Powerful stuff from Charlie Morton
Marcelo Mayer is getting there.
One day after his chaotic major league debut that included a scramble to find car keys, a sprint down the Mass Pike and simply trying to find his locker in his new clubhouse, things started settling down.
Mayer's family made it from California to watch the rookie's second big league game (sitting immediately next to the Orioles' coaching staff while wearing their Red Sox gear). And the 22-year-old helped add to his fans' experience by notching his first two big league hits, including a sweet-swinging double into the right-center field gap.
For the prospect so many have talked about since being drafted with the fourth overall pick in 2021, it was a signature day.
"I was screaming like it was my first day, and I was yelling at him to go three on the double, you know, just little silly things like that," Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran said of Mayer's 105.1 mph double. "But that's what makes baseball baseball. You’re losing 5-0, but to see a young guy like that get his first hit and then hit a double, it kind of puts the game in perspective, and you’ve got to enjoy it sometimes."
Still, the picture hasn't completely come into focus, for Mayer or the Red Sox.
The rookie, for instance, couldn't break out the suit he was gifted from Alex Bregman for the plane ride to Milwaukee. ("I couldn't get it from Worcester in time," he said with a smile. "Next time.") Still, finding a progressively better version of the infielder seems inevitable. New suit. Big league hits. The works.
The Red Sox? That is a bit more murky.
With their 5-1 loss to the Orioles a few things became evident: 1. Fair or not, the Sox need the aforementioned next-level Mayer sooner than later; and 2. They will need more than just Mayer.
The Sox finished their 10-game homestand hardly in the position they had hoped, going 5-5 and one game under .500. More importantly, their existence is one that has elicited some uneasiness thanks to the absence of Alex Bregman. The lineup is one that has been gutted because of those injuries to Bregman and Casas, along with the slumps of right-handed-hitting options Trevor Story and Kristian Campbell.
Since Bregman's absence, the Red Sox have scored two runs over the last 19 innings while being forced to hit three lefties in a row - Duran, Rafael Devers and Wilyer Abreu - at the top of the batting order leading into cleanup hitter Carlos Narvaez.
For the 10-game homestand, players who the Red Sox will be leaning on more than took a turn for the worse. David Hamilton (3-for-15), Abreu (4-for-29), Story (5-for-33), Campbell (3-for-28) and Ceddanne Rafaela (3-for-32) all did not make the most of their stay at Fenway. That, obviously, needs to change.
"The way I see it, and you guys know how I feel about 10-game win streaks. We haven’t done that in a while here, that's one," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. "But when you get on a hot streak, you want to get eight games over .500, 10 games over .500. We’re still playing where we’re at. An average team.. Hopefully, when we get our streak, we can get to eight games over 500 and then take off."
Since winning four straight from April 15-19, the Red Sox have had one three-game win streak and not much momentum since. The record starting April 20 is now 15-18, with very few signs that one of those long win streaks are around the corner.
The good news for the Red Sox is that such a run can be uncovered, even with a less-than-intimidating offense. The Twins proved that. During their 13-win streak their team OPS of .762. In fact, during that stretch the Red Sox actually had more total bases than Minnesota.
But what the Twins proved is that in order to go on one of these runs there has to be a part of the team you're hanging your hat on. For Rocco Baldelli's crew it was pitching, with his starting rotation managing a 2.85 ERA with the relievers giving up just four runs in 45 1/3 innings (0.79 ERA).
What the Red Sox need is something along the lines of what they experienced from June 15-July 5 last season. That run saw them go 13-5 with win streaks of five, four and three games. And, again, it wasn't as if the offense tore things up during that period, combining for a good-but-not-out-of-this-world .775 OPS. The pitching was also good but not the kind of great one might expect (3.71 ERA).
They just played well across the board. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, that hasn't been part of the equation for an extended period of time for more than a month.
Maybe adding in Mayer and others (i.e. Roman Anthony) could help the Red Sox uncover the groove Cora is so desperately seeking. But as the Red Sox boarded their plane for these games in Milwaukee and Atlanta, such a vibe was really hard to envision.
"I think I learned over the years, right, just to take it at what it is, and keep helping the kids to get better and the players to get better, and that's the way we should do it," Cora said. "There's no guarantee you're going to win games or lose games on any given night but you show up, help them and hopefully you’ll be on top at the end."