Lessons for a postseason run, by Mike Cameron
TORONTO - "Ah, bro. I got chills right now. I barely can talk. It's been a long ride."
Those were the words of an emotional Carlos Narvaez to Will Flemming and Mike Monaco after the Red Sox's 7-1 win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Wednesday. He was speaking for himself, but he might well have been speaking for his entire team.
It's starting to hit home where exactly the Red Sox have found themselves with four games to go in the regular season.
Alex Cora's club woke up Thursday morning needing either just one win or a Houston loss to earn its first postseason berth since 2021. In the words of the Sox's catcher - who supplied a home run in his team's 12-hit attack - this has been a seemingly long ride, one which Boston genuinely believes has miles t go.
Maybe it's the resurgence of an offense that has managed double-digit hit totals in eight of its last 10 games. Perhaps the out-of-nowhere emergence of Masa Yoshida, who also homered, has been the jumper cables this team was searching for since Roman Anthony's injury. A .994 OPS in the last eight games will offer such optimism.
There is also the feeling that a puzzle that has always been scrambling for just the right pieces is finally coming into completion. Romy Gonzalez has been cemented as a more-than-viable second baseman. Justin Slaten is returning as the late-inning right-handed reliever they were hoping for. And the keep-the-line-moving offense has actually been able to keep the line moving.
Over the last week, no team in baseball has put more runners in scoring position, with the Red Sox managing a respectable .275 batting average in such situations.
All well and good.
But nothing should make the Red Sox feel they are standing on a firm footing heading into these games next week more than the presence of Garrett Crochet.
The Red Sox ace punctuated his first regular season as a full-time starter with the kind of panache the organization could have only dreamed about. For the 16th time this season, Crochet allowed one or fewer runs, this time shutting out the Blue Jays for eight innings.
Nobody in major league baseball has thrown more innings (205 1/3) or struck more batters out (255). He has accumulated the second-most wins of any pitcher (18), with the Red Sox going 23-9 in games he has pitched.
He is entering the postseason the same way he entered the regular season, five months and 29 days ago.
"The next one, man. That's what I'm looking forward to right now," Crochet said. "There will be time to be happy about this when the offseason hits. But we intend on that being a month away."
"That was the whole plan. We give him another start on regular rest so we can get to where we want to go," Cora said. "He did his job, and now the rest of us have to finish it, and hopefully he can pitch Game 1, whenever it is."
That plan, like more than a few others, has the Red Sox thinking about experiencing champagne showers for the first time in four years.
It has been far from perfect, and there are no guarantees the road won't become rocky in the coming days. But as far as the here and now goes, this team has to like where it's at.
"Proud, bro. I feel proud," Narvaez said. "Like I said, it’s been a long, long journey. At this point, I just feel proud to be around these guys competing at this level, making this team get back to the postseason, getting the happening to our fanbase. It’s going to be awesome, bro. The fans are going to be rocking, especially this weekend, and in the postseason, too, we cannot wait."