To quote Tom Skinner…
I’m not nervous. I’m not. Stop asking me because I’m not nervous. No nerves here. Nope. Not at all.
But my goodness, what an awful week. A pair of series defeats compounded, perhaps, by an even bigger loss to the Red Sox’s lineup (more on that later). The team looked rudderless at points over the past few days, completely at the mercy of the cold, cruel universe that we inhabit.
And yet, here we sit with a few games in hand over the clubs chasing us for one of the three Wild Card
slots in the American League with just a few weeks of the regular season remaining. It’s going to take a pretty big collapse to miss out on the postseason. The schedule over the next few days isn’t crazy hard.
And yet again, neither was the stretch this past week, right? This wasn’t supposed to be a grueling stretch. The Arizona Diamondbacks are a fine enough of a team, and they have a puncher’s chance of qualifying for October in their own right. But they also aren’t total movers and shakers. These are the tests that a playoff team, hopefully, should pass. We can’t be dropping a series this late into the year in the fashion that we did against Arizona. This weekend was disappointing—not just for the Patriots, either.
Taking care of business during this upcoming Yankees series over the weekend and the bookended A’s sets will make me feel a lot better ahead of the final push. It’s going to be a tall task for the Rangers or the Royals or whoever to kick us out of the dance by September’s end; setting the pace during the next 10-or-so games will go a long way towards solidifying our spot in the bracket.
If Boston doesn’t do that, though……………….eh, let’s not get into that right now. Out of sight out of mind.
It’s Monday Morning Brushback time, y’all.
Last Days of Rome?
OK, maybe that header is a bit dramatic, but the odds of seeing outfield extraordinaire Roman Anthony on the field in 2025 again aren’t great. The Rookie of the Year candidate was placed on the injured list due to an oblique issue, and he’s set to miss a few weeks of action. I knew it wasn’t good when he was holding his back Tuesday night, but I wasn’t sure I expected it to be this bad.
Maybe it’s the writer’s block I’ve got. Maybe it’s the bad mood I’m in after a disastrous weekend for Boston sports. Maybe it’s something else…but like, what else can I say about this? It’s awful. Roman was the best hitter on the team prior to his injury. Losing that juice at the top of the order is horrible. It’s not just that one spot in the lineup; Anthony is someone who can give a boost to the guys right after him simply by virtue of getting on base and putting together competitive at-bats.
The returns without Anthony thus far haven’t been very encouraging: a couple of one (1) spots on the scoreboard since then will give you that feeling, of course.
This isn’t to say that the other guys can’t have their moments here and there. As I’m writing this, David Hamilton just knocked in a run to make it a 3-2 ball game on Sunday. Trevor Story’s revival certainly helps matters. Maybe Alex Bregman can be the absolute spark plug we need at the end of the regular season. Maybe fuckin’ Connor Wong gets hot.
I dunno, man. Can you tell that I’m reaching here? It’s just so demoralizing, missing Anthony. It’s not like one guy alone gets you to the promised land, and there’s a world where the Red Sox can survive just fine without Roman…I just don’t think that’s the most likely situation. For example: the heater that Romy Gonzalez is on is all well and good—but that’s especially effective when he’s doing that on top of what you have come to expect from Roman and his 137 OPS+ (side note: hilarious that we can just expect that type of production right away from him).
Am I being too much of a doomer? I’m not sure I am. I tried to keep these types of takes as measured as possible, but this is such a massive blow to a team that has since been dying for a shot in the arm at the plate. I don’t think it’s as simple as “oh, they’re just in a bit of a slump offensively.” I think the loss of Anthony is larger than that. Of course I hope that I’m wrong, and I know I’m sort of just rambling here, but yeah…this ain’t good. If we do make it to the playoffs, here’s hoping Anthony can pick right up where he left off.
Taking a Tolle
Payton Tolle’s second MLB start was not as glowing as his first, unfortunately. He was only able to log three full innings on Friday en route to a loss, by way of five hits and four walks resulting in five earned runs. He was only able to strike out a pair of batters.
This part of the article is not to shit on the guy—I’m very much still excited for what kind of a pitcher Tolle can become down the line. However, what we saw Friday night was rough.
Specifically: the fact that Tolle couldn’t get much of anything going with his secondary offerings outside of his bread-and-butter four-seam fastball was concerning. This all comes with the caveat that it’s been a small sample size, of course, but compare even his cutter to his four-seamer: his expected slugging metric jumps from .491 for his main fastball (which, like, still isn’t great) up to .597 on the cut fastball (which, like, is even worse). Mix that with the five walks he had against the Sneks and you can see where the struggles have been.
Tolle’s primary gas is quite good; hell, we our very own Jacob Roy said as much in an article last week. He was able to locate it wherever he wanted against Pittsburgh in his debut, blowing it by guys on his way to inducing nine whiffs solely with the heater.
But this is the bigs, and you can’t live with just a fastball alone. I think that advancement gonna come for Tolle in the future. Keep in mind that this is just his first full season of professional ball; the dude began the season in A-ball, and he’s already here in the majors. That full profile of his is gonna be developed in time (I hope he keeps the ‘stache during his entire tenure, though).
Yet the team is relying on his presence now. Right now, I don’t have a ton of trust in Tolle’s secondary stuff.
Back Where He Belongs
If there’s one positive to the Roman Anthony injury news, it’s that Ceddanne Rafaela has been firmly entrenched back in center field—where he belongs.
I feel like I’ve mentioned this on OTM as well as on Pod On Lansdowne (subscribe!!!!!!!!!), but the best version of this team features Ceddy in center. Sure, he’s had his highlights in the middle infield ever since Marcelo Mayer was put on the shelf for the season. Whenever we’re having this discussion, though, we have to make something explicitly clear:
Ceddanne Rafaela could very well be the best defender on the planet. He has a very real claim to being the single best defensive baseball player on Earth. Center field—where he just so happens to primarily play—is an immensely important position when it comes to defense. There is no world where he shouldn’t be playing in center (assuming health and whatnot) for 150+ games a season.
I get why manager Alex Cora wants to change up the lineup here and there. You’ve gotta get players off of their feet, play percentages through platoons, yada yada yada. This isn’t something that you have to overthink, though: when a guy can make plays like this…….
……look easy, then you put him in a position to do so as constantly as you can.
Obviously I’d like to have Anthony back in the order, but at the very least we can say that one of the best defenders in the world is back where he belongs full-time.
Song of the Week: “Pop Muzik” by M
Banger. Simple as.
Same time and same place next week, friends! Go Sox.
