The Red Sox crossed the country and arrived here last Thursday in search of wins. As a secondary goal, they were hoping to find some clarity about where they stood in the playoff picture.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 21: Freddie Freeman #5 of Los Angeles Dodgers hits a solo homerun in the bottom of the first inning during the regular season game between Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on July 21, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Gene Wang/Getty Images)Getty Images
They skulked away Sunday night having come up empty on both.
Through the first two games, it was possible for the Sox to tell themselves that they had gone toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the game, having allowed both contests to get away thanks to operator error from their late-inning relievers.
It happens, even to the best teams. But Sunday’s 9-6 shellacking by the Dodgers — not as close as the score would indicate — not only put an exclamation point on a disastrous weekend, but highlighted the Sox’ imperfections. If the Sox could rationalize the first two losses, there was no doing that Sunday.
Through it all, Alex Cora continued to maintain that, no, he isn’t terribly concerned by the recent performance of his bullpen. But perhaps he should be.
For the entire first half, the Sox had the comfort of knowing that late-inning leads were secure in closer’s Kenley Jansen’s hands. Jansen hadn’t blown a save since April and had pitched the first three and a half months without allowing a single home run.
Then, in the span of a few days in the ballpark where he proudly built his legacy and began his case to one day earn entrance into Cooperstown, Jansen seemed to come unglued. He blew a two-run lead in the ninth inning Saturday, and his appearance in the eighth Sunday, with the Sox down by three — but necessitated by the fact that he won’t be joining the rest of his team in Denver because of a heart condition — was nearly as worrisome, resulting in three more Dodgers runs, including another homer.
Jansen will presumably rebound by the time the Red Sox return to Fenway, but the rest of the bullpen offers no such assurances. The Red Sox dearly miss having Chris Martin and Justin Slaten, each sidelined with elbow inflammation. The downturn in performance from previously reliable Brennan Bernardino (9.00 ERA since June 9) is similarly troubling.
If a sweep at the hands of the Dodgers didn’t shake the Sox’ outward confidence in themselves, at the very least, it put added significance to the three-game set with the lowly Colorado Rockies the next three days. What looked like a gift series on the heels of a challenging set here has suddenly become must-win. Anything less than two wins in Denver will signify actual trouble.
It’s series like the one just completed that compel Craig Breslow to wait as long as possible before picking a path for his trade deadline approach. If Breslow had privately made the determination to buy before the month ended, he’d be regretting the time he wasted in pursuing trade options that had the team acquiring rather than subtracting.
The Sox remain an unknown. Eleven games over .500, the Red Sox’ standing at the break, sounds almost convincing; eight games above .500 begins to suspiciously invite comparisons to the 2022 and 2023 editions of the club.
It’s not as though a quick-fix deal is going to address all of their issues. As porous as the bullpen was, the Sox once again demonstrated that they’re very much vulnerable to lefthanded pitching. Over the course of 15.2 innings in the weekend series, the Red Sox managed only five runs while fanning 21 times. Compare that output to what they did against righthanders — eight runs in 13.1 inning with 14 strikeouts — and the problem becomes more striking.
It’s precisely that shortcoming that could give Breslow pause about pursuing upgrades, and it’s here that playoff odds can be tossed aside. If Breslow thinks the Red Sox stand a better-than-even chance of qualifying, but doubts the team’s ability to advance very far, he might be convinced to not bother.
If the Red Sox have the misfortune of lining up against a team in October with a quality lefty starter, or one with a bullpen stacked with several lefthanded relievers, he may not feel compelled to add to the roster. In postseason series, matchups take on an outsized importance. When teams have the time to prepare for an opponent, they can attack the most obvious weaknesses and capitalize. In a three-game wild card series, or even a five-game Division Series, that can make all the difference.
Given the unpredictability of this season and the resilience that has stood as a team trademark this year, the Red Sox are fully capable of rebounding with a few wins at Coors Field and big weekend against the Yankees, improving their postseason chances as quickly as they were diminished this weekend.
But time is short. And the Dodgers exposed some of the Sox’ flaws for everyone to see — including their own still circumspect management team and ownership group.
