Wednesday night looked a lot like a playoff dress rehearsal for the Red Sox, even if the standings say Boston can breathe easier than Texas.
The Rangers came in fighting for their postseason lives and treated the game that way, lining up their best arms from start to finish. MacKenzie Gore started it, Jakob Junis handled the middle innings, and former Red Sox right-hander Nathan Eovaldi finished the final four. Boston, meanwhile, managed only three hits in a frustrating 7-3 loss.
That kind of night puts a spotlight on the October question hanging over this lineup: which bats are going to show up when the games tighten? Right now, too many of the Red Sox’s key offensive pieces are drifting through September, and Roman Anthony sits at the front of that conversation.
Anthony came back from the injured list hot, but the last 11 games have been a slog. He’s gone 7-for-49 with a .149 average, a .429 OPS, and just one extra-base hit across his last 51 plate appearances. The walks haven’t been there, the power hasn’t been there, and too many of his swings have looked like he’s stuck between approaches.
That matters because so much of this offense was built around Anthony’s presence. When he was hurt, that absence was obvious.
When he’s struggling, it’s just as obvious. If Willson Contreras isn’t going to homer every night, then Anthony needs to be the guy who can deliver the big swing in October.
Having some playoff experience last year would have helped, but that opportunity never came.
The same urgency applies to the other two names on the list, starting with Adley Rutschman. The Red Sox gave up five pieces for Rutschman, including three of their top five prospects, and they expected more than a .609 OPS and 0.1 bWAR through his first 24 games. The trade was made with October in mind - a locked-in catcher who could add real pop to the lineup - so there’s still room for that deal to pay off.
Rutschman’s problem is simple enough to identify and hard enough to solve: the quality of contact just hasn’t been there. His slow start has been made worse by wrist and elbow injuries, and the sense that he’s pressing is hard to miss.
It’s easy to say he needs more barrels. It’s much harder to figure out how to get them.
Then there’s Jarren Abreu, who is putting together one of the quietest 6-WAR seasons you’ll ever see. The Red Sox aren’t really in a position to complain about his overall body of work. Still, if this team is going to make a deep playoff run, the streaky left-handed hitter has to catch fire.
Abreu can carry a lineup when he’s seeing the ball well, but the hitless nights are always part of the package. He already has five of them in September, including the last two games, and even though he’s been better in the second half than he was in the first, the last few outings have looked shaky.
In Other News...
Red Sox Trade Is Starting To Look More Complicated Than Fans Thought
The trade talk around Kyle Harrison and Caleb Durbin looked straightforward enough at first, the kind of deal fans could sort into winners and losers before the dust even settled. But as the season has unfolded, the picture has gotten murkier for Boston, with Harrison sliding badly since June 1 and losing his spot in the Brewers rotation while Durbin has taken a clear step forward and established himself as one of the more valuable third basemen in the league.
For the Red Sox, that shifting value matters because this was never just about one headliner. The deal also sent and brought back other players and prospects, and the early returns are making it harder to judge what Boston really got out of the exchange. Some pieces have shown promise, others are still too young to read cleanly, and the longer Durbin keeps trending up, the more this trade starts to feel like one the Red Sox will be measured against for a while. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Prospect Franklin Arias Is Giving Fans A Bigger Question
Franklin Arias has quickly become the name Red Sox fans circle when they look ahead to the next wave of talent. The teenage shortstop is drawing attention on both sides of the ball, with the kind of offensive feel and defensive reputation that has made him one of the most closely watched Venezuelan prospects in the game.
What makes Arias especially interesting is the company he now keeps in conversations about Venezuelan baseball, a pipeline that has produced stars such as Miguel Cabrera and Ronald Acua Jr. With a full list of top prospects from the country turning heads, the bigger question for Boston is no longer whether Arias belongs on the radar, but how high he can climb from here. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Face A Tough Garrett Whitlock Decision Again
Garrett Whitlock is once again at the center of a familiar Red Sox conversation, one that blends roster need with role uncertainty. He came up as a reliever, has logged some starts along the way, and has said he is open to moving back into the rotation if that is what Boston needs. For a club with limited right-handed starting options, that makes him an obvious name to keep in mind.
The appeal is easy to see, but so is the caution. Whitlock has had more success in relief, and injuries have complicated his ability to hold down a starting job for long stretches. So even with the rotation picture giving Boston reasons to consider the idea, the Red Sox are still left weighing whether the upside of stretching him out is worth the risk of losing what he already does so well. [Read more 🡒]