The Boston Red Sox took care of business on Wednesday night in exciting fashion.
Boston is in the middle of a heated playoff race and got a much-needed walk-off, 5-4 win over the Athletics on Wednesday night to stay the course and hold onto an American League Wild Card spot. Right immediately, the Red Sox have the No. 2 Wild Card spot, but are tied with the No. 3-seeded Seattle Mariners as well. The race is red-hot right immediately and in reality, any game could change the trajectory.
For the Red Sox, it’s no secret that they could use a boost right immediately. This is in two ways. The starting rotation, and the middle of the order. Again, it’s not shocking. If you have been following along this season, you’ve likely seen all of the injuries piling up. Boston is limping to the finish line and isn’t close to full strength.
With the season winding down, Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller shared a column highlighting one “dream” trade scenario for each team. For Boston, they mentioned adding a starting pitcher.
“Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito have been stout atop this rotation,” Miller said. “Dating back to June 10, they have made a combined total of 50 appearances, going 28-10 with 35 quality starts and a 2.69 ERA—Boston winning 36 of those 50 games. When no one from that trio pitches, though, the Red Sox have gone 14-19 during that window, churning through former Dodgers Walker Buehler and Dustin May before recently pulling out all the stops and rolling with 22-year-old Payton Tolle and 23-year-old Connelly Early, each making their MLB debut within the past three weeks.
“Boston should be able to hang onto a playoff spot with what it has, but it will need a fourth starter at some point if it makes any sort of prolonged run in October—possibly even in Game 1 of the ALDS, if the Red Sox have to use up their Big Three to survive the wild card round. Early’s first two starts have been great, but is he the answer?”
Reaction:
Completely fair point. It would be nice to have another consistent fourth pitcher on the roster. Boston has had to rely on young guys without much big league experience. Connelly Early has come out of th gates swinging to begin his big league career. Payton Tolle has shown flashes, but has been moved to the bullpen. Kyle Harrison is someone with big league experience and immediately is getting a shot in the rotation. It’s easy to look back and wonder what else the club could’ve done. But, Boston did add a pitcher in Dustin May ahead of the trade deadline. An injury hurt that move, though. Boston tried to add other guys, like Joe Ryan, but wasn’t able to get a discount done. Adding another starting pitcher would be ideal, but sometimes that’s just the nature of the game. Boston has had some rotten luck injury-wise, but it has found a way to get through so far. We’ll see what happens next. Yes, it would be a dream, but sometimes that’s just how baseball goes.
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