Red Sox

The coming weeks will offer a test for Boston against some of baseball’s best.

COMMENTARY

These are the days that will define who they are.

Yes, I know. We all sorta know who and what they are, these 2024 Red Sox. Swells and swales, like we said before the weekend. An exultory three-game sweep at the Rays, followed by four straight days of icy bats, Monday’s coupled with Baltimore slamming around Cooper Criswell.

“We have to continue to pitch. We have to be better defensively. I think the other aspects of the game are going to be fine,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters. “Obviously, we’re missing three big bats in the lineup. But the guys who are playing are doing an outstanding job. We feel good where we’re at.

“Obviously, it’s not enough, but I feel really good with the group and what we have been able to do.”

Days like Monday happen, even to the best teams. Heck, weeks like this one happen. The playoff team of 2021 scored 15 runs in seven games to begin August. The 2018 world-beaters mustered 10 across five June games against the 115-loss Orioles, 100-loss White Sox, and 98-loss Tigers.

“Teams go through stretches like this,” Cora told reporters at the time, with slightly more bonafides than when I say it.

These are not the 2018 or 2021 Red Sox. I would argue they also aren’t the 2022 or 2023 team, though the very real injuries they’ve dealt with will probably make the final record look pretty similar to the 78-84s that have come before.

It’s a delicate subject area, those roster losses, and I suspect it’s going to feel even more delicate a couple weeks down the road.

The Sox just lost two of three at home to Milwaukee, the NL Central leaders, and have two more in Baltimore, 34-18 in record and 34-13 in runs while beating the Sox four times. After Boston plays four against .500 Detroit at Fenway comes Atlanta — dangerous even without Ronald Acuña Jr. After four with the league-worst White Sox comes Philadelphia (38-17) and the Yankees (37-18), baseball’s current 1-2.

A few brief moments to breathe between now and mid-June, but not a lot of letup. Especially not when they are playing without Triston Casas, Trevor Story, Masataka Yoshida — the third “big bat” Cora mentioned — plus Lucas Giolito and Garrett Whitlock.

Casas is eligible to come off the 60-day injured list for the torn cartilage in his rib cage on June 21. That’s about a week after this run of 18 games ends.

The above is unassailable fact. Saying it does not exclude that this team built with them was not the Red Sox using the full muscle of their operation. We should be able to handle both things being true.

I fear we can’t. I fear the good vibes from the first third of the season will dissipate quickly in the tough stretches like what’s upcoming. (Boston’s just 10-19 against teams with a .500 or better record.) And I fear this will turn into a discussion about how this team could’ve competed, but for all those names, from those in positions who know better.

It’s the grand flaw of the modern game, the downside to creating a reality where essentially everyone’s in it. There’s no drive to be excellent when being fine is enough, and another empty October for some percentage of the Mets/Yankees/Phillies/Dodgers chasers atop the payroll list will again drive that point home.

It’s key, thus, to remember that the Red Sox screamingly told you 2024 wasn’t about contention. Not with words, but with inaction. That you’re still here for it means, to some degree, you accepted the larger vision at play.

Hey, I did too. And the Red Sox aren’t the only ones to pull it. Frankly, we have already seen the benefits, and they won’t disappear even if .500 ceases to be within arm’s reach.

Tanner Houck has become the starter so many have been dreaming about since that September 2020 night of Frisbee sliders in Miami. Kutter Crawford has similarly grown into his opportunity, perhaps to a lesser degree, but while being less reliant on his very-good fastball.

They’re seeing they have something real with Wilyer Abreu. They’re seeing a fuller Jarren Duran at the plate and in the field. They’re seeing that, yeah, maybe Ceddanne Rafaela isn’t going to be much more than the defense-first regular that it seemed like he might be.

Perhaps more than that, they’re seeing their offensive approach may need the sort of overhaul that the pitching got. Because we could go on with the former, and we’re pretty much done with the latter.

Craig Breslow’s first year is hardly the first year of this franchise idea to do more growing their own produce. There are already pieces in place, and while the tank wasn’t as severe as the one Baltimore went through to get where they are, it’s a lot closer to the same idea than plenty thought at first blush.

The big talk, however, doesn’t eliminate the here and now. The Celtics could hang around another month, but the Red Sox will likely depart this run against baseball’s steel with the stage mostly theirs.

Will their pitching staff still be among baseball’s best? How long will Kenley Jansen, going four days between outings, still be here? Will the hits with runners in scoring position start appearing, or will the offense with no one on base start to similarly dry up?

How much of a problem will the infield defense again be?

The next few weeks will ask challenging questions of a group that doesn’t seem ready to answer them. Lucky for them, their test isn’t due until a time beyond the end of this baseball season.