Boston Red Sox Win Two Series and Lose Their New Second Baseman

The Boston Red Sox went 4-2 over the past week, took two of three from Toronto at Fenway, took two of three in Oakland, and still walked out of it feeling like they got mugged in a parking lot. That is what happens when the infielder you trade for on a Saturday gets his wrist broken by a 94.9 mph fastball in his first game with the club on a Monday. Boston sits at 56-51, third in the American League East, seven games behind Tampa Bay, and holding the second AL wild card spot by a game and a half. The baseball has been fine. The medical staff is having a season.

Six games, four wins, and one afternoon of Dylan Cease

The Blue Jays came to Fenway on July 24 and got beaten 6-4 in a game Anthony Seigler basically annexed. The catcher went 4-for-5 with two doubles, a home run, two RBI and two runs scored. Ceddanne Rafaela added a two-run shot. Patrick Sandoval gave Boston 4 2/3 scoreless before the bullpen made it interesting, Greg Weissert coughing up three in the seventh before Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman shut the door. Kazuma Okamoto homered and drove in three for Toronto and it still was not close enough.

Then July 25 happened. Dylan Cease threw a complete-game one-hitter with 12 strikeouts, and the only Boston baserunner who reached with authority was Andruw Monasterio, who doubled and got stranded. Six-nothing, over in two hours and 25 minutes. Sonny Gray was charged with five earned in five innings on 10 hits, one of maybe three genuinely ugly starts he has had all year. There is not much else to say about a game where your offense collects one hit.

Boston answered on July 26 with a 6-1 win that mattered for reasons beyond the score. Ranger Suarez, activated off the 15-day injured list that morning after a groin issue cost him three weeks, threw four innings, allowed four hits, walked nobody and struck out six. Weissert got the win in relief. Jarren Duran went 3-for-4 with two RBI, Jahmai Jones doubled home two in his one at-bat, and Wilyer Abreu and Rafaela each drove in a run. Kevin Gausman took the loss.

The road trip opened July 27 at the Coliseum in front of 10,486 people, and Rafaela hit a grand slam that accounted for every Boston run in a 4-2 win. Payton Tolle went 5 1/3 with seven strikeouts and two earned. Chapman worked a perfect ninth with three strikeouts for his 25th save. Tyler Soderstrom and Jonah Heim both homered for the Athletics, which is how you lose a game while surrendering exactly one hit through five and two-thirds.

July 28 was the one that got away. Jake Bennett gave up three over 6 1/3, Tommy White went 4-for-4 for Oakland, and Brian Serven's two-run homer proved decisive in a 4-3 loss. Connor Wong's two-run shot off the bench brought Boston within one in the ninth and that was where it ended. Gage Jump had held the Red Sox scoreless on three hits over six innings, and Boston drew four walks off him without cashing any of them in.

The July 29 finale-that-wasn't went 10 innings and Boston took it 4-2. Sandoval struck out seven over five, then five relievers, Tyron Guerrero, Justin Slaten, Whitlock, Chapman and Weissert, combined for five scoreless. Jahmai Jones homered. Monasterio went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBI. Caleb Durbin had three hits. Nick Sogard, recalled from Worcester that morning, singled twice and drove in a run. Chapman got the win, Weissert the save, and Boston left Oakland with the series.

Who is actually carrying this Red Sox team

Willson Contreras is the best hitter on the roster and it is not particularly close. He is at .285/.392/.539 with 22 home runs and 66 RBI, a .931 OPS, and he has been the only reliable middle-of-the-order presence since the injuries piled up. Rafaela is hitting .280 with 11 homers, 50 RBI and 13 steals while bouncing around the middle of the diamond. Abreu has 15 homers. Durbin has 10 homers, 44 RBI and 12 steals out of the infield.

The uncomfortable one is Duran. He has 13 home runs and 54 RBI, which sounds fine until you see the slash line: .197/.255/.340, a .595 OPS across 385 at-bats. He is running (15 steals) and he had a three-hit game against Toronto, but a corner outfielder with a sub-.260 on-base percentage is a problem you have to solve or hide.

The pitching is the reason this team is in the race at all. Sonny Gray is 12-2 with a 2.78 ERA over 106 2/3 innings and the July 25 clunker barely dented it. Whitlock has a 2.03 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP in 40 innings with six wins out of the pen. Bennett is 6-4, 2.74, with a 0.97 WHIP. Tolle has 103 strikeouts in 95 innings as a rookie. Suarez is at 3.02. Chapman, at 38, has a 1.77 ERA, 25 saves and 47 strikeouts in 35 2/3 innings, and he keeps getting used in whatever inning the game is on the line, not just the ninth.

The Curtis Mead thing, and everything else

Boston sent left-hander Connelly Early to Washington for Curtis Mead, a 25-year-old infielder who was hitting .254 with a .352 on-base percentage and 17 home runs for the Nationals. He was slotted to bat second and play second base. In his fourth-inning at-bat on July 27, Jack Perkins hit him on the left wrist at 94.9 mph. X-rays looked clean. Tuesday's MRI did not. Fracture, 10-day IL retroactive to July 28, and per subsequent reporting he avoided surgery but is looking at roughly six to eight weeks.

"Super disappointing. It doesn't feel real, happening in my first game," Mead said. Hard to argue.

He joins a list that has stopped being funny. Trevor Story is on the 60-day list after May sports hernia surgery. Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Marcelo Mayer are both down with forearm issues. Garrett Crochet has not thrown since late April and is still doing rotator cuff strengthening work, with a report on July 29 indicating nothing has changed in his recovery. Roman Anthony has a partially torn hand ligament and still is not swinging a bat. Zack Kelly went to the 60-day list on July 21 with right elbow inflammation. Johan Oviedo is out for the year. Interim manager Chad Tracy has been filling out lineup cards with whoever can hold a bat, and Boston is 4-2 in the window anyway.

Where the Red Sox stand in the wild card picture

Tampa Bay leads the East at 63-44. The Yankees are 61-47 and hold the first wild card, six games clear of the cut line. Boston has the second spot at 56-51, a game and a half up on the field. Cleveland holds the third at 56-54. Houston is the first team out at 55-55, with Minnesota (54-55), Seattle (53-56) and Baltimore (53-56) stacked right behind. Boston has gone 7-3 in its last 10.

The division is functionally gone at seven back with two months left and Tampa playing well. The wild card is not gone, but it is a five-team scrum where a bad week drops you out of it entirely. That is the frame for everything the front office does over the next few days.

Boston Red Sox deadline outlook: shortstop, and a lefty

The deadline is Monday, August 3 at 6 p.m. ET. Craig Breslow has already made two moves, Jahmai Jones from Detroit on July 14 for a player to be named and Mead from Washington, and Jones has been a legitimately useful pickup: .385 with two homers in 13 at-bats in Boston after hitting .137 in Detroit. Small sample, but the swing looks different.

ESPN's Buster Olney reported Boston is still searching for a shortstop in a market thin on them, with CJ Abrams of the Nationals and Zach Neto of the Angels floated as fits. Breslow has separately said the bullpen is the priority he cares most about, specifically an established left-hander for high-leverage work, and he has flagged workload concerns on Bennett and Tolle. "I think the players deserve it, I think the fans deserve it," he said of pushing to add.

Boston closes in Oakland on July 30 with Gray facing Mason Barnett, then opens a series in Los Angeles against the Dodgers on July 31 with the deadline hanging over the whole weekend. Beating up on a 45-63 Athletics club is what a wild card team is supposed to do. Chavez Ravine will tell you something more useful. If the Red Sox come out of the next week with a shortstop, a left-handed reliever and their current rotation intact, the second wild card is a very live thing. If Breslow stands pat and Crochet and Anthony stay stuck, the math gets unfriendly in a hurry.