BOSTON — Time is not the Red Sox’ friend.
The season ends four weeks from Sunday and the Red Sox find themselves four games behind the third wild card spot in the American. There is ground to make up and not a lot of time in which to do it.
Like most managers, Alex Cora takes the approach that his team will be fine if it can just win series, and ordinarily, that makes sense. But winning two out of three at this point may not be enough. The Red Sox need a sustained hot streak, where they win nine of 11, or 10 out of 13 in order to close the gap in the standings.
Can they do it? Do the 2024 Red Sox have a finishing kick in them
“We do, we do,” said Cora before the Red Sox and Blue Jays met for the fourth time in the last three days. “I always say, when you’re playing bad, play .500 baseball and survive. And then you win eight out of 10, 12 out of 15.”
It would aid the Red Sox’ efforts if they could get some help elsewhere and Cora believes that will happen, thanks to the design of the schedule.
“All those teams (in the AL Central) are going to play against each other,” said Cora. “At one point, when they’re playing (head-to-head), we’ve got to win. Obviously, take care of yourself and then look around at what happened that night.”
Indeed, with the Cleveland Guardians, Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins separated by just three games, intra-division play in the final month will have them frequently facing off against one another. But regardless of what happens to the competition, the Red Sox have to take care of their own business.
Of late, they’ve been unable to piece together a long streak of strong play. Since the All-Star break, their longest winning streak has been three games (Aug. 14-16); meanwhile, they’ve had three separate four-game losing streaks.
To find a sustained hot streak, you need to go back to June and July. From June 12-June 24, the Sox ripped off 10 wins in 12 tries. Then, later in the month, they began another streak that would carry them to the All-Star break, winning 10 of 13.
Since then, however, they’ve been unable to get untracked. But Cora believes a key reliever getting healthy could be key.
“I think the bullpen’s going to be OK with (Justin) Slaten back,” said Cora. “The rotation will settle. We’ve shown signs pitching better in the last 10, 12 days, we’ve been pitching better. If we do that, we’re going to be OK. That’s the most important thing — the pitching part of it.”
Offensively, the team has performed better. But while they score runs on the road, the same can’t be said for games at Fenway.
“(In terms of power), there’s a big disparity there,” acknowledged Cora. “We’re 24th in (home run frequency at home), we hit one home run every 30-something at-bats here; we’re fourth, we hit one every 24 at-bats on the road. You guys know the roster is a lefthanded-hitting roster. On the road, we will hit homers. We love the running game and all that, but (homers) are game-changers. We’ve seen it.
“At home, when (Tyler O’Neill) is not clicking, it’s hard for our guys to hit the ball out of the ballpark. We’ve got (seven games) on the road next week. I think we’ve got a lot of games on the road in September. If we have to dominate on the road and be below average at home and get into The Dance that way, we’ll do it.”
The time is now, because there isn’t much left.
“I do believe we’ve got a run,” concluded Cora. “When? Hopefully it started (Tuesday). We’ve just got to be patient, work hard, slow down the game. And I do believe we’ve got a run like that (remaining).”
