Take Aways From Red Sox-Dodgers Weekend

THE sports match-up of the weekend was Sunday's five hour marathon. No, I'm not talking about the five hour 40 minute, 12-inning Red Sox 7-4 loss to the Dodgers, but rather the five hour Wimbledon men's marathon final (OK, 4 hours and 57 minutes) between Novak Djokavic and Roger Federer. The Red Sox game was exciting, but nothing compared to the Wimbledon men's final. Since I am supposed to write about the Red Sox, I won't focus on the brilliance of Djokavic-Federer. Focus being the key word..

Despite losing the three-game weekend series to the Dodgers two games to one, the Red Sox came away with some optimism, not as much as Federer who, despite losing, came away still holding onto the title of "Greatest of All Time".

The good and bad news for the Red Sox from this past weekend is a little similar to Federer's. Eduardo Rodriguez is not and never will be the greatest of all time, but he is now the Red Sox second best starter. Good for Rodriguez, but bad for the Red Sox since Rodriguez should not be any better than their fourth best starter.

On Friday night, Rodriguez held baseball's best team, or at least the team with the best record in baseball, to just five hits and a run in seven innings, leading the Red Sox to an 8-1 win, improving Rodriguez's record to 10-4. That's the good news. The bad news is those ten wins are three more than any other Red Sox starter. Rodriguez's history is that he will slow down in the second half of the season with a possible stint on the injured list maybe just to rest him. The 26-year-old Rodriguez doesn't have the stamina of, say, the soon-to-be 38-year-old Roger Federer. Just sayin'.

What is with this guy? The 30-year-old Sale hasn't won a regular season game at Fenway in over a year after yet another loss on Saturday when he gave up five runs in less than five innings. Just before this season started, Sale signed a five-year, $145 million contract extension, and so far this season he has just three wins and nine losses with an earned run average of 4.27. Last season, he had an ERA of 2.11, which was the second lowest in the league. The Red Sox do not make the playoffs unless Sale returns to the Chris Sale of last season, and the season before, and the season before...

Despite this being the most popular Red Sox topic of the 2019 season, the beleaguered bullpen did not cost the Red Sox a win this weekend against the Dodgers. Since the Red Sox, and every other major league team, refused to agree to the contract terms 2018 Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel demanded, the teams 'closer by committee has been a failure. Their 18 blown saves gives them the major league's lowest save percentage of 50%.

Nathan Eovaldi is just a few weeks away from returning and he is reported to become the team's closer. The Red Sox will not make the playoffs unless the team gets a pivotal contribution from Eovaldi.

The weekend wasn't a total loss for the Red Sox though after Rodriguez came thru on Friday. The Red Sox didn't embarrass themselves like they did against the Yankees in London just a few weeks ago. But a very questionable decision by Alex Cora not to bunt and advance Jackie Bradley from second to third with no outs in last night's 11th inning, along with an eventual base running blunder by Jackie Bradley Jr., cost them a chance to win last night's game and the series and continue the momentum they picked up before the All-Star break.

The Red Sox are now two and a half games out of the last wild card playoff spot. Over the next week they have a chance to gain ground as they have seven games against the lowly Blue Jay and Orioles. All they need to do is channel the weekend performance of Novak Djokavic, or even Wimbledon's women's winner, Simona Halep. On Saturday Halep set a very high standard for Djokavic with an impressive win over the women's 'Greatest of all time' Serena Williams.

Source: Forbes.com

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