Brutal schedule, a bad Devers quote, and other Red Sox thoughts

Five Red Sox thoughts as they recover from a lost weekend vs. the Blue Jays to remain on the fringes of the playoff race...

Entering the gauntlet

The schedule has allowed the Red Sox to feel like contenders, but it's about to turn brutal. Meanwhile, the two teams they're immediately chasing are entering the softest portions of their respective slates.

If the Red Sox come up short in their quest for a wild card berth, the next month will be why.

As easy as they've had it over the last week and a half vs. the Royals, Tigers, and now Nationals (who are better than you think), it's going to get that difficult in short order.

The Red Sox open a three-game series with the Yankees on Friday, and while it's entirely possible New York just stinks now, this weekend could also represent its last stand. From there, the Red Sox visit Houston, return home to play the Dodgers and Astros, sneak in a series at Kansas City, and then play 13 straight vs. the rest of the American League East before earning the reward of a trip to Texas to see the first-place Rangers.

Once they leave Washington, only three of their next 33 games will be against teams with losing records. If they hope to reach October, they're going to have to earn it.

As if that's not bad enough, consider the schedules of the Blue Jays and Mariners. During that same stretch, the Jays will play 15 straight against teams with losing records, while the Mariners will get 12 such cupcakes. That's not a combo that lends itself to playing leapfrog.

Costly inaction

Chaim Bloom's refusal to sell at the trade deadline was viewed as an endorsement of the current roster, but the reality is not buying sent the same message to the clubhouse: We don't believe in you.

The Red Sox will argue they just needed their injured players to return, and Trevor Story, Chris Sale, and Garrett Whitlock have already made positive contributions. But the time to add was July, not August, and those three or four weeks when the Red Sox didn't receive any reinforcements may ultimately decide their fate.

Hitting a rough patch

Speaking of the trade deadline, we focused almost exclusively on the need for arms, but the bats have gone silent. The Red Sox haven't scored more than four runs in any of their six losses this month. When they tally at least five runs, conversely, they're 5-0.

They're hitting just .242 in August, with the primary culprits outfielders Jarren Duran (.175), Adam Duvall (.189), and Masataka Yoshida, who hasn't homered in three weeks. Newcomer Luis Arias is hitting only .200 in place of Christian Arroyo, and catcher Connor Wong (.222) might be hitting a wall, too.

It's no coincidence that the up-and-down nature of the season can be tied mostly to the offense. When the Red Sox hit, they roll. When they don't, they flounder.

Read the room, Raffy

There's a little too much back-patting going on for a fourth-place team. In an interview with The Boston Globe on the 10th anniversary of his signing, third baseman Rafael Devers had this to say about the team's performance:

"We're beating everybody's expectations at this point," he said. "Nobody in the league thought that we were going to be this good — nobody [running] the projections, nobody in the press, not anybody. We're in a good position right now, and I think everybody in this clubhouse is ready to give their 100 percent to keep winning games."

While it's technically true that the Red Sox have exceeded the minimal expectations that accompanied the 2023 season, that's not exactly a high bar. Devers is the team's best player, and he should know better than to pound his chest over the American League's seventh-best record.

Bronx history lesson

The last time the Yankees were .500 this late in a season was Sept. 6, 1995. Fans may remember that date for another reason – it's the day Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive games record at 2,131.

The 1995 Yankees, it should be noted, won 18 of their final 22 games to reach the playoffs, where they lost an epic ALDS to the Mariners on Ken Griffey Jr.'s mad dash around the bases in the 11th inning of the decisive Game 5. It remains the most famous run in Seattle's history, with a perfect call from legendary broadcaster Dave Niehaus.