It has been a very long time since I have had to say this, but the Red Sox embarrassed themselves on many fronts Sunday afternoon. The final score of 16-1 was bad enough, but that was just the cherry on top of the “Humiliation Sunday!”
I don’t have it in me to go through the entire game recap, but I will try to highlight some of the key parts, both good...well, not that many of those...and bad!
The biggest positive happened on the second pitch of the game, and honestly, if Mother Nature had decided to send down a monsoon immediately afterward, the day would have been a monumental success. Roman Anthony took the first strike he saw and drove it to right field for a ground-rule double, and all seemed to be right with the world.
Then reality took over. The Red Sox squandered the leadoff double, and the pain train was leaving the station!
No Red Sox batter reached base safely for another three innings until, amazingly, Trevor Story collected the second hit of the game with two outs in the top of the fifth. Meanwhile, the Yankees had men on base in every inning except the third, and Ranger Suárez was performing his typical high-wire act.
In the fifth inning, he fell off. And in a big way!
Granted, it wasn’t entirely his fault. There were plenty of accomplices. But in the end, Ranger is the one who is paid very handsomely to perform in pressure situations. Heck, the $130 million contract was given to him in large part because of his propensity to remain calm and in control during pressure-packed playoff games.
I guess what was about to happen in the fifth was too much pressure even for him!
Just like the Bello game, it all started with José Caballero.
This time, he hit a scorching one-hopper at Trevor Story at shortstop. Depending on your point of view, it was either a ball that a Major League shortstop has to handle, making everything that followed his fault, or it was an absolute seed that completely ate him up and would have taken the hands of Ozzie Smith to field successfully.
Either way, Caballero was safe at first to lead off the inning. For the record, the official scorer called it a hit...but he is a Yankee Stadium shill, right?
The next play is the one that will go down as another defining moment in the bitter rivalry between the Red Sox and Yankees.
Jazz Chisholm hit a sinking line drive to right-center field that looked like it was going to be a definite hit and probably put runners at first and third. But out of nowhere came Ceddanne Rafaela with a superhuman effort and a full-extension dive. The ball went into his glove, and then he rolled his wrist and extended his arm behind him as if he had just dived into a pool and was beginning his freestyle stroke. He immediately got up and threw to first to double up the runner.
That is where everything started to break down.
The first-base umpire, who had not exactly had a stellar series all weekend, called the play a hit. And yes, this was the same umpire who had been behind the plate Friday night. Just go back and check the charts for the number of challenges made on his calls during that game. Then try to explain why, while working third base later in the series, he was calling timeout with players running all over the bases as Carlos Rodón was chewing out his catcher for not catching a slider up and away.
But I digress...
Chad Tracy went to video replay, and as we waited, every announcer and color commentator on NESN and WEEI seemed confident it was a catch. Then came the word. The call on the field stood.
And it seemed like everyone associated with the Red Sox, from the uniformed personnel to the hired voices, lost their minds.
Understanding the situation, and somewhat shockingly, Aaron Boone had Ali Sánchez sacrifice the runners to second and third.
That is when Chad Tracy showed a little of what I am going to call inexperience, because I don’t want to believe it was a lack of faith in his team. He brought the infield in with two men in scoring position and one out.
Remember, it was the fifth inning. The score was 0-0.
I understand that the offense hasn’t exactly been firing on all cylinders, but a hit with the infield in means two runs, and at the plate was Paul Goldschmidt, a proven Major League RBI guy who knows exactly what he is doing.
And what did he do? He hit a routine ground ball right up the middle that probably would have been an easy out for a shortstop playing at normal depth.
Yes, a run would have scored, but there would have been two outs, and Ranger would have been facing a left-handed batter whom he had struck out in his previous at-bat.
Instead, the ball went into center field, and the Yankees were up 2-0.
Ranger looked a little stunned, and after he fell behind Bellinger 2-1, he gave up a single to center. The next batter was one of the Yankees’ newest deadline pickups, Heliot Ramos, who hammered a hanging two-strike curveball into the left-field seats and placed the Red Sox’ hopes in the ICU.
From there, it just got worse and worse.
The bats didn’t produce, and Jovani Moran came in and dumped a gallon of gasoline onto the already-smoldering dumpster that was the Boston Red Sox on Sunday afternoon.
By the time he walked off the Yankee Stadium mound with one out in the eighth inning, the score was 11-1.
But wait...There’s more!
With the return of Trevor Story, it seems that Andruw Monasterio has been relegated to mop-up duty! The former starting shortstop and overall energy guy relieved Moran and finished the weekend by providing the remaining Yankees faithful with their own personal Home Run Derby spectacular.
Three hits. Three walks. Five runs. Two bombs!
I thought the embarrassing Red Sox were in our rearview mirror after the transition in late July. I was wrong. I sure hope this was just an aberration.
Se7en
What’s in the box? No, it isn’t that horror story.
But on the day, the Red Sox managed only seven hits, and that wasn’t against a Yankees ace. It was against Will Warren. The same Will Warren who came into the game with an ERA well over 4.00 and a WHIP of 1.4.
He is good. But he is not dominant.
Even more embarrassing is that, of those seven hits, four came from Story and Anthony, two guys who hadn’t played in the Major Leagues since May.
Welcome back, boys. Sorry about everything else.
What Now?
As I said, the loss itself was not the most embarrassing aspect of this game.
It was the fact that the Red Sox allowed one inning, and, more specifically, one play, to impact nearly every aspect of how they handled the remainder of the game.
We already know this is an emotional team. When things are going well, that emotion can become contagious and carry them for long stretches. It helps explain how they were able to maintain such an incredibly long winning streak and extended period of success.
But there is another side to that.
When things begin to go poorly, the emotions can become just as contagious in the opposite direction. One bad play becomes a bad inning. A bad inning becomes a bad game. And if they aren’t careful, a bad game can become something much worse.
If this team is going to be successful down the stretch and into the playoffs, it is going to have to mature beyond the emotional consistency of a middle schooler.
And that goes for all avenues of the organization: the players, the manager, and even the announcers covering the team. Continuing to complain about a call that happened in the middle of a game and using it as an excuse for the lack of composure that followed does not help anyone.
In complete transparency, I thought Rafaela did not make the catch when I saw it initially.
When I saw it a second time, I began to think that perhaps he actually did. But when I finally saw the last angle of the play, I understood why the call stood. The ball went into Rafaela’s glove on the fly, but as he started to squeeze it, the ball remained in the webbing area as the backside of his glove folded against the ground. The ball remained in the glove, at least in part, because of that contact with the ground.
As Rafaela rolled over, he did an amazing job of maintaining control. But amazing effort and a completed catch are not necessarily the same thing.
Was it close?
Absolutely.
Was it harsh?
You bet.
But there simply was not enough evidence to overturn the initial call on the field.
And more importantly, that call did not make the Red Sox lose 16-1.
Boston continued to make mental and physical mistakes throughout the remainder of the inning and the game. They lost their composure, stopped executing, and turned a 0-0 game in the fifth inning into an absolute embarrassment.
Blame the call if you want. But the Red Sox need to own everything that happened afterward.
Unfortunately, Sunday’s debacle also probably bought them another trip to this House of Horrors for the Wild Card Round. And after what we just witnessed, I’m not sure anybody is looking forward to checking back in.
Images Courtesy of https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/1w2q2rf/highlight_ceddanne_rafaela_looks_to_have_made_a/ and https://meme.com/memes/its-a-trap