Sean McAdam: Red Sox' playtime is over as schedule gets far more challenging
The Red Sox took care of business over the last week, stomping on the Washington Nationals and the Colorado Rockies. The former are merely bad; the latter are truly wretched.
The Sox went a perfect 6-0 through that stretch and as hapless as the opposition was, that shouldn't be taken lightly. Even really good teams stumble against poor ones; it happens all the time - the Nationals took two of three from Detroit before being steamrolled by the Red Sox — so credit where it's due.
'I think it's important to keep the foot on the gas against teams that aren't performing well,' said Lucas Giolito, Wednesday's starter and winning pitcher. 'We weren't performing well (heading into Washington series). But we've known collectively the entire year how talented this group is and we just weren't firing on all cylinders.
'But right now, we've kind of found ourselves in a spot where we're kind of firing on all cylinders and that's when you need to take advantage of series against teams that aren't playing well. We did that with the Nationals and Rockies.'
The Sox did their best to capitalize. They outscored the 'competition' by a lopsided margin of 56-16. In four of the games, they reached double figures in runs; in another, they scored nine. That's a convincing display of dominance and has brought the Red Sox to within 5.5 games of first place in the AL East and tied with Seattle for the third wild-card spot.
Last week, the Red Sox' playoff hopes were deemed to be in the low teens percentage-wise by Fangraphs. Following their six-game run, it's been elevated to 36.5 percent. That's far from an October lock, but it is a lot of pythagorean ground to make up in the course of a week.
'At the end of the day,' said Giolito, 'you're facing big league lineups, you're facing big league teams. Regardless of how they're doing. sweeping series is difficult. It means that you have to be really on it for three or four games in a row. The goal is, you want to win series. But getting on a hot streak like we've been on, you just want to keep going and I'm glad that we did over the last six.'
Let's hope that the Red Sox enjoyed the creampuff portion of their schedule, because it's about to get a lot to get much more difficult.
Starting Thursday night, the Red Sox will next play four straight teams with a winning record. If the season were to end today, the Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers would all qualify for the playoffs.
Whether the Red Sox will or won't qualify may not be decided over the next two weeks as they run the gauntlet. But we'll know a lot more about them after that string of games is complete.
While it was incumbent upon the Red Sox to beat up the lesser-lights, it's now necessary for them to finish with a winning record over these next 13 games. Anything less than that would likely see them lose ground in both the wild card and division races.
Any significant slippage, meanwhile, could mean a change of direction by the front office in regard to the trade deadline. It's a lot easier to invest further in the roster when there's positive momentum associated with the club as July 31 draws closer.
There were occasions, as might be expected, that the Red Sox played down to the level of their competition in the last week. Last Sunday in Washington, the Nationals stranded 15 baserunners, and a big hit here or there might have allowed the home team to avoid a sweep. Alas, the Sox triumphed anyway.
It's doubtful the likes of the Cubs, Phils or Dodgers will be that accommodating.
'It's important that we keep the same energy, the same tempo going into our next series against a team in the division,' said Giolito.
Look at this way: think of the Red Sox as a college basketball team that just ran the table during its non-conference portion of their schedule. Now comes the far tougher in-conference games.
The wins from the last week will count the same at the end of the year. But they'll be a lot harder to come by over the next two weeks.
More Red Sox coverage
MLB insider floats Red Sox trade to build 'elite setup-closer combination'
Boston Red Sox hurler shouts out teammates for 'huge' play
Boston Red Sox' Masataka Yoshida told Alex Cora he needed 'two days'
Red Sox' Lucas Giolito closes out first half of season on upswing
Red Sox reactions: Starter dominates again, offense crushes 4 homers in win
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