The other night I was watching Yanks-Sox, and it was one of those where both teams kept batting back and forth and it could be anyone's game til the very last second. And the Yankees had a lead, and Clay Holmes was on the mound, and Masataka Yoshida got up. And my first reaction was 'oh no'.
You see, I caught a Yanks-Sox game earlier this month, and I thought it was gonna be simple. I thought the Yankees were clearly the better team, it should be simple enough. Though we led late, they just rallied back in the ninth, and made a game that looked over into one that went to extras. And it was thanks to people like Connor Wong, Ceddanne Rafaela and Masataka Yoshida, people who hit .200 against the rest of the league and .400 against the Yankees. It had been a while since the Sox had someone like this, and now they had too many.
Yoshida was the one that tied the game in the ninth when it looked over, and the other night I saw him come up and hoped that Holmes NOW knew what he needed to do to shut him down. And thankfully this one worked out and the Yanks legged it out for the win. But the Sox officially scare me again. They're now at the point where they're really a match for this team, and I can't comfortably assume we can easily get over them anymore.
Ceddanne Rafaela is the epitome of this, because I don't think he really took off this year til last Yanks-Sox series. And now he's one of the best Red Sox players. He's got 12 homers, 55 RBIs and 15 steals, which doesn't sounds like a lot but it nails you when you least expect it. Rafaela, like a lot of this team, just gets on base an infuriating amount more than you might think. Wong, David Hamilton, Wilyer Abreu and Rob Refsynder are all like that. They just get on base. Refsnyder, after coming up as an extra part in New York, is now an all-too-rare .300-hitting bench guy. You don't get guys like that. It harkens back to the days of people like Frank Catalanotto, Julio Franco and David Dellucci just hitting .300 off the bench.
The deceptively strong contact game is one of many pieces that are just working for the Sox this year. Rafael Devers is still an exceptionally versatile all-around hitter. Tanner Houck, Cutter Crawford and Nick Pivetta are really strong starting options, and with James Paxton they may have become even stronger. Tyler O'Neill, once he gets hot, can deliver like 10 homers in a week or so. And Jarren Duran might be The Franchise going forward. After so many years of haziness and mishaps, finally there are answers for this Red Sox team, and the playoffs are definitely a possibility.
The Sox have to play the Yankees a couple more times this year, and I can only imagine what both teams will look like by that point. If the Yanks will make them regret the earlier matchups or not.
Coming Tonight: Another excellent contact hitter that clicked into place for the Mets this year.
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