State of the Sox

A weekly summary of how the Red Sox performed and where they are heading

Photo Credits: ktre

Opponents: Mariners (A), Blue Jays

Week Record: 1-5

Overall Record: 57-54

Current spot in standings: 5th place in AL East

The week started off with the team finishing up their west coast road trip in Seattle, and they fell 6-2 in the opener.

Nick Pivetta was fantastic, making his first start since May, but it was wasted as everyone besides Rafael Devers and Jarren Duran looked lost at the plate. A close game up until the 8th saw Joe Jacques come in and let the game slip away, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 6-1 hole.

The team bounced back in game two of the series as they took it 6-4. Despite Brayan Bello not having one of his best starts, he pitched well enough and the bullpen was fantastic the rest of the night.

Alex Verdugo and Reese McGuire homered in this one to spark the offense.

In the final game of the series, the team was rolling as Kutter Crawford was fantastic for five innings and the team had a 3-0 lead, spearheaded by a Duran two-run homer.

Then one of the ugliest innings you’re going to see in a baseball game transpired in the seventh as Alex Cora made the questionable move to have John Schrieber come out for a second inning despite giving up a two-run homer to Cal Raleigh in the prior inning and things fell apart. Schreiber and Bleier could not get the job done and that mixed with some ugly defense turned what once was a 3-0 lead into a 6-3 deficit, that being the final score.

Moving onto the weekend series and a huge one at that with the Toronto Blue Jays as coming into this series the Sox stood two games back of the Jays for the final wild card spot.

Game one of the series essentially set the tone for the series as Paxton gave up a homer run on the first pitch of the game leading to five home runs on the night for the Jays. Duran did homer in this one but it was not enough as the team fell 7-3.

Game two saw the Jays jump out to an early 3-0 lead but the Sox were able to tie it back up after Devers golfed a Jose Berrios curveball into the right field bleachers sending the crowd into a frenzy. The Jays would tack two on later in the game to make it 5-3 going to the bottom of the ninth.

The Sox made it 5-4 after a Luis Urias RBI single but that’s as close as they got as Connor Wong came to bat with runners on first and second and only one out, and proceeded to hit a fly ball that at first looked like would get out of Fenway or at least bounce off the wall. Instead, Dalton Varsho made a nice grab at the wall and doubled off McGuire at second base to end the game. An absolute backbreaker.

The final game of the series was not even close as the Jays took it 13-1.

The only highlight of this one was a Tristan Casas solo shot off of Bassitt.

This week was as ugly as it gets and with the lack of showing up in a crucial series with the Blue Jays, the team now stands five games back of the final wild card spot and are once again in the basement of the AL East.

To make matters worse, with the on field performances being poor, so are the off field ones as well, as Cora had to bench Verdugo in Saturday’s game due to showing up to the ballpark late, (two hours before the game). Cora said Saturday was one of the worst days he’s ever had as a member of the franchise.

There were not many positives to take from this week and the Sox are going to have to clean up their act fast or this season might be over before they know it.

They will look to right the ship when they take on the Kansas City Royals tomorow night at Fenway.

Follow Brandon on twitter: Brandonmurdoc11

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