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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 3:29:41 GMT -5
Pete Abraham @peteabe · 6h
Sox (75-59) have lost three straight.
Rays (84-58) have won 9 straight and 13 of 14. 31-11 since the break.
Sox won the first four games of the season series. Rays are 9-1 since.
Sox 1-7 at the Trop, allowing 42 runs.
Sale vs. Rasmussen tomorrow.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 3:31:25 GMT -5
Julian McWilliams @byjulianmack · 3h Day 2 Update:
Hernández: positive Arroyo: positive Barnes: positive Pérez: positive Strength coach Kiyoshi Momose: positive Ramón Vázquez: positive Taylor: close contact Tom Goodwin: close contact Bogaerts: positive Sawamura: positive
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 3:37:17 GMT -5
Red Sox Nation Stats @rsnstats · 6h #RedSox fall to 29-36 when scoring first, 60-30 when hitting a home run, 9-47 when trailing after 6 innings, 67-14 when scoring 4+ runs.
#RedSox were 4-for-12 with runners in scoring position in this one, left 9 runners on. #Rays were 3-for-10 with RISP, left 5 runners on base. #MLB
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 3:38:36 GMT -5
Red Sox Nation Stats @rsnstats · 5h #RedSox Manager Alex Cora on Xander Bogaerts: "We got the results during the game and we had to take him out. He tested positive for COVID." Says right now there are no other "close contacts" he's aware of. "Will go through the same fire drill tomorrow, we'll see where we're at."
#RedSox Manager Cora on Xander Bogaerts: "He's the leader of the team. One of the best shortstops…in the league. We're going to miss him. But we still have our pitching staff, we still have some capable guys that can swing the bats [but] we need to play better defense."
#RedSox Manager Alex Cora: "We played sloppy baseball there for a little bit, but, like I said, the effort was there 'til the end. We were one swing away from tying that game."
#RedSox Manager Cora says Ryan Brasier and Danny Santana will "most likely" be the additions to the roster for September, which begins tomorrow.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 3:39:06 GMT -5
Red Sox Nation Stats @rsnstats · 5h #RedSox Manager Cora: "We got Chris, we got Eduardo, we got Nate, we got Tanner, lined up for the next 4 games. Our bullpen, we were able to reset the last 2 days…I think tomorrow we are at full force…I do feel we still can compete, we still can make it to the playoffs."
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 3:39:50 GMT -5
Red Sox Nation Stats @rsnstats · 5h #RedSox Kyle Schwarber on COVID: "I think the biggest concern is just the health of the individuals. This is no joke. It's not nothing to not take serious. You just hope that it's a light case…and that they recover quickly. That's…the biggest thing that's on everyone's mind."
#RedSox Kyle Schwarber on #Rays: "They've done a good job with the pitching side of the game. They're attacking the zone, making pitches…They're some aspects, too, that some things go their way…some tweener balls today. You just got to go out there and keep competing."
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 3:41:23 GMT -5
Red Sox Nation Stats @rsnstats · 4h Santana has been underwhelming, agreed. Brasier hasn’t pitched at the Major League level since September 2020, though his minor league outings are inauspicious.
Cora’s only options are to play the cards he’s been dealt by the front office. There aren’t any hidden cards anywhere.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 3:46:08 GMT -5
Red Sox @ Rays Wednesday, 1 September 2021 7pm @ Trop
Sale 3-0/ 2.35
3-0 with a 2.35 ERA in 3 starts of 2021. 10-6 with a 2.94 ERA in 20 career appearances (18 starts) vs TBR.
Rasmussen 1-1/3.46
1-1 with an 3.46 ERA in 30 games (5 starts) of 2021. 0-0 with a 2.70 ERA in 3 career appearances (1 start) vs BOS.
Chris Sale comes home as Red Sox face streaking Rays According to STATS
Boston Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale is returning home to pitch for the first time in more than two years and bringing a little bit of perfection along with him.
Sale will take the mound Wednesday for his fourth start since Tommy John surgery last year as the Red Sox square off against the Tampa Bay Rays in the third game of a four-game series in St. Petersburg, Fla.
After losing the first two games against the Rays, the Red Sox could surely use a boost from the lean 32-year-old left-hander. Boston has dropped three straight while Tampa Bay is riding a nine-game winning streak.
A native of nearby Lakeland, Fla., Sale had a stellar career at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers before being selected in the first round (13th overall) by the Chicago White Sox in the 2010 draft.
His last start in the Rays' domed stadium by the bay was on July 23, 2019, when Sale earned the win with six strong innings and 10 strikeouts in Boston's 5-4 victory.
In 2020, he struggled with his health early in spring training before the team announced on March 30 that he had undergone surgery on his left elbow after the season had been delayed due to coronavirus.
Sale (3-0, 2.35 ERA) appears to be back on track following his Aug. 14 return.
He has recorded wins over the Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins in his three starts. He added his third career "immaculate inning" Thursday when he fanned the Twins' Nick Gordon, Andrelton Simmons and Rob Refsnyder on nine pitches.
Sale joined Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax -- a fellow southpaw -- as the only pitchers to have done it three times.
In 20 career appearances (18 starts) against the Rays, the seven-time All-Star is 10-6 with a 2.94 ERA, yielding a .180 average to the opposition.
He will hope to give a boost to a Red Sox team that is in the midst of a COVID-19 crisis. Reliever Hirokazu Sawamura and shortstop Xander Bogaerts tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, with Bogaerts getting pulled off the field midgame when his test result was learned.
Josh Taylor is in quarantine due to close contact, bringing the team's total to seven players with virus-related issues.
"It feels like it is one every day, right?" manager Alex Cora said, concerned that there could be more. "This is where our reality is. Hopefully, this is the end of it, but there's no guarantees."
The Rays, meanwhile, are feeling positive vibes after closing August with a 21-6 mark. Tampa Bay managed just five hits Tuesday in beating Boston for the ninth time in the past 10 meetings, riding a six-run third inning to an 8-5 victory.
"We took advantage of good at-bats and timely hitting," said Rays manager Kevin Cash, whose club leads the majors in runs per game at 5.38. "But sometimes you have to win like that ... wait them out, and that timely hit came for us."
Reliever-turned-starter Drew Rasmussen (1-1, 3.46 ERA) is set to make the start Wednesday. He appeared to have found his niche with the Rays, sliding into the rotation and pitching deeper into games as his pitch-count increases.
Rasmussen, 26, has been used as a starter his last three times out, going at least four innings in each game.
The right-hander has no record and a 2.70 ERA in three career outings (one start) against Boston, all this season.
--Field Level Media
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 6:18:18 GMT -5
Boston Red Sox’s Alex Cora: ‘Xander (Bogaerts) is the leader of this team ... We’re going to miss him’ Updated: 6:49 a.m. | Published: 6:25 a.m.
By Christopher Smith | csmith@masslive.com
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Head trainer Brad Pearson walked into the dugout in the middle of the second inning Tuesday and gave manager Alex Cora more bad news.
“It was weird when Brad came in,” Cora said. “I was like, ‘Whoa. Gosh.’”
Pearson let Cora know All-Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts was the sixth Red Sox player and eighth person traveling with the team to test positive for COVID-19 since Friday.
Bogaerts, who stroked an RBI single in the first inning, already had jogged out to his position for the bottom of the second. Cora waved him back to the dugout.
“It’s not easy because whenever you see Brad’s number or Chaim (Bloom’s) number. They’re not calling you to say, ‘Hi’ or ‘Good morning. How was your night?’” Cora said. “It seems like whenever Brad texts me or calls me, it’s something negative.”
The Red Sox lost 8-5 to the Rays here at Tropicana Field on Tuesday.
“We’ve got to keep going,” Cora said. “They’re not going to stop the tournament for the Red Sox. We know that. So we’ve got to figure this out, show up tomorrow, play good baseball, do it the next day and then go home and see where we’re at.”
This is the worst possible time to be without Bogaerts and to face a major COVID outbreak.
Twenty-eight games remain in Boston’s regular season. The Red Sox are fighting for a postseason spot and have played under .500 (12-16) in August. Now they have to try to win games without their best hitter. The Athletics are just one game behind Boston for the second Wild Card spot.
“Obviously Xander, he’s the leader of the team,” Cora said. “He’s one of the best shortstops, if not the best shortstop, in the league. And we’re going to miss him but we still have our pitching staff. We still have some capable guys that can swing the bats. ... We need to play better defense.”
Who will play shortstop? Jonathan Araúz, a 23-year-old batting .175 in 20 big league games this season, is Boston’s only true option at shortstop on the active roster.
“I’m like 15 pounds overweight, can’t move,” Cora joked when asked about his shortstop options. “(Third base coach) Carlos (Febles), he had gout for two years so he can’t play short. Jackie’s here. López.”
López is on the taxi squad. He has batted .260 with a .321 on-base percentage, .378 slugging percentage, three homers, 12 doubles and one triple in 58 games for Triple-A Worcester this season. He never has played in the big leagues. He has 441 starts at shortstop in the minors.
Danny Santana likely will be activated from the IL on Wednesday. He has made 104 starts at shortstop in the majors. But he hasn’t played the position since 2019.
“I do feel we still can compete,” Cora said. “We still can make it to the playoffs. It’s just a matter of what we’re going to do in the upcoming days just to slow this down not only off the field. But on the field, how we are going to try to quote-unquote attack this.”
Kyle Schwarber added, “I think the biggest concern is just the health of the individuals. This is no joke. It’s nothing to not take serious. You just hope it’s a light case ... that they’re not feeling it super hard and that they recover quickly. That’s kind of the biggest thing that’s on everyone’s minds is the well-being of all the guys. It’s the invisible enemy. It sucks. But we have to keep moving forward and putting our best foot forward. We’re in the middle of this thing and it’s the next-man up mentality right now. We’ve just got to keep moving forward.”
Bogaerts, Kiké Hernández, Martin Pérez, Matt Barnes, Christian Arroyo, Hirokazu Sawamura, quality control coach Ramón Vázquez and strength and conditioning coach Kiyoshi Momose all have tested positive.
Reliever Josh Taylor and first base coach Tom Goodwin also are quarantining after being identified as close contacts.
The Red Sox are one of just seven MLB teams that has not reached the 85% team vaccination threshold.
“We’ve got Chris (Sale), we’ve got Eduardo (Rodriguez), we’ve got Nate (Eovaldi), we’ve got Tanner (Houck) lined up for the next four games,” Cora said.
The Red Sox fell behind 7-1 on Tuesday. But brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the ninth.
“It’s tough but we played till the end today,” Cora said. “We put good at-bats. We had the tying run at the plate. The pitching staff did a good job after that bad (third) inning. We didn’t stop playing, which is good. We were able to do a few things pitching-wise. We reset our bullpen. We played sloppy baseball there for a little bit but I guess the effort was there until the end. We were one swing away from tying that game.”
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 6:21:57 GMT -5
Tony Massarotti @tonymassarotti 2h Red Sox and A’s now tied in the loss column for the fifth and final playoff spot in the American League.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 13:05:11 GMT -5
The Red Sox need saving, and Chris Sale feels like the last line of defense
By Jon Couture September 1, 2021 | 10:03 AM
Wednesday was already going to be the most significant Chris Sale Day of the 2021 season. The Red Sox need him not only to be their ace on the mound against the American League’s best team, but the fuming firestarter who helped get them over the line three years ago from the dugout.
After Tuesday, when Xander Bogaerts became the latest caught in a mushrooming COVID-19 outbreak? It feels like a cliff’s edge. A Hail Mary, though at this point, it’ll feel like a prayer answered for Sale to simply get to the mound without a positive test derailing it.
The COVID count at press time, all happening since Friday: Kiké Hernández, Christian Arroyo, Matt Barnes, Martín Pérez, Josh Taylor (a close contact who is quarantining, which likely means he’s unvaccinated), Hirokazu Sawamura (whose positive was announced before Tuesday’s 8-5 loss), Bogaerts, and three staffers.
The Globe’s Peter Abraham put it bluntly: “Nearly a quarter of their roster is made up of players who should be playing for Triple A Worcester.”
The addition of Bogaerts to sick bay after a first-inning RBI single appeared to drain their will to fight. Tampa hung six runs on them an inning later, thanks in part to one Hunter Renfroe throw bounding through the infield to the dugout, one pitch in the dirt screaming past Christian Vázquez to the backstop, and one bloop landing between two fielders and bounding away.
Of course, the real ones out there know that’s been happening for six weeks. We’re just relieved Travis Shaw and Rafael Devers mostly stayed in the zone as they struck out as the potential tying run in the ninth.
Legacies, in the end, are just what we remember, and I’m fascinated to see where 2021’s ends up. The answer, of course, depends largely on where we go from here. It’s Sept. 1, and the Red Sox still sit in playoff position — two behind the Yankees (who’ve lost four straight) to host the wild-card game, and even in the loss column with Oakland to play in it.
Will these Red Sox be the group that won us back for four months, pulling game after game from the fire?
Will they be the team let down by their bosses, who wouldn’t crack the sacrosanct luxury tax while the AL got better around them?
Or will they be the team let down by themselves, the reluctance of some to get vaccinated ultimately dooming them all?
Seeming everyone talking about the outbreak immediately brings up the Red Sox not reaching baseball’s 85 percent vaccination threshold. It’s an understandable connection, especially given how illogical much of the hesitancy seems, but please keep it in its proper context.
One of the first MLB teams to hit 85 percent was the Yankees, who despite that have had 14 players land on the COVID list this season, many via breakthrough infections. The NFL’s Tennessee Titans are 90-percent vaccinated, but have nine players in protocols.
Red Sox vaccine hesitancy certainly isn’t helping, but the race to treat it as the source of their problems is largely speculative until someone proves otherwise.
“I’m not going to go into details with this, but I’m not as frustrated with the situation because of knowing everything else about it,” manager Alex Cora told reporters when asked about frustrations that Boston’s low vaccination rate may have sparked the outbreak. “I’ve been saying all along, it’s their choice, and you have to respect that. It just happened to us. I’m not as frustrated as if it was a different way, let’s put it that way.”
That’s been his public refrain, same as “we’ll be fine” was as the 2019 season went down the drain. His 2021 team has still overachieved, though they’re down to a 90-win pace, but they’re increasingly proving themselves unworthy of playoff baseball for reasons having nothing to do with CBT or COVID-19.
Forget the skeleton crew. Devers straight muffing a routine grounder Monday was straight Little League stuff, and key in the loss. So was Vázquez failing to block a strike three, the latest in a long line of fundamental things he’s not doing.
“It’s all going to come down to adversity,” Pivetta told reporters Monday. “There’s no room to really let that affect us in any way. We just have to go out and play baseball. That’s what it comes down to. Once you get out on that field, everything else is kind of white noise and you focus on the task at hand.”
Of course, Pivetta’s ERA is nearly 6.00 since his 10-strikeout gem at Oakland on the Fourth of July. Message, messenger, and all that.
Which brings us back to Sale and Wednesday night. Failure is a snowball rolling down a hill, and these Red Sox appear prone to pressing, if not have a full-on confidence problem. Hearing Kyle Schwarber bring up how much his new team will miss Bogaerts’s “presence” rang more alarm bells on top of the loss of a talented mid-order bat.
“We’ve got to keep going,” Cora said. “Like I said [Monday], and I’m going to keep saying it, they’re not going to stop the tournament for the Red Sox, we know that. We’ve got to figure this out, show up tomorrow, play good baseball.”
In deeds (and words, if he chooses), the wiry lefty can be a rallying point both tonight and next week, when he lines up against Tampa again. The Rays have won 13 of 14, 24 of 30, and nine of 10 head-to-head with the Red Sox, the reigning AL champs asserting themselves as the threat we all thought.
Boston’s not going to catch them. But they can hold off Oakland and Seattle, where they visit in two weeks. They can win amid an outbreak, just like the Yankees did to them. Anything less is excuse making.
No better place to start, the calendar turned, than Sale. Who feels like the last line of defense before this previously feel-good season enters free fall.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 13:06:41 GMT -5
Jon Couture @joncouture · 3h "Wednesday was already going to be the most significant Chris Sale Day of the 2021 season. ... After Tuesday, when Xander Bogaerts became the latest caught in a mushrooming COVID-19 outbreak? It feels like a cliff’s edge."
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 13:36:41 GMT -5
Game 135: Red Sox at Rays lineups and pregame notesBy Andrew Mahoney Globe Staff,Updated September 1, 2021, 11:10 a.m. The bad news just keeps coming for the Red Sox, as Xander Bogaerts and Hirokazu Sawamura were added to the list of team personnel who have tested positive for COVID, joining Kiké Hernández, Christian Arroyo, Matt Barnes, Martín Pérez, quality control coach Rámon Vázquez, and strength and conditioning coach Kiyoshi Momose. The Sox went on to lose again to the Rays, 8-5, Tuesday night, and they now turn to Chris Sale to stem the tide and go deep with the bullpen depleted. Lineups RED SOX (75-59): 1. Kyle Schwarber (L) 1B 2. Hunter Renfroe (R) RF 3. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 4. J.D. Martinez (R) DH 5. Alex Verdugo (L) LF 6. Christian Vazquez (R) C 7. Jarren Duran (L) CF 8. Jack Lopez (R) 2B 9. Jonathan Arauz (S) SS Pitching: LHP Chris Sale (3-0, 2.35 ERA) RAYS (84-48):1. Randy Arozarena (R) RF 2. Nelson Cruz (R) DH 3. Wander Franco (S) SS 4. Yandy Diaz (R) 1B 5. Manuel Margot (R) CF 6. Mike Zunino (R) C 7. Jordan Luplow (R) LF 8. Joey Wendle (L) 3B 9. Taylor Walls (S) 2B Pitching: RHP Drew Rasmussen (1-1, 3.46 ERA) Time: 7:10 p.m. TV, radio: NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7 Red Sox vs. Rasmussen: Xander Bogaerts 0-2, Bobby Dalbec 0-1, Rafael Devers 1-3, Jarren Duran 0-2, J.D. Martinez 1-4, Kevin Plawecki 0-2, Hunter Renfroe 0-2, Kyle Schwarber 0-1, Alex Verdugo 1-2, Christian Vázquez 0-1 Rays vs. Sale: Nelson Cruz 9-29, Yandy Díaz 4-6, Kevin Kiermaier 6-20, Austin Meadows 0-3, Mike Zunino 0-14 Stat of the day: The Red Sox have lost seven straight at Tropicana Field. Notes: The Red Sox have homered in each of their last nine games (20 home runs total), their longest streak of the season … In 20 career appearances (18 starts) against the Rays, Sale is 10-6 with a 2.94 ERA, yielding a .180 average … Rasmussen, 26, has been used as a starter his last three times out, going at least four innings in each game … In three appearances against the Red Sox this season, including one start, Rasmussen is 0-0 with a 2.70 ERA. Song of the Day: Patsy Cline - I Fall To Pieceswww.youtube.com/watch?v=HG-8uZg2uV0
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 14:03:24 GMT -5
Ian Browne @ianmbrowne · 27m Yairo Munoz latest Red Sox player to test positive. On and on it goes.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Sept 1, 2021 14:09:04 GMT -5
Christopher Smith @smittyonmlb · 4m Chaim Bloom will speak to the media at 4 p.m., then it's Alex Cora at 4:30 p.m.
Red Sox's COVID outbreak at 6 players and 2 staff members
7 players overall on the COVID-related IL
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