I will say, at that point, the crowd was in a frenzy, and Gil was clearly rattled despite having a no-hitter going. When he needed a minute to compose himself, the Pitchcom device happened to stop working, giving Gil some extra time to slow his heart rate and find a way to throw strikes. Now, I'm not calling Gil a liar, but
"It's like I've been a kid away at college and I'm coming home. I could not love this city more. I come back all the time to visit friends. I plead for Red Sox games every time we have them. It just makes me so happy to walk into Fenway and see familiar faces - the security guys, the clubbies are for the most part still there from my time - and hear 'Sweet Caroline' in the eighth inning. It brings back a flood of memories."
For the first time in seven years, the Red Sox find themselves occupying a playoff spot with just 15 games remaining (by this point in 2021, they actually fell out of a playoff spot and had to rally back in). Of these final 15 games, nine are at home, but nine are also against other AL teams currently occupying playoff spots, so there's still plenty to iron out.
We're really coming into the final stretch of the regular season! It's certainly nice to already have the series win secured, thanks to the offense waking up and our pitchers shutting down the talented and surprisingly powerful A's hitters. Now we can go for a good ol' sweep, all the more desired given that we're tied with the Yankees for first place in the Wild Card and the Mariners are on a win streak.
With the Red Sox sputtering this week and struggling to find answers in the back half of the pitching rotation, it's fair to revisit the team's relative lack of action at the trade deadline. With the Sox having visited the Diamondbacks this weekend, reports surfaced about the trade talks that the two teams engaged in, primarily centered around Zac Gallen. What was the sticking point? The Sox wouldn't include AAA pitching prospect Connelly Early in the deal. (Alex Speier and Tim Healy, Boston Globe)
If there's any game in which the Red Sox need everyone to be on their A-game, it's this one. The free fall post Roman injury isn't doing anyone any favors-and with the Yankees and Blue Jays playing a series, should have been a chance to gain ground on either opponent. Instead, it feels like we're going to end up in the hunt for the final Wild Card spot.
With only 22 games remaining in the regular season and a six-game lead over the Wild Card-chasing Rangers (themselves reeling from the injury loss of their ace, Nathan Eovaldi), the Sox almost certainly have a big enough cushion to survive the loss of Anthony. If you believe in the math behind WAR, then we're looking at only additional 1-2 losses - at the absolute most - as a result of Anthony's absence. Falling out of the postseason at this point would represent a monumental collapse.
It's starting to look like the Sox have a postseason spot wrapped up. But we'll all lived through 2011, so we know it's not quite time to pop that champagne just yet. Entering play today, the Sox sit 3.5 games behind he Blue Jays for the Al East and a half game behind the Yankees for the first Wild Card. They have a 2.5 game cushion between themselves and the Mariners for the third Wild Card,
Here at Over The Monster, we ran into a bit of a "dark zone" with or ability to create polling during the website migration earlier this month. However, we did want to still run our quarterly approval polling before the calendar flips to September. So with that, let's check in with you, the Over The Monster community and gauge your opinion on how the Red Sox are doing across the organization.
Designated Hitter Masataka Yoshida continues to be a complete disaster for the Red Sox. So much so that I came very close to just posting last week's Mayor's Office again for this week's edition. But I have integrity (and also I'm not allowed to do that). Instead, I figured out that I could come at the same topic from a bit of a different angle.
How massive is this sweep victory at Camden Yards? It feels like it makes up for the two-game reverse sweep at Fenway Park during the Telethon last week. Thursday's matchup was definitely a battle, with Crochet finding himself in a few jams which he either got out of or got help to get out of. These are the games the Red Sox need to win to keep themselves in it.
Fitts' injury again leaves that spot in question. Manager Alex Cora confirmed they're not going to reverse course on Buehler's move to relief (link via Tim Healey of The Boston Globe). That means they'll need to bring someone up for Saturday's start against the Pirates. Cooper Criswell went on the minor league injured list last week. That leaves Kyle Harrison as the only healthy depth starter on the 40-man roster.
Hello and happy Monday, folks-an especially happy one on the heels of that wonderful series in the Bronx. We've got Baltimore on deck to begin the week. We travel to Camden Yards for a four-game set starting tonight at 6:35 EST, as our Red Sox will look to avenge the two-game mini sweep that unfolded at Fenway a week ago. Beautiful park, Camden is.
