The Boston Red Sox are finding out how fast a heater can cool off.
Not long ago, they were riding one of the wildest stretches in baseball, winning 27 of 30 and vaulting themselves back into playoff position. Now the same club is staring at a four-game losing streak, and the shine has come off quickly after the late collapse against the Athletics on Sunday and two rough nights in Toronto.
Tuesday’s 5-3 loss at Rogers Centre had the feel of a game slipping away piece by piece. Boston built a 3-1 lead behind home runs from Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela, but the mistakes that had mostly disappeared over the past month and a half started creeping back in.
The turning point came in the bottom of the fifth. With one on and no outs, Caleb Durbin mishandled a ground ball that should have offered a chance at a double play. Toronto stayed alive, bunted two runners into scoring position and pushed both across, wiping out Boston’s early cushion and resetting the game.
Toronto grabbed the lead for good in the sixth, and Patrick Sandoval was at the center of it after opening the inning with a walk, his third of the night. Before Tuesday, the Red Sox had been 5-0 in Sandoval’s starts, with the left-hander making his season debut in the middle of Boston’s 15-game winning streak that began in late July.
There was one more jolt in the final Toronto run, and it came with Chad Tracy’s bullpen decision. The interim manager, who had been pressing the right buttons for weeks, turned to Seth Martinez in a one-run game against a division opponent. Martinez, 31, was making his first major league appearance of the year after posting a 5.55 ERA in 60 innings at Triple-A.
Then came the final gut punch: three-time All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman, making his Red Sox debut after last week’s massive trade from the Baltimore Orioles, made the last out.
Boston is still sitting at 64-55, but the bigger issue is obvious. The team needs to snap back fast before this skid grows into something more serious.
In Other News...
Former Red Sox Fan Favorite Is Walking Away From Baseball
Rob Refsnyders name still carries a little extra weight in Boston, where his career got a second life and he became one of those players fans seemed to appreciate for how he fit into the room as much as what he did on the field. After bouncing through several organizations, he found real footing with the Red Sox during a revival that helped turn him from a journeyman into a familiar and well-liked presence for the club.
Now, according to reports, the former outfielder has stepped away from professional baseball altogether. Refsnyders path included parts of 11 major league seasons and a late-career stop with the Mariners, and he leaves behind a modest but respectable big league rsum with a .246 average, 37 home runs and 165 RBIs. For Red Sox fans, though, he will likely be remembered less for the final numbers than for the run that made him feel like one of their own. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Just Pushed Out A Productive Outfielder For A Bigger Reason
Roster churn at the Double-A level can look routine from the outside, but it often says more about an organizations direction than any box score does. The Red Sox parted ways with outfielder Matt Fraizer, a former Pirates third-round pick who had joined the system on a minor-league deal last winter and had spent his time with Portland, where he was one of the more established outfield options on hand.
Fraizers exit appears to fit the kind of roster management that happens when a club wants to open space for younger talent moving up behind him. In Bostons case, the move helps clear room for other outfielders and comes as Henry Godbout gets a promotion within the organization, a reminder that even productive minor-league pieces can become expendable when the pipeline starts to move. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Prospects Are Giving Boston A Depth Boost Fans Will Notice
Bostons farm system has been doing more than just filling box scores lately. Across different levels, several Red Sox prospects have started to show the kind of steady production that can make a rebuilding pipeline feel a little more real, with Mikey Romero, Franklin Arias, Allan Castro and Gage Ziehl among the names drawing attention for recent game-to-game impact. The updates have come from all over the system, which is part of what makes the stretch notable for the organization: it is not just one hot hand, but a collection of players giving the club reason to keep watching closely.
There was also a familiar big-league name in Worcester for a rehab assignment debut, though it sits outside the actual prospect conversation. Even so, the broader minor league picture is the one Boston has to like right now, because depth only matters if it is producing in more than one place at once. For a team that always has one eye on the next wave, these are the kinds of performances that can change the tone of a farm system, even before any of them force a bigger conversation. [Read more 🡒]