Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 11, 2023 13:22:37 GMT -5
It’s take-solace-in-a-loss time for the Red Sox
A one-run loss to a torrid Rays team shouldn't feel like an accomplishment, not for a Red Sox team with its resources.
By Jon Couture
April 11, 2023 | 10:31 AM
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COMMENTARY
The number of the day is 10. And the major league team of the moment is the Tampa Bay Rays.
In their case, the 10 is as in perfect, which is where they sit after a 1-0 Monday victory over the Red Sox that was by far their toughest battle of the season. After sweeping Detroit, Washington, and Oakland by an average of six runs per night, they welcomed another last-place team to Tropicana Field, but were held scoreless until the eighth.
And even then, it took a 10-pitch Brandon Lowe at-bat to crack Chris Martin for the game’s only run.
No matter your season outlook, April’s a time when moral victories are real. (My new favorite phrase on early season comes from The Athletic’s Andy McCullough: “None of this matters, but all of it counts.”) Nick Pivetta, who spent all of last season giving up crooked numbers to American League East teams, got 14 swings-and-misses and threw five shutout innings against the hottest offense in the sport.
Alex Cora’s club got the game to exactly where it would have wanted: Rafael Devers up with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth. Colin Poche struck him out. Inside slider, two foul balls, looking at a fastball (on which Poche may have missed his spot badly). Devers struck out three times looking Monday, a first in his career.
“They pitched and we pitched well,” manager Alex Cora told reporters. “Obviously, we didn’t win the game, but as far as the game, it was great.”
Especially relative to the rest of the day. We have gone this far without noting the significant news: Adam Duvall’s broken wrist, which won’t need surgery but will still cost the lineup its best hitter to date for a couple of months. It’s the sort of rub-of-the-green that’s largely unavoidable across a season; part of Tampa Bay’s secret sauce on the way to 10-0 has been health, coming off a year where they lost more than 1,600 man games to injury.No matter your season outlook, April’s a time when moral victories are real. (My new favorite phrase on early season comes from The Athletic’s Andy McCullough: “None of this matters, but all of it counts.”) Nick Pivetta, who spent all of last season giving up crooked numbers to American League East teams, got 14 swings-and-misses and threw five shutout innings against the hottest offense in the sport.
Alex Cora’s club got the game to exactly where it would have wanted: Rafael Devers up with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth. Colin Poche struck him out. Inside slider, two foul balls, looking at a fastball (on which Poche may have missed his spot badly). Devers struck out three times looking Monday, a first in his career.
“They pitched and we pitched well,” manager Alex Cora told reporters. “Obviously, we didn’t win the game, but as far as the game, it was great.”
Especially relative to the rest of the day. We have gone this far without noting the significant news: Adam Duvall’s broken wrist, which won’t need surgery but will still cost the lineup its best hitter to date for a couple of months. It’s the sort of rub-of-the-green that’s largely unavoidable across a season; part of Tampa Bay’s secret sauce on the way to 10-0 has been health, coming off a year where they lost more than 1,600 man games to injury.
It’s a downer for a Red Sox team that didn’t need one. That it’s not as bad as the one Pittsburgh’s dealing with is . . . well, it’s something when you find yourself reflecting “at least they’re not the Pirates” when the Pirates just swept at Fenway.
Which brings me to my other 10. Another Patriots Day weekend is coming, and it’s the 10th since they were forever changed. An unforgettable year in Boston, in every sense of the word, begun by the genuine tragedy at the Boston Marathon finish line that April 15.
The Red Sox will mark the anniversary all weekend against the Angels, with members of the 2013 championship team at the Marathon finish line on Saturday afternoon, then feted before Sunday’s matinee. It is the juxtaposition of that year encapsulated in 72 hours. The joy that came from unspeakable pain. What was gained in the face of impossible loss.
Yet, I could not help but note another anniversary this week, one that received far less fanfare. Ten years ago Monday, the Red Sox sellout streak ended.
Look, I know. What you mentally in your head consider a sellout did not last 820 games (794 regular season, 26 playoffs) and stretch from May 15, 2003, through the 2013 home opener.
The Bruins have played before an announced 17,850 for every home game this season, and when I perused tickets for their Thursday pre-Christmas game against Winnipeg, it was a $130 get-in for last-row seats in the balcony. That is a sellout streak.
“We know part of the reason it’s over is that we failed last year. So we take responsibility for that,” then-GM Ben Cherington told reporters on April 10, 2013, a rain-delayed night on which the Red Sox blew a ninth-inning lead before an announced 30,862.
It was a formal closing of a chapter that, announced or not, had “The End” written when Terry Francona and Theo Epstein left town almost two years prior. It was a celebration, but one sprung from sadness, though nothing like what we would feel a week later.
And yet on reflection, that April 10 of 10 years ago was nowhere the dirge it seemed in the moment. The Red Sox were, albeit eight games in, in first place. That streak ending crowd puts the current numbers to shame; the Sox drew just 24,477 for Wednesday’s matinee, their worst non-pandemic number of the John Henry ownership by nearly 10 percent.
The 2013 Sox would, incomprehensibly, win a world championship that October. Their top three prospects were probably Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Matt Barnes — all hits, all key parts of world champions. (And that doesn’t even include the sleeper they had in Single A, that year authoring the season that would make #FeatsOfMookie a thing.)
You know the drill. Past performance does not guarantee future success. My only point is that success can arrive before you know it, and when you least expect it. The Rays, forever a team of transients, have an honest-to-goodness core: Wander Franco’s signed for a decade, Randy Arozarena and Shane McClanahan are still years from free agency, and all their notable arms outside Tyler Glasnow are locked in through 2025.
Ten games in, the 2023 Red Sox are 5-5, but look to have gotten it wrong in all the ways we thought they did. A one-run loss to a torrid team shouldn’t feel like an accomplishment; not with their resources, and not when one game can yield more or less anything.
But on the day of the Duvall injury, it felt like something. And real things have sprung from far less.
A one-run loss to a torrid Rays team shouldn't feel like an accomplishment, not for a Red Sox team with its resources.
By Jon Couture
April 11, 2023 | 10:31 AM
COMMENTARY
The number of the day is 10. And the major league team of the moment is the Tampa Bay Rays.
In their case, the 10 is as in perfect, which is where they sit after a 1-0 Monday victory over the Red Sox that was by far their toughest battle of the season. After sweeping Detroit, Washington, and Oakland by an average of six runs per night, they welcomed another last-place team to Tropicana Field, but were held scoreless until the eighth.
And even then, it took a 10-pitch Brandon Lowe at-bat to crack Chris Martin for the game’s only run.
No matter your season outlook, April’s a time when moral victories are real. (My new favorite phrase on early season comes from The Athletic’s Andy McCullough: “None of this matters, but all of it counts.”) Nick Pivetta, who spent all of last season giving up crooked numbers to American League East teams, got 14 swings-and-misses and threw five shutout innings against the hottest offense in the sport.
Alex Cora’s club got the game to exactly where it would have wanted: Rafael Devers up with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth. Colin Poche struck him out. Inside slider, two foul balls, looking at a fastball (on which Poche may have missed his spot badly). Devers struck out three times looking Monday, a first in his career.
“They pitched and we pitched well,” manager Alex Cora told reporters. “Obviously, we didn’t win the game, but as far as the game, it was great.”
Especially relative to the rest of the day. We have gone this far without noting the significant news: Adam Duvall’s broken wrist, which won’t need surgery but will still cost the lineup its best hitter to date for a couple of months. It’s the sort of rub-of-the-green that’s largely unavoidable across a season; part of Tampa Bay’s secret sauce on the way to 10-0 has been health, coming off a year where they lost more than 1,600 man games to injury.No matter your season outlook, April’s a time when moral victories are real. (My new favorite phrase on early season comes from The Athletic’s Andy McCullough: “None of this matters, but all of it counts.”) Nick Pivetta, who spent all of last season giving up crooked numbers to American League East teams, got 14 swings-and-misses and threw five shutout innings against the hottest offense in the sport.
Alex Cora’s club got the game to exactly where it would have wanted: Rafael Devers up with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth. Colin Poche struck him out. Inside slider, two foul balls, looking at a fastball (on which Poche may have missed his spot badly). Devers struck out three times looking Monday, a first in his career.
“They pitched and we pitched well,” manager Alex Cora told reporters. “Obviously, we didn’t win the game, but as far as the game, it was great.”
Especially relative to the rest of the day. We have gone this far without noting the significant news: Adam Duvall’s broken wrist, which won’t need surgery but will still cost the lineup its best hitter to date for a couple of months. It’s the sort of rub-of-the-green that’s largely unavoidable across a season; part of Tampa Bay’s secret sauce on the way to 10-0 has been health, coming off a year where they lost more than 1,600 man games to injury.
It’s a downer for a Red Sox team that didn’t need one. That it’s not as bad as the one Pittsburgh’s dealing with is . . . well, it’s something when you find yourself reflecting “at least they’re not the Pirates” when the Pirates just swept at Fenway.
Which brings me to my other 10. Another Patriots Day weekend is coming, and it’s the 10th since they were forever changed. An unforgettable year in Boston, in every sense of the word, begun by the genuine tragedy at the Boston Marathon finish line that April 15.
The Red Sox will mark the anniversary all weekend against the Angels, with members of the 2013 championship team at the Marathon finish line on Saturday afternoon, then feted before Sunday’s matinee. It is the juxtaposition of that year encapsulated in 72 hours. The joy that came from unspeakable pain. What was gained in the face of impossible loss.
Yet, I could not help but note another anniversary this week, one that received far less fanfare. Ten years ago Monday, the Red Sox sellout streak ended.
Look, I know. What you mentally in your head consider a sellout did not last 820 games (794 regular season, 26 playoffs) and stretch from May 15, 2003, through the 2013 home opener.
The Bruins have played before an announced 17,850 for every home game this season, and when I perused tickets for their Thursday pre-Christmas game against Winnipeg, it was a $130 get-in for last-row seats in the balcony. That is a sellout streak.
“We know part of the reason it’s over is that we failed last year. So we take responsibility for that,” then-GM Ben Cherington told reporters on April 10, 2013, a rain-delayed night on which the Red Sox blew a ninth-inning lead before an announced 30,862.
It was a formal closing of a chapter that, announced or not, had “The End” written when Terry Francona and Theo Epstein left town almost two years prior. It was a celebration, but one sprung from sadness, though nothing like what we would feel a week later.
And yet on reflection, that April 10 of 10 years ago was nowhere the dirge it seemed in the moment. The Red Sox were, albeit eight games in, in first place. That streak ending crowd puts the current numbers to shame; the Sox drew just 24,477 for Wednesday’s matinee, their worst non-pandemic number of the John Henry ownership by nearly 10 percent.
The 2013 Sox would, incomprehensibly, win a world championship that October. Their top three prospects were probably Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Matt Barnes — all hits, all key parts of world champions. (And that doesn’t even include the sleeper they had in Single A, that year authoring the season that would make #FeatsOfMookie a thing.)
You know the drill. Past performance does not guarantee future success. My only point is that success can arrive before you know it, and when you least expect it. The Rays, forever a team of transients, have an honest-to-goodness core: Wander Franco’s signed for a decade, Randy Arozarena and Shane McClanahan are still years from free agency, and all their notable arms outside Tyler Glasnow are locked in through 2025.
Ten games in, the 2023 Red Sox are 5-5, but look to have gotten it wrong in all the ways we thought they did. A one-run loss to a torrid team shouldn’t feel like an accomplishment; not with their resources, and not when one game can yield more or less anything.
But on the day of the Duvall injury, it felt like something. And real things have sprung from far less.