Chaim Bloom, Zac Gallen talk trade deadline, trades
Much has been made of the lack of certainty when it comes to the Red Sox this season. It's a conversation that is born from the roller coaster existence this now .500 team carries.
Part of that, of course, is the lack of known quantities. Gone are many of the guys who represented some sort of know-doubt-about-it nature, and in their place is primarily a group that the Red Sox can simply be hoping for best from.
Friday night, two players emerged as the kind of foundation pieces the Sox so desperately would be identifying themselves by now: Garrett Whitlock and Rafael Devers.
Above all on the roster, Devers has always represented the one player so many believed was a lock to represent the Red Sox on the American League All-Star team. But, as we sit here now, that image hasn't quite appeared in the manner may had hoped.
But in the Red Sox' 3-2 win over the Yankees, there was a sign.
A double and yet another home run off New York ace Gerrit Cole boosted Devers' batting average four points to .247 while creeping his OPS back close to .800 (.791). And with the Red Sox riding some uncomfortable times of late, it was an save-the-day moment Alex Cora's club desperately needed.
And in case another reminder of what Devers represented was needed, along came Cole during his postgame press conference.
And then there was Whitlock.
What the Red Sox' starter represents is the ultimate what-might-be for a team looking for its next stars. Friday night he sure looked like the guy his club was searching for.
The starting pitcher version of Whitlock hasn't exactly gotten the kind of benefit of the doubt he did when relieving, but he's getting there. The hope was continuing to be built on starts like this one, where he completely dominated his old organization, limiting the Yankees to just two runs over 6 1/3 innings.
While Whitlock continued to roll out a fastball that maxed out at 96.3. mph, it was his slider and changeup that truly befuddled the Yanks. An amazing 10 of 11 swings on his "sweeper" resulted in whiffs, while the changeup got swings and misses seven times on 13 swings.
It certainly seems like the righty is getting closer to breaking away from his 2023 good-start-bad-start-good-start-bad-start path, starting to emerge as the kind of lock-down starter the Red Sox desperately need.
For both Devers and Whitlock, their timing couldn't have been better. Now it's time to see if this can be a regular sort of thing.