How Cooperstown reminded Chris Sale how good he could be
There was no way around it: One of the sometimes most unusual players on the Red Sox saved his team on what was a most unusual day.
Let's start with the day and then we can get to the player.
With the Trade Deadline sitting one week from Tuesday, and teams like the Red Sox and Mets desperately trying to define themselves as buyers or sellers, Saturday's round of baseball was always going to put a dent in perception for both clubs.
That was a reality made abundantly clear for Alex Cora's team after their two-day, 5-4 loss to the Mets to kick things off Saturday at Fenway Park. By game's end, this was a team suddenly back in last-place and three games out of the final Wild Card spot. There was also the matter of momentum, which had exited thanks to three straight losses.
There simply aren't many days on a baseball calendar - particularly with more than two months to go in the regular season - that one day encompassed so many different paths for perception. But that's what this Trade Deadline-induced round of baseball felt like.
But it was yet another lesson on how even a few hours - and a few well-timed performances - can alter things. Heck, just look at the difference between the Fenway Park the players left behind Friday night compared to what it looked like when Saturday's first pitch was thrown.
Now it's time to talk about the player. His name is Triston Casas.
The Red Sox would grab back a hold of the notion that buying was a lot closer to selling, beating the Mets and Max Scherzer, 8-6, to still reside two games in back of Toronto for that third Wild Card slot.
And if there was one player who could be identified as most responsible for helping the Red Sox finally shake that feeling born from a series loss in Oakland it was Casas.
If there was no night game the first baseman would have had to settle for a triple and memorable meme.
But there was another game, and with it came the opportunity for Casas to offer perhaps his most powerful punctuation yet for what has been a resurgent couple of months.
Two home runs, including a sixth-inning, two-run blast that broke a 3-3 tie and officially sent the Red Sox down a different road than they were traveling for past few days. (Note: Casas became the first rookie ever to hit two or home runs off Scherzer.)
The presence of Casas in the past month has been striking - and increasingly important - for the Red Sox. On June 12, the rookie was hitting .197 with a .683 OPS. Now? The average sits at .244 with an .814 OPS.
Heading into Saturday, Casas' OPS since that June 13 jumping off point is 1.006, with a .329 batting average. There have also been five homers.
For both the player and his team, this was a day that ended with a much-needed step in the right direction.