Red Sox 4, Astros 7: Is This Curtains?

Aug 17, 2023

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A 1-5 homestand is absolutely brutal for any chances this team had.

I think that might do it.

Seven games back in the Wild Card race and a tough schedule ahead, including matchups against every other AL East opponent at least once and the Rangers in Texas? I don’t see a clear path forward unless teams either implode or rest guys late.

It almost felt like the reverse of the series at Minute Maid Park last week. The Sox got pummelled early and never recovered. Kutter Crawford capped off the most important stretch of the season to date with yet another stinker, further taxing the bullpen. Mike Carlucci is worried that Bloom Joba Chamberlain’d Garrett Whitlock by alternating him as a starter or reliever too much. Is it wrong?

Red Sox starters have gone fewer than 5 innings in 14 of 27 games during August. They have pitched 5 innings or fewer in 20 of 27 games.

This is from last night, but make it 15 of 28 games to close out the month of August. Just awful.

The offense didn’t show up until late. Congrats to Ceddanne Rafaela on his first big-league RBI, and Adam Duvall continues to contribute (though not by driving in any runs), but it’s just miserable watching the rest of the offense right now. The irony that today’s giveaway at Fenway was the Masataka Yoshida inflatable dumbbells and not only did he not play, no homers were hit.

Let’s see what September brings, but the Red Sox—when they had the biggest opportunity to keep themselves alive all month—plainly didn’t.

Triston Casas (3-for-4, 1 run, 1 K, .046 WPA)

Chris Martin (1.0 IP, 1 K, .024 WPA)

Adam Duvall (1-for-3, 1 BB, 1 K, .008 WPA)

Kutter Crawford (2.2 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, -.326 WPA)

Garrett Whitlock (2.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 B, 2 K, -.009 WPA)

Rob Refsnyder (0-for-4, -.079 WPA)

For the game overall, it was Jeremy Pena’s ground-rule double in the top of the 2nd inning. For the Red Sox, it was Ceddanne Rafaela’s RBI double in the bottom of the 6th inning.