Hurricane Debby Floods The Red Sox With a Perfect Storm of Urgency in Kansas City

Fill up the rain gauges and empty the bullpen! But not in that order.

What was once hurricane Debby is now tropical storm Debby. Situated off the southeast coast, the spinning spigot won’t be going anywhere fast. This means instead of wind being the headline threat, virtually all of the danger (instead of just most of it) will come in the form of rain. Lots and lots of rain!

In the short term, this means the potential for devastating flooding along the Carolina coast. But, on a less serious note, over into the toy store of life, it should also change the strategy of a certain baseball team in Kansas City over the next 48 hours. Here are the pieces in play:

When Debby does eventually decide to come north, she will very likely have a significant impact on the upcoming weekend series at Fenway against the Astros. As in, she’s gonna ruin it – Specially, the games scheduled for Friday (7:10pm) and Saturday (4:10pm).

While the exact timing and manner in which the storm’s energy ejects northeastward is still unclear, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the end of the week is looking very, very wet over New England.

Below is a map showcasing a blend of all the major models and averaging the rainfall they’re advertising over the next six days:

Now to be fair, some of that includes what will fall on Tuesday (in a total separate system from Debby), but unless we get really, really lucky, at least one, and possibly two games in this upcoming Astros series is getting disrupted.

For a better idea on how this deep moisture base will meander before plowing northward, here is a version of the upcoming atmospheric mess in motion:

So knowing all of this, let’s stop and think about both the Red Sox schedule, and where they sit in the standings.

• After Monday’s delightful 9-5 victory, they’re just 1.5 games behind KC for the final Wild Card spot.
• They have two games left against the Royals (Tuesday and Wednesday). After that, the two teams don’t meet again in the regular season.
• There’s an off-day naturally scheduled for the Sox on Thursday.
• The upcoming weekend series at Fenway is likely to be plagued by heavy rain.

You know what conclusion I draw from those ingredients? The Red Sox should completely empty the tank the next two days against the Royals. Alex Cora should manage them like they’re Games 6 and 7 of the World Series.

Pull any pitcher at the slightest sign of trouble. Ransack through the bullpen as needed. Use Kenley Jansen to get a six-out save. Break out the voodoo dolls. Play these games like you’re going to have plenty of time to rest and reset once they’re over, because guess what? That’s likely going to be the case. The only way those raindrops are going to be a particularly pleasant experience is if they come on the back of a sweep with the Sox up a half game for the last wild card spot because they played their cards ultra aggressively at the perfect moment.

Dating back to May 19th, the Red Sox are 29-2 in the 31 games in which they allow four runs or less. If the pitching is good or keeps it close, the core everyday guys almost always find a way to win. The problem? They’ve now allowed five runs or more 34 times during the same stretch (9-25 record). So what do you do here? Everything in your power to leverage the guys on the mound to hold the Royals to four runs or less over each of the next two games.

Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Back in the spring, we here at Over The Monster discussed the possibility of hurricanes having an impact on the final two months of the MLB season, and while this particular chain of events certainly wasn’t foreseen, Debby’s downpours now give the Red Sox an opportunity to saddle up and take advantage of over the next 48 hours. While they’ll also have an unfortunate hurdle to negotiate afterwards when a bunch of games get slammed together over a very short period of time, they can’t worry about that right now.

What they need to do is take the very rare opportunity that’s presented itself in the middle of the marathon 162, and sell out to inflict as much damage as possible on their nearest playoff rival.

Normally, you always want to balance of tomorrow vs. today in these midsummer matchups. No matter how big they are, there’s always another game breathing down your neck right behind it, and somebody has to take the ball for it. Not here! Not when you’re likely to get two days off immediately following what’s probably the most important series left on the schedule.

So step on the gas, cut corners as much as possible, and as Alex Cora himself likes to say “get greedy.”