While you weren't looking, the Red Sox won 6 games, moved up to 3rd place in the AL East, and all those Sox rookies you thought were busts started playing well. And, of course, it happened at the exact moment the two frontrunners, Toronto and New York, started slumping.
Honestly, I'm impressed. I'd written off Connor Wong, and now he's hitting .284, playing excellent defensive catcher and being the backstop that Reese McGuire wishes he was. I'd also begun to write off Jarren Duran after a series of misguided MLB attempts, but he's been phenomenal since coming up this year, hitting .417 with 25 hits and 13 RBIs in 17 games, which is pretty insane. You also have Masataka Yoshida, who had a slow start, and is now hitting .317 with 24 RBIs and 6 home runs, which is the power Sox fans thought they'd be getting from him.
To give you an idea, I have a friend on Twitter who's a Sox guy, and last month he was replying to Sox tweets a lot with pithy comments, y'know, 'loving what you're doing with the team Chaim', yada yada, and while I do have some criticisms of Chaim Bloom's renovations, keeping the youth movement as is and letting them be the stars right now is the right idea. Only Devers is a younger veteran presence, a lot of other guys are older or, in the case of Story, hurt. Getting the kids to start playing well, all while Devers, Alex Verdugo and Justin Turner are supporting them with solid work, is a fantastic step in the right direction for the Sox.
Trouble is, there doesn't seem to be anyone in the rotation that wants to support this effort. Sale and Kluber, as nasty as they can be, are both kinda cooked. Pivetta's a little better but still got a 5 ERA. Tanner Houck should, in theory, be working well but has a 5.34 ERA. It is once again down to the rotation to keep this team afloat, and they're just not cutting it, as they have many times since the Sox's last World Series team. What's cool is how well Kenley Jansen's doing in the ninth. I've worried about him in the last few years, and his Braves numbers were passable at best. Now he's doing a lot better, has an ERA around 1 and 6 saves. You love to see it, hope he keeps it up.
The highlights of this Sox team, especially how well Alex Verdugo has been doing at the center of this team, are enough to momentarily distract from the weak points. We'll see how this goes as the Sox contend with teams like the Phils this weekend.
Coming Tomorrow- Like Verdugo, someone the Dodgers gave up that's doing very well in a different market.
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