One run? Are you fucking kidding me? Only one run, with the postseason on the line, up against a starting pitcher with an ERA of 4.17 on a fourth-place, 71-79 baseball team?
Romy González, despite his .306 batting average, went 0-for-5, and Alex Bregman, despite his .275 average, went 0-for-4, like they were batting against the ghost of Sandy Koufax. As for our pitching, well, Connelly Early did pretty well in his second major-league start, giving up only one run over 5⅓ innings. But why he was pulled after only 80 pitches for Greg Weissert, who promptly gave up the game-winning runs, well, you're going to have to ask Alex Cora that yourself because I have no answer.
Look, I get it - the injuries hurt and are really adding up. We're without 1st baseman Tristan Casas, 2nd baseman Vaughn Grissom, 3rd baseman Marcelo Mayer, outfielders Roman Anthony and Wilyer Abreu, and a whole bunch of starting pitchers and relievers. Hell, you could field a pretty good team with just the players on the Injured List (were they healthy enough to play). But we're clinging to the last Wild Card spot by a mere 2½ games, these are the last dozen games of the season, and the last six games are against division leaders. We needed to sweep these first six before running that final gauntlet, but here we are starting this run with a loss.
There's now 11 games left to the 2025 season and our magic number is now nine - any combination of nine Red Sox wins and Cleveland losses will get us into the playoffs. The Guardians had six games in this closing stretch against AL Central-leading Detroit, but last night they beat the Tigers, 7-5, so between our loss and their win, we're no closer to the goal but now have one less game to get us there.
Detroit, please, I'm begging you, do what needs to be done and beat that Cleveland team five more times this season. And Boston, I'm talking to you - your destiny's in your own hands, it's up to you whether or not you make it to the postseason. Beat them A's and beat them Rays and beat them Jays and beat them Tigers, and don't rely on other teams to carry you over the goal line. Look, I don't even care at this point if you win even a single postseason game - my goal for you this year was just to make it to the playoffs. We can talk about winning the division, the league, and the Series in the next years, but for now - just nine more wins, baby!
Giolito (10-4, 3.31) takes the mound tonight. He's up against Oakland's Mason Barnett (1-1, 8.53), who we roughed up for seven hits and three runs over 3⅔ innings back on the 10th. The Sox are favored by 1½ runs. This is where we make out stand, where we start our march to victory now that we got that stupid, pointless loss out of the way. This is our final push to validate all the hard work we put into this season.
C'mon, Boston! Make it so!
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