Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 3: Baseball Is Weird

What a difference a day makes

Baseball is weird. Last night, I was sitting in the Pavillion Box, laughing at the Red Sox fielder’s consistent slips and slides across the diamond as they attempted to field ground balls, catch flys, and turn double plays. Tonight, they put on a defensive clinic. In the first inning, Vladimir Guerrero Jr was cut down at second trying to stretch a single. In the second, Joey Loperfido was thrown out at the plate after a well-executed relay from Duran to Rafaela.

Later on, Wilyer Abreu fielded a fly ball and threw a bullet home to save a run.

That’s not even mentioning the very slick 6-4-3 double play Ceddane Rafaela and David Hamilton put together.

Yesterday, these outs weren’t being made. Much more routine outs than these weren’t being made. There were times when I wasn’t convinced a strikeout would result in an out. I guess that’s what happens when you’re playing with inexperienced players all over the diamond.

Outside of the defensive performance, you can look at this game in two ways. The first is you believe the pitching is a serious issue, the bullpen will continue to cough up leads, and none of this really matters outside of moral victories and staying out of last place. Based on the past few weeks, the injuries that were announced today, and general vibes, this is probably the likely scenario.

If you’re like me, an eternal optimist, you’re watching the Braves try to close out a win over the Twins right now to cut the deficit to four games. The Twins just put the tying run on second, shit. If you’re like me, you think the team putting together a complete win behind Cooper Criswell, Greg Weissert, and Brennan Bernardino could be the jump start they need. You remember that although the deficit is 4.5 games right now, there’s still a three-game set with the Twins on the schedule. You know you’re a little bit insane for still believing, but you don’t have other hobbies and need something to cling to. You paid $100 for a standing room pass for the month of September and want your money’s worth, damn it. I may be projecting, but there’s gotta be at least one person like me out there.

All things considered, tonight’s win is a good thing. The way they’ve played the past few weeks has taken their destiny out of their own hands, but they’re not completely dead just yet. They’ll need the Twins or the Royals or the Guardians to have their own struggles, but there’s still an outside shot. Rasiel Iglesias just surrendered the tying run in the bottom of the eighth. We’ve got nine days until the NFL season kicks off, let’s get within three games of the Twins, keep our eyes on the Sox, and not learn how the ridiculous new kickoff rule works until week six.

Three Studs

Wilyer Abreu

With the deficit growing and playoff chances looking less likely recently, there’s been a lot of chatter about roster construction going forward. There’s a potential logjam in the outfield with the impending promotion of Roman Anthony, as well as a surplus of lefties in the system.

While some creativity may be required to balance out the roster, moving Wilyer Abreu would be a massive mistake. Abreu’s game doesn’t pop like Jarren Duran’s or Rafael Devers, but he’s a winning ballplayer. He controls the strike zone, hits for power, handles right field exceptionally, and has an absolute cannon for an arm. He also has no regard for his own well-being when making plays at the wall, which I find endearing. Tonight alone, he doubled in a few runs, singled, and gunned out a runner at the plate on a tag-up attempt. “Keep good players on your roster” sounds like simple advice, but with a potential need to flip some position players for pitching, I hope Abreu isn’t that piece.

Triston Casas

Triston Casas can really hit the baseball. He’s also a freaky dude.

Greg Weissert

How about Weissert coming in for some big outs? WIlyer Abreu gets the assist for cutting down the runner at the plate, but Weissert made the pitch to get the pop-up after inheriting two runners. Way to be, Greg.

Twos Dud

Tyler O’Neill

He’s a streaky hitter, and right now he’s ice cold. Let’s hope he gets on one of his hot streaks soon to balance out the lineup.

Jesse Chavez

He coughed up three runs with a four-run lead to give the Twins life. What the heck, Jesse?

Me

I considered live-blogging the end of this Twins game, but I know it’s going to end up with me being upset. Apologies for not letting you in my brain as I react to Jhoan Duran throwing 105 miles per hour and ruining my delusional hopes of a wild card berth.