On paper, this was the most problematic matchup remaining on the Red Sox schedule. They were in Toronto, which has become a house of horrors. They were facing Kevin Gausman, who had allowed just three
runs over his last four starts going in, and they had Lucas Giolito on the hill, who has been struggling limiting walks of late, and did again tonight.
But once again, baseball took what SHOULD have happened and lit it on fire:
- The Sox piled up nine hits and four runs off Gausman, chasing him from the game in the sixth.
- Giolito pitched around the walks and some shaky defense and somehow only allowed one run despite only lasting 4.2 innings.
- The bullpen prevented any nightmares by quietly rocking the Blue Jay bats to sleep.
And of course, because baseball is baseball, it simultaneously showed how a successful October script could play out for Sox all while going off the main script tonight. What a fickle mistress!
Specifically, if you look beyond all the weird plays, the close reviews, and the traffic on the base paths early, something very orderly happened in this game. The Red Sox brought in Garrett Whitlock, Justin Slaten and Aroldis Chapman (yes, in that order) to handle the final three innings, and they did it with deadly efficiency. There were no baserunners and no drama. Just nine up and nine down as part of a silent script that may or may not play out next month when the Sox may or may not still be alive.
At its core, this is peak baseball being baseball! We were just handed a real life demonstration of how the Sox can shorten a game now that Justin Slaten is getting in a groove and joining forces with Whitlock and Chapman. In other words, it’s a perfect back half of a script of how the Sox can put tremendous pressure on an opponent in a short postseason series, and it was all prominently presented to us just as Jays’ fans got to watch their Gausman script go up in flames tonight. What a masterclass in temptation and trolling by the baseball gods!
But in all seriousness, using Garrett Whitlock in the seventh inning to mow down the heart of the Toronto order and then folding Slaten into the mix in the eighth as he continues to gain more confidence is something to be very excited cautiously optimistic about. The ability to deploy multiple effective bullpen arms is not only a powerful weapon in a short series once you get the lead, but it also immediately puts pressure on the opponent who know they have to get the lead early to avoid the same fate the Blue Jays fell into tonight.
So, what did we learn?
- The Red Sox continue to do encouraging things at the backend of the bullpen, and you should be excited about it.
- Don’t get too excited though. Any script that looks like a straight line to a conclusion is probably getting burned by the baseball gods. The Red Sox may make a deep run leaning hard on this pen, but it will probably involve a lot more late inning chaos than we saw tonight in a game full of contradictions.
Studs
The big three in the bullpen, but specifically Garrett Whitlock: These guys combined to shut down a good lineup at the backend of the game, but Whitlock’s performance especially stood out because he was brought in an inning earlier than usual to face the 2-3-4 hitters and made them look like armatures.
Masataka Yoshida: Before the game I was complaining about how he shouldn’t be hitting cleanup, and while I stand by that overall take, I must give Yoshida his flowers for his performance tonight, which included a pair of hits, one being a double.
Nathaniel Lowe: On base four times with a pair of RBI
Carlos Narvaez: He’s here for his clutch double with two down in the sixth which proved to be the knockout blow for Gausman. Here’s the highlight:
Duds
Jarren Duran: From the leadoff spot, he went 0-5 with three strike outs.
Trevor Story: Batting second, he went 1-5 at the plate, but he’s really here because of two more errors in the field, which are becoming a growing problem as the pressure ramps up.
Alex Bregman: Batting third, he went hitless as he continues to try and shake his second half slump.
So to recap: The top three guys in the lineup were all duds, the starting pitcher went 4.2 innings while walking more guys than he struck out, and it was a great night for the Red Sox. Keeping doing you baseball, you’re beautiful!
Play of the game:
Crazy enough, it could be something that didn’t even happen and we didn’t talk about. This foul ball with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second inning was the difference between two totally different games. If it’s fair, the Jays take the lead and we go down a very different rabbit hole. Instead, the baseball gods used it as firewood to help burn the script.
Elsewhere:
The Guardians beat the Tigers 5-2 and the A’s beat the Astros 5-1, which means the Wild Card standings now look like this:
If the Red Sox win their next three games, they’re in!
Any hey, the script looks to be in their favor tomorrow with Garrett Crochet going to the mound against Max Scherzer in what could be the last starting performance of Scherer’s magnificent career. But of course, that’s on paper, and we all know what the baseball gods like to do with that.
