There was the 1-0 loss to the Guardians. There were the weather updates that might very well have the Red Sox and Cubs playing somewhere other than Fenway Park this weekend. And there was Ceddanne Rafaela's return from his hamstring scare.
But when it came to news that mattered for the Red Sox, it was hard to top what Willson Contreras said after this latest defeat.
The first baseman's bruised right hand evidently does not seem to be cooperating when it comes to postseason readiness.
"I mean, it's really concerning,” Contreras said. “But at the same time, I'm putting all my effort -- and everything I can do, I'm doing it. I don't know what else to say. I’m working hard with the trainers; the hand is slowly getting better. But I haven’t been able to swing the last two days. I’ll be honest with the team. I know Tuesday is a really important game. It's a really important series, and I'll be completely honest with the team.”
Contreras added, "It's frustrating, if I’m being honest. I was hoping to swing today, and I couldn't swing. I came into my locker just tearing up because that's what we play for. We play to play in October, and it's really frustrating when we're doing the best you can do and you're expecting to heal faster and that doesn't happen."
It appeared as though Contreras was headed in the right direction, taking an exorbitant amount of swings prior to Tuesday's game, both on the Fenway field and underneath with the Trajekt pitching machine. But the results from the exercise were not positive, with the righty hitter unable to replicate any sort of batting practice over the last couple of days.
There is still time for Contreras, with the Red Sox's first wild-card game on Tuesday. But his original plan to use the weekend games against the Cubs as a tune-up for the playoffs seems extremely unlikely.
Why is this such a big deal? It's because of the skill-set Contreras carries, one that the Red Sox seem starved for heading into the postseason.
All good postseason runs are usually built on the back of top-of-the-order power, with opponents needing to navigate their way through a team's alpha batters. Hitting home runs, in particular, is usually a top priority. The Blue Jays and Dodgers lived that life a year ago, as did the Yankees and Los Angeles the year before. You know who didn't? The 2025 Red Sox during their three wild-card games at Yankee Stadium.
Trevor Story's solo homer in Game 2 of last season's playoff showdown with the Yankees marked the only time a Red Sox player cleared the fences. It was a deficiency that was difficult to ignore.
It was why Craig Breslow proclaimed early in the offseason that his team needed more power. It was the reason acquiring Curtis Mead became a priority heading into the trade deadline. And it is why Contreras, who leads the Red Sox with 27 homers, has been so important. (The Red Sox are 18-8 when Contreras hits at least one homer.)
While this Red Sox team has taught us that things can turn in a hurry, the way the Sox's offense has been trending isn't good. In the last five games, the Sox have hit only two home runs. And in September, Chad Tracy's team has the second-lowest batting average and OPS in baseball, while scoring the fewest runs (13 fewer than the next-worst).
There are potential solutions to the Red Sox's postseason power problem, including Roman Anthony (who is tied with Mickey Gasper for the team lead in homers for September with four), Adley Rutschman, Story, Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu, who has two home runs since Aug. 16.
But Contreras has always been the constant ... until now.
“When it hurts, it hurts. Especially when it's the top hand,” Contreras said. “If it was the bottom hand, I could swing with the right hand, but when it's the right hand, my right hand just feels weaker until I just let the bat go. It's not a good sign. ... Again, I'm doing everything that I can to come back and play with the boys and be there with the boys. But sometimes you have to listen to your body, and I'm listening to the trainers and doing everything that they ask me to do, and [it's] just one of those things that I can't control."
