Are Red Sox the HOTTEST team in baseball after winning SIX straight?!
Trenni Casey and Marc Bertrand react to the Red Sox' 2-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox to complete the sweep. It was also Boston's 6-straight win and their 11th win in the last 13 games. Trenni calls the Red Sox one of the hottest teams in baseball as they sit just 2.5 games back of the final Wild Card spot. They also discuss whether or not Boston should be buyers at the deadline. Plus, they address the latest on Roman Anthony's rehab.
Are Red Sox the HOTTEST team in baseball after winning SIX straight?! originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Video Transcript
I never thought that I'd be saying this, but the Red Sox entered this afternoon's game against the White Sox as the hottest team in baseball.
Boston boasting a 10 and 2 record since June 25th and looking for its sixth straight win in today's matinee.
Patrick Sandoval on the bump for the first time this season for Boston.
He allowed just one run in four and a third innings.
He struck out five White Sox batters, who aren't a bad team, by the way.
They're leading the AL Central.
A great start for the lefty.
Top of the fourth, still scoreless until Caleb Durbin, Phil Perry's guy, pulls a one-one pitch to left field, a two-run shot, his ninth of the season, as Phil would say, "We don't need Alex Bregman around here.
We got Caleb Durbin."
Sox win this one, nail-biter, two to one, complete the sweep and win their sixth straight.
So let's take a look at Karen Lou, which is presented by the Chevy Silverado.
American League wild card standings, the Sox sitting two and a half games now out of that final wild card spot.
But there are three teams between them and the Rangers, with about 70 games to go in the regular season.
All right, Mark "The Beetle" Bertrand, I believe on this very show, a time when you and I actually worked together in the, in the last few months- Well, I've been here quite a bit- Which has been rare on Thursdays.
Been rare.
No, I appreciate you.
I appreciate you filling in, filling the void.
I believe you said they were dead.
Yes Put a fork in them.
Yep.
They're terrible.
Do you still feel that way?
That sounds like me.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I still feel that way.
Okay, great.
Is that wrong of me to feel that way?
No, not in the, not in the short run.
I mean, listen, I don't want to say that this isn't meaningful.
It is meaningful, and this is a lot of fun.
And if they could play the White Sox every game the rest of the way, they'll be able to win in this fashion, in two-one games with, with guys like Durbin hitting home runs.
So to me, I, I still think they're not the team that they have been for the last few weeks.
I think that they are the team that they were for the first few months of the season.
I don't think it's gonna last, but it's fun.
I even think they could be, there's a possibility that there's something in the middle, that they're not as bad as they were at the beginning of the season, but they're not as good as they're playing right now either.
Like, you know, a lot of people will look and say, "Oh, they swept the Yankees in a four-game series," but the Yankees were without Aaron Judge, right?
Like it, to me, to me, they, they're facing teams that are, that were either surprising, were surprising, like the White Sox, who I think after today are only two or three games over 500, but not bad, better than we expected, or you're facing a team like the Yankees that probably is just hitting a rough patch.
I'll just say they, they- Like, I just don't trust that this lineup is gonna continue to produce runs when they need them to.
And at some point, young pitchers hit speed bumps.
They, you know, th- they struggle, and I think that's just where they are right now.
Their pitching has been so good, and their record doesn't match how good their pitching has been this season.
Yeah, 'cause they've got an up and down inconsistent lineup.
Yes, and it's, it's a, it's really a symptom of their offense being lacking.
And so to me, that's, that's not something that they're gonna be able to get by on and, and win in big large chunks like they've done these last few weeks.
I- And the Yankee series was great.
I mean, they caught the Yankees at- At the right time at, at them, at the Yankees playing the worst baseball they've played probably all year.
Okay.
Well, maybe this will help them though.
The Red Sox are back in the wild card race, so what will they do with the trade deadline?
Here's MLB Insider Ken Rosenthal before today's game.
Boston wants to see if it could fight its way back into the playoff picture, though people briefed on the club's thinking suggested the Red Sox will be realistic about their position as the deadline gets closer.
Do you, should they be buyers?
Should they be sellers?
Like, it's just- Sell you still think they should sell?
I still think they should sell, and, and seeing that Ken Rosenthal report makes me happy because they should sell because they have pieces to sell.
They have pieces that won't help them in the future, and they can move them.
Aroldis Chapman, the guy who closed out that game today, you could move him.
You could get something, in return that could help you.
And so will that likely be in the form of prospects and young players?
Probably, but those are also things you could flip in an off-season.
I know baseball's future right now is murky as we get into a lockout, but I do think that they'd be better served selling because I don't think they're going to actually get in this.
I, I don't necessarily disagree, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna play devil's advocate here.
W- with the lockout looming, and with what we know about how the Red Sox, draft and then develop those young prospects, might it be better to, and better for your fan base, particularly going into an unstable off-season, to ch-, maybe not chase a pennant, but chase a wild card?
Like anything could happen, any, maybe Roman Anthony gets healthy.
Maybe Marcelo Meyer kind of figures it out.
Maybe Garrett Crochet finally comes back and he's healthy, and you can put it all together and make some sort of interesting run at the end if you put like a big bat in the middle of that lineup.
Yeah, I mean the big problem with that though is that they're winning without those guys right now when you're talking about Anthony and Meyer.
True.
I mean, those guys go away and, and the- They're, they're better without them and the vibe has kind of changed with this team, hasn't it?
It's an indictment of those two young players.
They send, they ship one to the swamp in Florida.
The other one gets hurt, and it's like, yeah, well, now they've got these 4A guys that are working hard and fighting for their Major League life, and they're winning ball games.
So I, I, I know.
I get it.
Those are talented, well, at least Roman Anthony is a very talented- Allegedly hitter.
I mean, when he's available, he is.
I'll give him that.
When he's not in Fort Myers be- getting, being taken away from all the distractions.
Marcelo Meyer's a much bigger question mark for me as to what he can provide them ever, never mind this season.
Okay, we just talked in the last, last segment about Joe Mazzulla's on a short lease, Brad Stevens.
Craig Breslow, obviously after the, after the Alex Cora firing, also on a short lease.
But maybe you have to give him some credit for his ability to go find good pitching.
Patrick Sandoval, solid performance, first outing in two years.
Tyron Guerrero has come out of nowhere to solidify middle relief.
Jake Bennett's been a revelation.
Breslow also hit on big names like Sonny Gray, Ranger Suarez, and Aroldis Chapman.
W- when you look this up and down and you said the pitching has at least kept them in games even if their lineup doesn't, like, does this save his job?
I'm not giving him credit for, for Sandoval.
There's no way you can give it He signed the guy a year and a half ago, and he made his first start ever today.
We're gonna give him credit for that?
Well, maybe he saw something in him.
We can't give him credit for that.
They paid him $18 million.
It's been 18 months, he just got on the mound.
We're not giving him credit for Sandoval.
No.
Okay, but what about- No, no, no, actually- What about everybody else?
And I enjoyed watching Sandoval today, by the way.
Yeah.
I like his stuff.
But, um- What about everybody else, though?
I, I will- He has made good, he has made good acquisitions and smart moves when it comes But you could even go back, those are, those are just the, what happened this year.
But Garrett Crochet is on his watch.
I think it's- Traded for and signing him to an extension.
Listen, I think Ranger Surez, giving Ranger Surez a huge contract, was that because he targeted Ranger Surez?
Or was that because he whiffed on Alex Bregman?
That's 'cause he whiffed on Alex Bregman.
Okay, so I don't want to give him too much credit for Ranger Surez.
And I also would add, it's easier to find pitching now than it's ever been in this sport.
Everybody pitches well.
It's like the story of this team that no one really wants to admit, which is, yeah, pitching is dominant in baseball right now.
Offense is not.
Offense is the hard piece of the puzzle to figure out, and this GM has never figured it out.
All right.
may, last but certainly not least, we've got an injury update on one Roman Anthony this morning on WEEI's Greg Hill Show.
Breslow saying Anthony's on the right track, Roman Anthony.
He also discussed the team sending Anthony down to Fort Myers to rehab with a, quote, "singular focus," as Chad Tracy explained it.
You know, we're constantly trying to balance what is best for Roman with what is best for the 26 guys who, you know, are, are trying to get ready for a game.
And, unfortunately, the, the, the number of players on the IL has grown, but the, the size of the training room at Fenway Park has not.
The, the notion that this is, like, somehow punitive or that we're, I don't know, trying to keep Roman from eating dinner, is, is pretty ridiculous.
But, that's exactly what they're doing because he's one of your star players.
Oh.
And if you're gonna have an injured player close to home, don't you want to keep a close eye- No, I think- on your budding prospect, the guy you handed a big contract to?
Or is he not doing what he should be doing, during a Boston summer, so you send him down where nobody can go outside in Fort Myers?
I, I think Craig Breslow is absolutely right.
There's just not enough in the city of Boston in terms of medical facilities- No and rehab facilities and training facilities.
I, I do agree that they should have sent him to the capital of medical care in the United States, in the western Hemisphere west coast of Florida, down there in Fort Myers.
I, I, you know, I think he's onto something there.
I can understand that.
There's just no more room in the There's no more training space here in Boston.
You gotta get him out of here.
But- No, no space.
You wanna go What you, what you really want to do- What is he talking about?
What you really want to do is send him- You know how silly that sounds?
Send him down there.
Who buys that?
No one buys it.
Who hears that guy and says, "You know what?
He's right.
I'm, I buy what he's selling"?
He sounds foolish, and he often sounds foolish.
But- But this, this is- It is punitive.
They sent him there for a reason.
It's this team's MO.
They want- This is what this team does, is they, they look you straight in the face and tell you that what you're They gaslight you.
You, they're lying to you.
I, I actually think that Sam Kennedy did a decent job basically burying this guy in the early part, and then kind of doubling down, well, making it sound like he was taking it back, but he wasn't really taking it back.
To me, it's pretty clear they're not happy with him right now.
Nope.
They're not happy with the player.
