MLB Fits: Baseball's gateway to some personality
It's always a bit difficult not to overreact throughout the final few months of a baseball season. Sometimes we need a reminder that narratives and storylines can change in just a matter of days.
But in times like the Red Sox face following their walk-off, 5-4 loss to the Astros Monday night, the fork-in-the-road feeling is even more difficult to push aside.
What has happened is that the Red Sox find themselves trying to solve a very real problem - not constantly giving up late leads - at a most inopportune time.
This time around, it was Lucas Sims allowing the Astros to tie the game in the eighth inning before Kenley Jansen gave up Yainer Diaz's first-pitch walk-off homer in the ninth.
So, this we know ...
- The Red Sox do have some potential solutions to their bullpen problems on the horizon, with Liam Hendriks and Justin Slaten figuring to re-enter the mix before the end of the month.
- One of the immediate problems for the Red Sox is that they are trying to weather this bullpen downturn while fending off two of the hottest teams in baseball: Houston and Kansas City. The Astros are the club that have now beaten the Sox four straight times and can really make life uncomfortable in the final two games of this series. And the Royals have been the team the Sox were chasing for the final Wild Card spot, although that has now changed a bit with KC now deadlocked with the Twins after Kansas City's five-game win streak (and also going 13-6 since July 29).
- The Red Sox' hope can be cemented in a starting pitching resurgence, that was put on display Monday night with Tanner Houck's third straight impressive outing, this time limiting Houston to three runs over six innings. In his most recent three starts the righty has totaled a 2.14 ERA. The problem is that the Sox have lost in all of Houck's last six appearances.
- Masa Yoshida continues to allow for some consistent good news, this time giving the Red Sox a two-run lead in the sixth-inning with a home run that wouldn't have been out of any other place other than Minute Maid Park. In his last 14 games, Yoshida is hitting .458 (the best in baseball) with a 1.319 OPS (second only to Yordan Alvarez).
- Yes, considering their spot in the standings, these next five games (two against Houston, three vs. Arizona) are going to be very, very important. The schedule does flip in terms of difficulty, but the Sox simply can't be exiting this stretch in a hole reinforcements can't help dig out from.
"I look at the standings … and the scoreboard all the time,” said manager Alex Cora told reporters. “I know Kansas City won. I watch. I'm a baseball fan, and I know where we're at. But I'm confident in where we are, pitching-wise. If we continue to do that, we'll be OK. Our starters are throwing extremely well.”