HOUSTON — For teams surging in playoff races, scoreboard-watching is one of the most exhilarating undertakings of the late summer. Glimpses of distance gained in pennant races add an additional layer of joy to every victory. Yet the out-of-town scores can also add pain and poignancy to each individual defeat.
And for the Red Sox, who continue to experience the cruelest sort of Groundhog Day imaginable in a pennant race, too many August days have delivered foreboding messages. On Monday night, that pattern continued. The Sox’ late-innings black hole appeared in Space City, with the team blowing a one-run, eighth-inning lead en route to a 5-4 walkoff loss to the Astros at Minute Maid Park.
That defeat, coupled with a win by the Royals, left the Sox 41⁄2 games behind Kansas City for the third and final American League wild-card spot. Advertisement “It’s a beautiful game, but sometimes it’s tough,” said righthander Lucas Sims, who was charged with a blown save (his second as a Red Sox, and the team’s major league-leading 12th since the All-Star break – four more than any other team), unable to preserve a 4-3 advantage while allowing a run in the eighth. “Every [game] is important.
It’s definitely not going to be easy. No one is going to go out there and roll over for you, but we’ve got a resilient group.” It will take more than resilience to overcome the team’s current gap in the standings.
The Sox will require a dramatic reversal of late-innings fortune. Time after time since the All-Star break, the Red Sox have been just a few outs from victory. Time after time, their bullpen has proven unable to turn a late-game advantage into victory.
And with each successive occurrence of this familiar cycle, the team drifts further from a realistic shot at the postseason. The latest instance featured Sims overcoming some early control struggles in the eighth inning by eliciting a groundball double play, but then proving unable to maintain a clean sheet. He permitted a two-out Chas McCormick single, a steal, and a Mauricio Dubón RBI single to left.
The succession of events mixed a sense of familiarity and inevitability – as did what followed. Advertisement In the bottom of the ninth, Yainer Diaz blasted a solo homer to left against Sox closer Kenley Jansen to punctuate the Sox’ walkoff defeat. It has been a collective collapse in which virtually every pitcher, save for Chris Martin (who recorded a scoreless seventh inning on Monday), has contributed to meltdowns that have jeopardized the Sox’ playoff hopes.
Sims, Jansen, and Bailey Horn have been charged with two blown saves since the All-Star break; Luis García, Josh Winckowski, Cam Booser, Zack Kelly, Greg Weissert, and Brennan Bernardino have likewise proven unable to hold leads. “It’s motivation. That’s how you get better – it motivates you,” said Jansen.
“I don’t need nobody to feel sorry about me. I don’t need nobody to feel sorry about us. Just let that be motivation for us.
If you want to be in the playoffs and try to win a championship, ain’t nobody to feel sorry about us. We’ve just got to fight. We’ve got to fight and use this as motivation.
I know we’ve got plenty of games left, but we’ve got to get that urgency and come back tomorrow with a fight.” Manager Alex Cora identified silver linings. The performance of Tanner Houck (18 swings-and-misses over six innings while striking out eight, walking none, and allowing three runs, two earned) offered a sign of a rotation that may be getting a second wind.
If that occurs with Houck and other starters, Cora believes the bullpen can take shape in a way that will avoid the excessive usage of the last month and permit the team to do a better job of securing wins. “I do believe that with the way we’re throwing the ball from the first through the sixth inning, we’re going to be OK,” said Cora. “We struggled there for a little bit.
The bullpen paid the price. And now we’re throwing the ball extremely well from our starters. They’re giving us a chance to win.
. . .
I’m a baseball fan. I know where we’re at. But I’m pretty confident now pitching-wise.
” Advertisement Still, that hope occurs against the backdrop of a ticking clock. How do the Red Sox – amidst a 4-8 stretch – forge a path forward in their remaining 38 games? “The past will make you miserable, and the future will give you anxiety,” said Jansen. “You’ve got to stay in the moment.
I can’t look at the past. You’ve got to move on and focus on being in the moment and being back out there tomorrow.” The number of tomorrows is diminishing.
Alex Speier can be reached at [email protected] .
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