Is the Red Sox (relatively) improved play of late late all down to Jarren Duran? Duran hit nine homers in the month of May — the most home runs he’s ever hit in one month in his career — and the Red Sox went 7-2 in those games. He also moved into second-place on the all-time Red Sox leadoff home run list with 11 career leadoff dongs, second to (who else) Mookie Betts’ 20. (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)
But not everyone digs the long ball. There are those among us who prefer the subtle art of bunting,
and those people have found their champion in Nick Sogard, who had a key sacrifice bunt in last week’s win against the Braves. For Sogard, the bunting runs in the family. “It goes back to being taught how to bunt by his father, former Tufts baseball and football player Steve Sogard. ‘He was a similar player to me, not a ton of home runs, and he relied on his speed,” Nick said. ‘One of the first things I learned in baseball was bunting.” (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)
The Sox might need to bunt even more, unfortunately. FanGraphs ZiPS model infamously didn’t project a single Red Sox hitter to hit 20 home runs at the start of the season. While both Duran and Willson Contreras are now more than halfway to that mark, the model has been updated and now has no Red Sox hitters reaching 25 homers, which, 2020 excluded, would be the first time the team failed to hit that mark since 2017. (Andrew Gould, NESN)
Thank god the pitching is holding up, even when Sonny Gray is getting chirped by opposing managers. (Henry Palattella, MLB.com)
There is some surprising power potential in the minors, though. Infielder Henry Godbout, who was heralded as an elite contact hitter when he was drafted last year, already has seven homers on the year down in Greenville. He has a pretty big fan in the Red Sox dugout: Connelly Early, who was teammates with Godbout at UVA. “Pretty cool to watch him succeed,” Early said. “I feel like last year, in his little short stint that he had, it was pretty amazing to watch as well. So obviously got off to the right foot, made a really good first impression.” (Christopher Smith, MassLive)
Godbout was not the Red Sox’ first pick in last year’s draft. That would be Kyson Witherspoon, who, at the time, was viewed as someone who could potentially climb up to the big leagues very quickly. Instead, Witherspoon has struggled as the Sox tinker with his mechanics. “One evaluator who saw him last month saw a pitcher whose execution looked like that of a middle reliever, rather than the projected mid-rotation starter viewed as the best college righthander in last year’s draft.” (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)
