Sometimes it’s important to remember that baseball is just a game and no one’s making you watch or pay attention to sports at all and you can just give it up anytime you want and more than likely be better off for it. OK.
Top Play (WPA)
Jacoby Ellsbury doubled to left in the 8th inning scoring both Gary Sanchez and Aaron Hicks (.347). He also advanced Brett Gardner to third if you really care about everything that happened on that one specific play. Technically speaking, it was probably an error on Andrew Benintendi, who lost the ball in the lights, but it wasn’t scored like that and Benintendi is just out there doing his best so we’re not going to penalize him. Ellsbury is hitting .214/.389/.286 with a .675 OPS so yes of course naturally he would have such a hit in that spot. Revenge is a dish best served 3 years later after you sign with a different team and become a replacement level player.
Bottom Play (WPA)
Hanley Ramirez grounded into a double play in the third inning (-.128). Hanley actually had a nice night at the plate, going 2-3 with a double and 2 RBI, but he’s the owner of the night’s bottom play as well as the owner of what will presumably be very sore body parts after getting just crushed by Gary Sanchez on a play at first base.
The Offense frustrates….again…. and again.
They scored 2 runs. They were 1-9 with RISP. They left nine men on base. They’re hitting .229/.307/.366 with a .673 OPS over the last two weeks. There’s still lots of baseball to be played, but if the team is on the outside looking in come October, it won’t be in small part to the fact that over a stretch when their pitching gave them a lot of chances to win, they couldn’t hit.
Trend to watch
It feels like this team loses a lot of close games. They’re 13-14 in one run games this season, and we’ve arrived at the part of the year where any one or two run loss feels like the “breaking point.” Here’s this, from Pete, for context:
#RedSox have lost 14 games since the break. The average margin has been 2.07 runs. Little stuff now very big trouble.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) August 12, 2016
You’ve heard all about their tough schedule, but they’ll be playing the Rays twice, the Diamondbacks, the Athletics, the Padres, and the Royals. If you have to play basically every day for the next six weeks, it helps that there are going to be a lot of winnable games. What’s that you say? A home series against a Yankees team that had already throw in the towel also counts as winnable games and they still found a way to lose 2 out of 3? Look, you’re not wrong.
What’s next
The Arizona Diamondbacks are next. They are 48-66. If the Red Sox were interested in tapping into their potential and going on a winning streak that united the team and all of New England on their way to a playoff birth, this would be a wonderful place to start. David Price will be on the mound for the Sox, Patrick Corbin will start for Arizona. First pitch is at 7:05.
Photo by Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY