The Red Sox’ three-game winning streak came to an end Wednesday with an 8-4 loss against the wild-card-leading Kansas City Royals. Still, the baseball operation at Fenway Park remains optimistic about their chances of moving up in the standings over the final months of regular season baseball.
It began with Alex Cora saying they “really believe” that the Sox are a World Series contender on Jones and Mego Wednesday.
Now Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy gives his prediction:
“We’re nine games over .500. We’re not yet in that playoff spot, but we’ve also not given up on the division,” Kennedy said on Thursday’s Front Office Report on The Greg Hill Show.
“Given all the games we have left ... there's still opportunity to gain significant ground in the American League East,” he continued.
After Wednesday night, the Red Sox are six games behind both the Yankees and Orioles, who are tied atop the division.
Kennedy emphasized how important it is for the Red Sox to continue winning series as they did against Kansas City.
“As we were approaching the trade deadline we were looking at, I believe, the most difficult strength of schedule in August and September with a particularly hard stretch coming right after the deadline,” he said.
“Alex [Cora] has just been, in the last couple of days, talking about winning series, winning series and everything will take care of itself if we can do that.”
On the topic of Cora, Kennedy detailed how the recent move to extend the manager was “really important” for the Red Sox.
“He belongs in Boston. Glad he’ll be here for the foreseeable future,” he said.
Cora had said publicly that he didn’t want to deal with his impending free agency until after the season. When it was announced that chief baseball officer Craig Breslow had signed Cora to an extension, it was surprising for everyone, including Sam Kennedy.
“[Breslow] came to us and ownership and said, ‘Listen, this is what I want to do,’ and it was sort of the same reaction because it’s like, Alex made it pretty clear he wants to wait until after the season and get through all of this and not be a distraction,” Kennedy said.
“Bres really took the bull by the horns and said, ‘You know what, that’s fine, but I want to engage and I want to push that discussion now,’ which of course we fully supported and he got it done.”
The Red Sox avoided a repeat of a major slide after the All-Star break like in seasons past. It didn’t look so hopeful after the Red Sox dropped their first four games in the second half, but the team has since improved, going 8-6 since then.
“We’ve sort of had the tale of two different seasons when you look, when you break down the metrics and you look at where we are,” Kennedy said.
“Our pitching has been sort of at or near the top of the league, which is always critical. Hitting was sort of middle of the pack, although the last month, our offense has been really, really strong. Our outfield defense has been outstanding and our infield defense has been woeful at times, although [it is] getting better. Certain parts of the team have been really, really strong and others still need improvement and work.”
The Red Sox will be back in action Friday night at Fenway when they take on AL West-leading Houston Astros for a three-game series.