The Red Sox lost their fourth straight game on Tuesday night.
The 5-3 loss to the Blue Jays was also the fourth game in a row that the Sox's offense had scored three or fewer runs. Over that stretch, Chad Tracy's team is 21st in OPS (.636), 18th in batting average (.221), 23rd in slugging percentage (.313), with just the two home runs it hit in this latest game Rogers Centre.
Oh, and to top it off, the Red Sox are 3-for-36 in the last four games with runners in scoring position.
It's not a mystery. This is a club that got back into this World Series conversation by crossing home plate a lot. Want proof? From that first game in which they beat the Yankees on June 25 until their most recent win, the Red Sox had more runs than any team in baseball. Just seven times over that 37-game stretch did they manage three or fewer runs.
If the Red Sox are simply league average when it comes to scoring runs, they are almost unstoppable. In the last four games, they haven't been league average, and they certainly haven't been unstoppable.
The presence of Adley Rutschman will surely help in some manner, upgrading a catching that was 22nd in OPS. In his Red Sox debut Tuesday, he certainly didn't hurt, getting on base three times via two walks and an infield single.
“I just want to play ball, enjoy these guys around me and win together,” Rutschman said postgame. “The guys have a ton of energy, they’re rolling and it’s nice to be out there.”
The idea of Curtis Mead and/or a healthy Trevor Story being dropped into the equation sometime in September certainly would seem to be more parts of the solution.
But it's Roman Anthony who should offer the most hope. That's a notion that bubbled up to the surface with news that the outfielder is actually hitting off game-speed pitching. He appears to officially be on the doorstep of a rehab assignment.
While so many have been left trying to decipher how this torn ligament in his right hand was lingering so long, with Anthony's last at-bat coming on May 4, the hemming and hawing when it comes to this injury's timetable and prognosis should now be put in the rearview mirror. It's about the here and now, and the Red Sox need the good/healthy version of this player here and now.
Some might point to Anthony's less-than-inspiring start to the season, totaling a .675 OPS with just a single home run before going on the injured list. That was one month. The evidence that these 30 games were not representative of the impact of the outfielder isn't difficult to decipher.
Start with last season, when he carried an .859 OPS into early September before being shut down with an oblique injury, the best among all Red Sox hitters (starting at Anthony's first game on June 9). The Red Sox also went 44-27 in games he appeared, and 35-14 when the lefty hitter notched at least one hit.
Then there was how he was viewed on Day 1 of this season.
Anthony was a plus-1600 to win the American League MVP, sitting only behind Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr. and Cal Raleigh. He was coming off a performance in the World Baseball Classic, where the then-21-year-old served as one of the tournament's breakout stars. And by the time Opening Day rolled around, Anthony was being counted on to be the centerpiece of the Sox's batting order, living life as the power-hitting leadoff hitter.
It's impossible to predict where Anthony's numbers would be landing if there was no injury. Plenty of preseason MVP candidates went the other way in a major way, such as Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Raleigh. But what Anthony will undoubtedly carry upon his return is hope that these sorts of offensive downturns won't be a thing when navigating through September and October.
Yes, Morgan Freeman was correct when uttering the words "Hope is a dangerous thing" in the movie The Shawshank Redemption. But the last four games are any indication, this Red Sox team might not have much of a choice.
