The Boston Red Sox are heading into the postseason with plenty of problems already on the board. Willson Contreras and Ceddanne Rafaela are not at 100 percent health-wise, Mickey Gasper, Eli White, Tyron Guerrero and others are also dealing with injuries, and the offense has gone cold at the worst possible time.
September was a rough month for Boston at the plate. The club finished with a league-worst .651 OPS and scored 71 runs, which was 18 fewer than the Philadelphia Phillies, the next-worst team in run production during the final month of the season.
Amid all that, Adley Rutschman has started to look like the bat Boston was hoping for when it paid a hefty price at the trade deadline. The former Baltimore Orioles catcher is hitting .266/.299/.547 in September, a sharp step up from the .170/.254/.245 line he posted in August, his first month in Boston.
The encouraging part for the Red Sox is what Rutschman has done lately. Over his last seven games, he is slashing .346/.370/.577 with a home run, and he enters the Wild Card series as one of the few Boston hitters carrying real momentum. With the injuries piling up, the Sox need that kind of production, especially from the right side, and Rutschman is finally delivering there.
Boston brought him in to upgrade the catcher spot, and his defense has already mattered. The 28-year-old is one of the better defensive catchers in the league, and he wipes out a lot of the edge opposing teams can create at the plate and on the bases - something Connor Wong doesn’t offer on his start days. The hope all along was that the offense would come around too, especially after Boston sold off its best minor league pitchers and more to get him.
Now the Red Sox are leaning into that upside. Rutschman has been placed second in their Wild Card Game 1 lineup (subscription required), and manager Chad Tracy hinted at that role in the final game of the season against the Cubs, when Rutschman went 1-for-2 with a homer and a walk. It’s a bold spot for a player who has had offensive issues this season, but Boston needs offense wherever it can find it, and Rutschman is the hottest bat in the lineup.
He also brings something else the Red Sox don’t have much of right now: October experience. Rutschman has played in five games this month, more than many of his teammates, and Boston is counting on him to keep that edge while the rest of the roster tries to catch up.
In Other News...
Yankees Just Gave Red Sox Fans More Motivation Before The Wild Card
With the Wild Card round looming, the Red Sox are approaching this matchup the way October usually demands, one series at a time. Boston has been laying out its rotation with this specific test in mind, and Chad Tracy has kept the message centered on the immediate challenge rather than peeking ahead to anything beyond it.
Across the diamond, Aaron Boones comments about already weighing pitching strategies for the Divisional round only add a little extra fuel to an already charged playoff meeting. Whether Boone intended it or not, it gives Boston plenty of bulletin-board material heading into a Yankees-Red Sox showdown where the first job is simple: survive the opening round and make sure the conversation about later series gets cut short. [Read more 🡒]
Cam Schlittler Just Made Yankees-Red Sox Game 1 Even More Heated
The playoff stage at Yankee Stadium was already going to bring plenty of edge, but Cam Schlittler has helped turn the opener into something even more combustible. The Yankees starter has been trading public jabs with Red Sox fans online, leaning into the noise instead of ducking it, and that has only sharpened the atmosphere around a rivalry that hardly needed extra fuel.
For Boston, the matchup matters because it is not just another October game, it is the first look at a series that now comes with a little more bite. Schlittler is set to be one of the key figures in the spotlight, and his duel with Red Sox starter Payton Tolle adds another layer to a night already heavy with history, tension and the kind of crowd energy that can tilt a series before it really gets going. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Rookie Suddenly Enters Yankees Wild Card Pitching Debate
The Red Sox have lined up their Wild Card Series rotation against the Yankees, with Payton Tolle set for Game 1, Sonny Gray for Game 2 and Ranger Surez available for a decisive Game 3 if it comes to that. But one of the more interesting developments came Friday, when rookie Jake Bennett worked 3 2/3 scoreless innings in relief, giving Boston another arm to think about as the games get tighter and every bullpen choice starts to matter.
Manager Chad Tracy still has a few pitching calls to make depending on how the series unfolds, and Bennetts outing only adds to the conversation. For a Red Sox staff that already has its starters mapped out, the bigger question may be how much trust Bennett has earned for October leverage, and whether his unexpected late-season push can turn into a real postseason role against their biggest rival. [Read more 🡒]