Xander Bogaerts has been a good player for a while now.
But, as the Red Sox' 6-5 win over the Mariners Friday night showed, the shortstop's current existence is more important than ever. Bogaerts is simply the foundation to whatever Chaim Bloom ... start and stop.
In this case, Bogaerts hit his third homer in the last four games. He is hitting .378 with a 1.012 OPS, far and away better than any shortstop in the big leagues.
“I don’t know how he gets to them sometimes right? It’s just, we talk about swings and getting on plane and hitting the ball in the air," Cora said of Bogaerts' swing. "Well, he hits the ball in the air in a different way. It seems more like an old-school swing. Chop wood and get on top of the ball, but he’s such a strong guy and he can get to whatever. There’s no limits when he can get up there and I think there’s no limits also when he’s looking at something inside. That was a great game by him today. He helped us to gain momentum, defense was solid. He’s actually doing a lot better job at shortstop moving his feet and throwing to first base, which is great. Like I said, we grinder that one and it was a good win.”
As the Herald's Jason Mastrodonato pointed out after the win, understand how good Bogaerts has been with the bat look to his numbers since the beginning of 2019. Bogaerts' OPS: .929; Mookie Betts OPS: .916.
Oh, yes, the defense.
The guy who some believed would be biding his time where it all started in 2013 -- at third base -- by now continues to help set the tone in the middle of the Red Sox' infield. In this case there was a nifty first-inning double play, along with a game-ending catch.
“I actually would love that (first) defensive play instead of that homer,” Bogaerts said. “It saved a run. They could’ve easily got a rally going and got a couple more, and it kind of stopped that. That was very nice. Very big.”
The other part of this equation is how Bogaerts is absolutely the right guy at the right time. You need this kind of player and presence in the midst of turning over a roster, an exercise Chaim Bloom and Co. and are currently undertaking.
So many players have shown potential on the way to this 13-8 start, with Cora still attempting to find exactly which pieces fits best where.
Is he the face of Boston sports? That might be a stretch. (Certainly doing what he has done the last few years on bad teams under pandemic restrictions hasn't helped push that narrative.) But is he currently the face of the Red Sox? Absolutely.
It's going to be important to keep that face front and center.
