After last night’s loss to the Yankees, I saw a number of different mindsets regarding where the Red Sox stand as they progress toward the playoffs in October. For those of you who were living under a rock and didn’t catch any of the game last night, the Red Sox lost 1-0 to Cam Schlittler and the New York Yankees. They scratched out a whopping five hits and six walks against the possible Cy Young Award winner and the bulk of the Yankees pen.
So, I heard quite a bit from people in the camp that believe the Red Sox are not a playoff team and that it doesn’t matter what happens from here because, once they face good pitching, the offense doesn’t stand a chance. This is the game they are going to attach their banner to as the prime example of why we shouldn’t even waste our time with the remainder of the season.
Yet, on the other side of that argument is the “American League is trash and anything is possible” crowd. Incredibly, this game is also a cornerstone upon which they can build their argumentative fortress.
Sure, we didn’t score against one of the best pitchers in all of baseball this year, but that devastating lineup in the Bronx managed only one run against...our least effective pitcher.
And believe me, I am cleaning up the language and the negative adjectives that many used to describe Patrick Sandoval.
But however you want to describe him, Sandoval was on a much lower tier of pitcher for the Yankees to face compared to what Boston faced in Schlittler. Yet, a couple of inches here or there and maybe a little more intelligent baserunning, and Boston wins that game by a run. Then this argument is probably being held by the diehard fans of the team down south instead of us.
Same game. Two different frames of mind.
Which argument are you going to enlist with?
I can’t believe I am going to say this after what I witnessed in April and May, but personally, I think there has been some kind of transition in the mindset of the Red Sox uniformed staff and quite possibly those wearing the polos and pocket protectors in the suites as well.
For once, the 2026 Red Sox seem to be the priority, rather than some hypothetical future iteration of the team that may or may not ever materialize. Players are approaching hitting and offense with a little more aplomb than simply “grip it and rip it.” The defense is actually catching the ball, throwing it to the correct base, and doing so a little more accurately than it has before. The pitching staff is, for the most part, limiting, if not stifling, the amount of damage it surrenders.
Most importantly, the front office does not appear to be thinking simply about the bottom line as the main factor, but instead about what is actually best for the ball club.
That has never been more evident than this week, as we watch a couple of multimillion-dollar ballplayers sit in Worcester battling the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders while a group of plucky AAAA ballplayers battle in the Bronx against the vaunted Bombers.
So, where do you fall on this continuum? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!