If there’s one player the Red Sox can’t afford to lose right now, it’s Wilyer Abreu. Well, no, that’s not true. It’s Garrett Crochet. And then Roman Anthony. And Alex Bregman. And possibly Aroldis Chapman and Carlos Narvaez. But Wilyer Abreu’s been pretty damn important! So we can all breathe a sigh of relief, then, that the calf tightness that forced him out of yesterday’s game is minor. We probably won’t see him against the Orioles tonight or tomorrow, but he’s hoping he’ll be back in time to face
the Yankees this weekend. (Matty Wasserman, Boston Globe)
Unfortunately, the injury news is not as good for Marcelo Mayer, though that’s been obvious for a while now. Yesterday, Mayer finally made the decision to go under the knife for the sprained right wrist that has kept him out for a number of weeks. Moreover, he is now officially “injury prone” as this is the third season in a row that he will not finish, and he has yet to play more than 91 games as a professional, at any level. Mayer was a delight in the field for the Sox this year, but clearly has a lot of work to do at the plate, which makes a wrist injury all the more concerning. (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)
We’ve already told you about Nathaniel Lowe, but he won’t be the only new Nate on the Sox this week. Infielder Nate Eaton was pulled from Worcester’s lineup yesterday and sent to Boston to join the big league team. We do not yet know who will be removed from the roster to make room, but we have to assume it’s third catcher Ali Sanchez. Eaton has already made a few appearances with the big league club this year, going 6-24 at the plate. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)
Eaton won’t be able to help out the bullpen, of course, which has looked shaky for two games in a row. First it was Isaiah Campbell on Saturday, whose poor performance forced Alex Cora to call on Aroldis Chapman, then it was Greg Weissert yesterday. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)
Bullpens blowing leads always hurts. But it feels worse when the pen blows a strong outing from an ace like Garrett Crochet. Yesterday’s game served as a reminder that, while they’ve held onto a postseason spot for a while now, the Red Sox still have little margin for error. (Rob Bradford, WEEI)
But the Sox have something else going for them: one of the best home records in baseball and a relatively easy remaining schedule. (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)
