The ups and downs of Boston's 19-game stretch

BALTIMORE -- As the Red Sox gathered their belongings and headed home after Wednesday’s 6-2 defeat to the Orioles, they had something that felt extremely rare ahead of them: An off-day.

That’s right, Boston doesn’t play baseball on Thursday, ending a grueling stretch of 19 games in 19 days.

There were ups and downs, but the Sox showed some grit in going 10-9 over the 19 days, and are 13-13 on the season.

“I think we did an outstanding job in 19 straight games, and now enjoy the off-day, go out, have dinner, have a drink, and be ready for Friday,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora.

Here are five takeaways as the Sox go back to Boston for a three-game series against the Guardians that starts on Friday night at Fenway.

Yoshida’s bat is starting to play
When the Red Sox left for the road, there was concern about Masataka Yoshida’s excessive ground-ball rate and lack of extra-base hits. At the time, he had a line of .189/.317/.264 with one homer and eight RBIs in 63 plate appearances.

On this road trip through Milwaukee and Baltimore, Yoshida found his groove in a big way, going 11-for-23 with a double, three homers, eight RBIs and a 1.413 OPS. Manager Alex Cora thinks the turnaround was Yoshida getting back to his opposite-field approach, which allowed him to see the ball for longer. Once Yoshida started seeing it again, he started belting the baseball to all fields. Yoshida’s grand slam in Milwaukee on Sunday -- his second homer of the inning -- was the emphatic sign that he was out of his early-season slump.

Two key weapons emerging out of bullpen
Josh Winckowski and Kutter Crawford were both brought up as starting pitchers. However, the Sox are using them both as middle relievers and they are helping the team big time, particularly given the inability of the starting rotation to consistently go deep into games.

“Without those two guys, I don’t even know where we would be today,” said Cora.

Winckowski has gone 18 1/3 innings over nine outings, notching a 1.47 ERA while holding the opposition to a .519 OPS. Crawford has been tremendous in his first three outings since moving to the bullpen, allowing one run over 11 1/3 innings.

Middle of diamond depth being put to test
When the season started, the Red Sox had a red-hot Adam Duvall playing center field with Kiké Hernández at short and Christian Arroyo at second. Duvall broke his left wrist on April 9, forcing Cora to audible. After tinkering with some things, Cora felt he found something when he made Yu Chang the shortstop while rotating Hernández between second base and center field.

Chang ripped homers in a stretch of eight games. And he was playing strong defense at short. But Chang suffered a fracture of his left hamate bone on Monday and will be out at least six weeks.

Now, it is back to the drawing board for Cora, who will get Adalberto Mondesi and Trevor Story back at some point. For now, Hernández is back at short with Arroyo and No. 17 prospect Enmanuel Valdez sharing time at second. One early issue is Valdez’s defense. He will have to become more sure-handed for that to become a steady platoon.

Duran taking it to another level
Jarren Duran’s first two seasons in the Major Leagues were mostly filled with disappointment. But since getting his most recent call-up on April 17, Duran is playing like someone who has no designs of going back to the Minor Leagues again.

He is smashing the ball on offense (14-for-35, seven runs, five doubles, one homer and 10 RBIs), while showing marked improvement in center field, where he made a sensational catch on Monday. Duran’s speed is significant on a team that doesn’t have much.

Rotation still a work in progress
The area the Red Sox most need to improve on is the starting rotation. Through 26 games, Boston starters are 8-12 with a 6.41 ERA, logging just 125 innings in the process for an average of less than five innings per start. The quickest fix for the rotation would be to fix Chris Sale. Except for one vintage start on April 18 against the Twins, Sale has looked out of sorts.

Corey Kluber was strong in his fifth start after getting off to an 0-4 start. Is that a sign he is about to trend in the right direction? Young arms Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock are both in the process of trying to prove that they can be solid starters in the Major Leagues.