed to plate runs and take walks in April, when the season started so poorly it led to Alex Cora's firing. For weeks, the Red Sox struggled to string enough hits together to overcome a two-run deficit and the same pattern emerged against Texas.
Red Sox's offense is showing flashes of early-season inconsistency as clinch, Wild Card round appraoch
Patrick Sandoval's starts are not an insignificant part of Boston's struggles. The lefty's last six decisions have been losses and his outings have shown that the Sox's offense is not potent enough to fight out of early lopsided games. But the Red Sox need innings more than anything and resting its starters for a tough postseason is more important than winning games, especially since its seeding wouldn't change much even if it was winning.
The Red Sox need to kick their offensive stall in the next week if they hope to make a longer playoff run than they did last year. Their most likely first-round matchup is the New York Yankees, who boast a frightening rotation that includes near-certain American League Cy Young Award winner Cam Schlittler and Max Fried. If Boston struggles against past-his-prime deGrom, playoff Schlittler will be a rude awakening, as he was last year.
When the Sox's offense was at its best, they were nearly unbeatable. Maybe an offensive change is necessary to stay afloat in the playoff race amid fatigue from key players (calling up Romy Gonzalez might help).
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