TORONTO — After being unable to maintain a lot momentum coming out of the All-Star break, the Red Sox offered a flicker of hope with a four-game profitable streak that staved off elimination for just a few days.
But the fact of the pending offseason set in on Wednesday evening at Rogers Centre, as a 6-1 loss to the Blue Jays, mixed with wins from each Detroit and Kansas City, formally ended Boston’s postseason possibilities.
The membership may have a break day on Thursday earlier than wrapping up the 2024 season with a three-game sequence at Fenway towards the Rays.
While you’d be hard-pressed to discover a prognosticator who picked the Red Sox to make it to the playoffs previous to the season, the membership defied exterior expectations for a stretch, holding a two-game lead for the third American League Wild Card spot on the All-Star break.
However, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow selected to not lean on that as a crutch in an interview simply hours earlier than his membership was eradicated.
“I think we play these games to make it to the postseason, win the World Series,” mentioned Breslow. “So falling short of that, it should be a disappointment. I want it to be a disappointment. I want it to hurt. That doesn't mean we can't find things that we did well, or things that are encouraging or reasons for optimism, but at the end of the day, you play these seasons to win games and get to the postseason. We are … looking at a season where that didn't happen.”
After the sport, supervisor Alex Cora bemoaned the missed alternative to take benefit of some of the opposite contenders struggling in September.
“Outside our walls here, nobody expected us to play meaningful games all the way until now,” mentioned Cora. “But our goal was to make it to the playoffs. It didn’t happen, but it’s a good learning experience for those kids over there. I mean, at one point it felt like we were a playoff-caliber team, and then we missed the opportunity. Let’s put it that way. You look around, you look at the teams that are fighting, we had it right there and we blew it.”
The alternative to get to October was undone by the crew’s 27-36 document following the All-Star break. By distinction, the Sox had been 54-43 previous to the break.
“In this game, you have to take advantage of opportunities, you’ve got to be consistent,” mentioned Cora. “After the All-Star break, we were very inconsistent.”
For the Red Sox, the season basically had three phases: The first third, when the beginning rotation excelled, however the membership constantly muddled round .500; the center third, when the offense and athleticism had been on full show, permitting them to remain proper within the thick of competition by the Trade Deadline; and the ultimate third, when the rotation faltered, then recovered, the bullpen struggled for chunks of time and the offense went right into a month-long hunch — a mixture of occasions that took them out of competition.
“I think one of the challenges that I have, that we have is, ‘Is this what we are? Is this who we are?’ vs. ‘Are there some material things we can point to that are reasons that we kind of deviated off [course]?’” mentioned Breslow. “I think those evaluations are best made once the season's over and you have the chance to remove some of the emotion and look at the total body of work.”
That complete physique of work included leadoff man Jarren Duran rising into one of probably the most dynamic gamers within the sport. It included rookies Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela and David Hamilton all proving they've a spot within the Major Leagues.
It included Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and Brayan Bello all reaching the 30-start mark for the primary time of their younger careers, whereas every setting private bests in innings pitched.
The Red Sox had a number of crushing losses down the stretch that can hang-out them whereas watching different groups within the playoffs.
The go-ahead grand slam by Aaron Judge on Sept. 13, a sport wherein the Sox had a 4-0 lead, was a crusher. More not too long ago, their Sept. 20 loss towards the Twins wherein Boston went 1-for-19 with runners in scoring place and left 17 on base whereas putting out 20 instances in a 12-inning loss was, in hindsight, the blow that couldn’t be recovered from.
Though the four-game profitable streak that adopted that agonizing Minnesota defeat was a stepping stone, the Sox would have needed to run the desk and end the season with eight straight victories to have any likelihood to get to October.
And even that in all probability wouldn’t have been sufficient.
“I thought we had a pretty good year. I mean, we made a good run.” mentioned Duran. “We just ran into some slumps that didn't help us. It’s a good building block for next year.”
