A Tale of Two Teams

The Red Sox pre- and post-All-Star break were two very different ballclubs.

Well, these are truly the dog days of summer now! A trade deadline and an All-Star break have come and gone, and we know just how these Red Sox have positioned themselves for the rest of the season. We continue our monthly recap series with how the Boston Red Sox fared in a wacky July:

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Pre-Break: Keeping Pace

Just like the Red Sox kept doing throughout June, they won every series pre-break. An easy sweep of the Marlins in Miami set up a weekend showdown in the Bronx where the Sox had to pull out all the stops. Late-game theatrics for a victory in the first game of the series, then getting stomped in the second game set up a critical rubber match. Rafael Devers decided to put the team on his back there and then. Two dingers was all it took for him to support strong enough pitching to shut out the Bronx Bombers.

A surprise non-sweep against the Athletics took this team to their last series before the All-Star festivities, and was it an important one. Bobby Witt Jr. and the Kansas City Royals are really enemy number one at this point in the season, the team they’re battling with for that last Wild Card spot. The first game of the series felt like a sacrifice loss, even with Cooper Criswell saving the bullpen as much as he could with a six inning outing, but the next two games were all Boston. The last game before the break was exactly what Brayan Bello needed—hitting the seventh—and the offense did just enough to keep the Royals at bay. Off went Tanner Houck and Jarred Duran to Texas, where one of them did some incredible things.

Post-Break: Hitting A Wall

When the Red Sox ended up in Los Angeles on July 19th, things were not only looking up, but expectations were high. Just keep plodding along, win series, take games against tough opponents and move along. I don’t think they got the memo.

The Dodgers series felt like a comedy and a tragedy. Duran hits a solo homer to break the scoreless deadlock? Say hello to a Freddie Freeman grand slam in the 8th for a really rough loss. OK, that’s just one game, shake it off. Tyler O’Neill smashes two dingers in the middle match? Say hello to the Kiké Hernandez revenge game, and Will Smith’s walk-off equates to your first series loss since the end of June. The last game… don’t get me started. Six homers allowed in total, five from Kutter Crawford alone, including a mammoth by Shohei Ohtani and this series was a bust.

So you get swept by one of the league’s best teams, shake it off this time, go kick some butt in Colorado against a not so great Rockies squad, right? Right?

How do you lose a series in such fashion? Another crushing walk-off loss, and an absolute throttling at 20-7 surround one quality win but still, this post-Break skid has to stop. You have a series against the Yankees to win. Or lose. The first game was insanity, a time warp back to the early 2000s type of game and lucky to win. You lose a slugfest to the Yankees in extra innings the next afternoon, that’s gonna generally happen when Soto and Judge both homer. Sunday Night Baseball has to be yours. Tanner Houck comes out flat. Absolutely starting to get nervous not only that this team has hit a wall, but that they’ve lost themselves out of any meaningful buys. Craig Breslow had quite the conundrum to deal with, and he executed a few moves that addressed at least one big need, while not certainly all needs. Quinn Priester just made his Worcester debut, but in Boston, meet Danny Jansen, as your catching tandem with Connor Wong, and Lucas Sims and Luis Garcia as shots in the arm to an exhausted bullpen. Oh yeah, and James Paxton reunites with the rotation as their only lefty.

Seattle finishes the month of July and this team needs a series win, especially against an opponent they will be fighting for the Wild Card with, along with Houston as they battle it out in the AL West. A seven-run inning in the first game made it all too easy. James Paxton never settled in too much in his return to Boston in the second game, as it was a blowout by the sixth. It all comes down to a get-away game at Fenway before August begins. Up comes Rafael Devers in the 10th. Ballgame.

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Player of the Month: Rafael Devers

I feel like he’s been waiting in the wings behind Jarren Duran the last few months to have his moment in the spotlight: July was so clearly his month to shine. He led the club with 24 RBIs, a .362 batting average, a .430 OBP, .702 slugging, 1.132 OPS, six homers, 10 doubles, two triples, 34 hits overall, 12 walks, and on and on and on. When the team needed him to step up in the clutch? He absolutely did. He continues to make Gerritt Cole his daddy, his defense wasn’t atrocious, Devers did more than enough to stand out as my MVP for the month of July.

Surprise of the Month: Masataka Yoshida

Where did this come from? After looking like a massive bust through the month of June and a contract you’d want to bundle to cut your losses on in a trade, he came through with a line of .333/.411/.487/.898 in July, 20 RBI, and three home runs. He found his swing finally and became enough of a force in the middle of the lineup as a lefty-swinging DH to improve the team’s chances of winning, even if they didn’t. He had a strong series against the Yankees, including the go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning of the first game and another RBI in the second despite a loss. If Yoshida can keep this up—and that’s a BIG if—there’s certainly more balance in the dugout with Jansen or Wong as a right-handed DH option going forward.

Goat of the Month: Reese McGuire

A big, fucked-up lemon. That’s what Reese McGuire turned himself into by the end of his tenure as a Red Sox. In seven games in July, your crowning moment was getting irate that you popped out and Cal Quantrill burned you as hard as pretty much anyone can. That’s not worthy of a roster spot. With the addition of Jansen, the emergence of Yoshida and frankly Dom Smith finding a little more consistency, Triston Casas finally rehabbing and on the way back sooner rather than later, there was a spot opened to drop a left-handed bat and a catcher. It was an easy move to DFA and outright McGuire after the deadline. It’s funny how after he looked so much like catcher no. 1 or at least 1a/b after April that he fell so far. Have fun in Worcester!

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Standings Look

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For the most part, this is now what the 2024 Boston Red Sox will finish the season looking like. Triston Casas is expected to rehab at least through the coming weekend in Worcester and then may make his return. There’s one more potentially big addition to the bullpen, as Liam Hendricks threw the first of a couple live BPs scheduled before heading off to a rehab assignment. Just another shot in the arm for those arms.

Despite working against the clock as well, Trevor Story is taking swings and may or may not return this season too, but I’m not going to count on this happening. There’s clearly a lot of fight left in this team as we make our way through August and the front office for the first time in a few years showed they had a pulse and gave the team a boost of confidence in some regard. In fact, the squad has the best record since the day after the deadline.

This is the time to dig in and not let up. Take control of August and let September fall into place. Don’t fall off the wagon now and make next month any harder of a task than it needs to, for all of our sakes.