When the Boston Red Sox won 15 games in a row, you knew it was going to eventually come to an end. When it did, they stayed on their heater for six weeks.
They swept the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox after their winning streak was snapped. Those were impressive sweeps of first-place teams. Given the six weeks they went through, there were bound to be bumps in the road. Little did anyone know it would come against teams at the bottom of the standings in the division.
After losing five out of six games entering Friday night’s series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston once again struggled against a last-place team and dropped their sixth game out of their last seven, 8-4, to the Pirates. After the game, interim manager Chad Tracy had a message for his team and the fans.
Boston Red Sox Interim Manager Chad Tracy Has Message After Pirates Loss
Boston dropped two out of three to the Athletics, then dropped three out of four to the Toronto Blue Jays. To be fair, the Blue Jays have played really well against the Red Sox this season. They are just one game out of the final American League wild-card spot after beating the New York Yankees, 3-1, on Friday night.
However, Pittsburgh was struggling going into Friday night’s game, but scored four runs on five hits in just four innings off Jake Bennett. Offensively, Bubba Chandler and five relievers held Boston to four runs on nine hits with 10 strikeouts.
“I think most guys in (the clubhouse) know teams go through this,” said Tracy, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. “The key is we have to find a way to get ourselves going again, get on another stretch going the other direction. And if you do that, this (slide) all becomes a forgotten thing.”
Was what the Red Sox did for six weeks sustainable? No, not over a 162-game season. Slumps are going to happen. What that run did, however, was give them some breathing room in the wild-card race. They will enter Saturday night’s game with a firm grip on the second wild-card spot. They wake up Saturday five games clear of the next closest team.
Boston Red Sox Need Sonny Gray To Be a Stopper
When you’re going through a stretch like the Red Sox are, what’s the best-case scenario? Hand the ball to your best pitcher. That will be the case on Saturday night when Sonny Gray gets the ball.
He is coming off a six-inning outing in Toronto on Monday night where he allowed two runs on six hits. During Boston’s six-week stretch, that would have been more than good enough to pick up a win. Not with the struggling Red Sox now.
“It’s part of the game, part of baseball. There’s ups and downs,” said Wilyer Abreu, per Speier. “We’re a little bit struggling right now. We’re still getting men on base, but we couldn’t drive in the runs.”
Tracy and Abreu are right; a couple more hits and things will turn around. Every team goes through it. However, Boston can survive a stretch like this thanks to their six-week run earlier this summer.
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