The Red Sox and Guardians flipped 1-0 finals over the last two days with Cleveland taking the win Thursday night to clinch an American League playoff spot.
Boston’s bats had next to nothing going offensively again, an ongoing issue this month that’s sparked varying levels of concern heading into postseason play next week.
Here’s three takeaways from Thursday night’s loss.
RANGER READY?
The southpaw put together a shortened-yet-solid outing in his last trip to the mound for the regular season. Suárez
had just one blip on a Pesky Pole solo home run off the bat of Cleveland’s Angel Martínez. He allowed just three hits across five innings with five strikeouts before he gave way to Patrick Sandoval. Suárez now turns to the postseason where he would likely take the ball in a winner-take-all Game 3 (if necessary) in the Wild Card Series. Suárez put together a 1.48 career ERA during his time with the Phillies – an accolade that surely fueled his five-year contract with the Red Sox last offseason.
WHAT’S YOUR CONCERN LEVEL WITH THE OFFENSE?
The Red Sox mustered just two hits in the loss and have scored the fewest runs (63) in baseball in September.
Yes, the lineup has been without Ceddanne Rafaela and Willson Contreras for significant stretches of the month. Nonetheless, the Red Sox need to find an answer with the bats. Do you have belief in the lineup to spark and start scoring runs next week (likely) in New York?
THREE TO GO
The Red Sox have one final series left before the postseason when they face the Chicago Cubs, who clinched a playoff spot Thursday, and potentially Alex Bregman, who continues to work back from a scary eye injury next week.
Both teams are in the dance, though the games still hold value to decide seeding for the respective wild-card teams.
As to where all three of these final pre-playoff games will be played, at this point? Who knows?
