The WooSox employed 18 different players at Scranton-Wilkes-Barre on Sunday, seven of them pitchers, two of them pinch hitters. That same day the Boston Red Sox scored three runs in an inning without hitting a ball out of the infield and the opposing Tampa Bay Rays hit an inside the park home run.
The nature of baseball has ebbed and flowed through the decades. The sample size is fairly small in 2026 but is the game flowing back towards singles, doubles, bunts and speed and away from the three-true-outcomes of strikeout, walk, home run?
The ultimate outcome of that threesome has often been boredom as batter after batter walks or whiffs on the way to the occasional home run. What if the NFL found a three-true-outcomes method of scoring touchdowns that involved throwing the ball into the end zone on every play and hoping five passes connect in four quarters.
Yawn.
The seven different pitchers thing is a result of an arms shortage more than a strategy. The idea of hitting the ball, running the bases, forcing the other team to catch it and throw it and maybe make a mistake — the result being the old-fashioned concept of rallies — is the essence of the sport.
Retro is not always better. Who misses toll booths? In baseball, though, we can all rally around the return of rallies, a concept that is working very well in Boston these days.
************************************************************
TRIPLE-A TRIVIA
1. Which batter holds the WooSox record for most consecutive games hitting a home run?
2. Who was the last Worcester Red Sox pitcher to throw seven or more innings in a game?
Answers below.
***********************************************************
This week’s opponent at Polar Park, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, arrived in town on a six-game losing streak. Last weekend they suffered the same fate the WooSox have experienced this year, a pounding by the merciless offense of the Rochester Red Wings. The Jumbo Shrimp lost three games to the Wings by combined scores of 22-9.
Worcester and Jacksonville head into this week with an abstract number on the line. Since the WooSox moved here in 2021 they have lost 385 games, the Jumbo Shrimp 384 games.
Jacksonville leads Worcester in population, 1,032,000-213,000. In baseball, Worcester leads the all-time series by 13-8. The opponents are 3-3 at Polar Park.
**********************************************
Had to double-check the math on this, but it is a fact.
In 91 games the WooSox have gotten four home runs from their No. 4 hitters, the supposed cleanup spot. The most productive place in the batting order, at least in terms of homers, is No. 8 with 16. The least productive is the seventh spot with just two.
Combined, Worcester has 26 home runs from its eighth and ninth batters, 29 from the heart of the order — three, four and five.
**********************************************************
Boston’s farm system seems destined for a second straight losing season and one of its worst ever. At least in terms of wins and losses, which rarely translate into success at the major league level but are worth noting. Sox player development teams are 211-262 overall. The four travel teams are 167-189. … Heading into the homestand Worcester pitching had tied an unenviable team record. WooSox hurlers had surrendered at least 10 hits in six straight games, a total of 73. Their first such streak was from May 31 through June 8 of 2022. That included 70 hits allowed. … Rehab numbers can be meaningless, but Romy Gonzalez was 1 for 11 (.091) in Worcester and is just 9 for 49 (.184) in Boston. You don’t mess with success as the big-league Sox are the best in baseball at the moment, but wouldn’t Nick Sogard be a better alternative up there, especially considering the way the Boston offense is working right now, combining contact with home runs.
***********************************************************
CATCHING UP WITH….
Infielder Karson Simas, who played 30 games for Worcester in 2024 and 2025 and batted .304, is with Double-A Knoxville in the Southern League, a White Sox affiliate.
Infielder Enmanuel Valdez came to Worcester as part of the Wilyer Abreu trade in 2022 and hit 28 home runs in three seasons in town. He is playing for Triple-A Indianapolis, a Pirates farm club, and is batting .263 with 13 home runs and 52 RBIs there.
Slick fielding outfielder Mark Contreras is playing for Chihuahua of the Mexican League after spending 2025 in the Atlantic League. Contreras, who hit .199 for the WooSox in 2024, is hitting .310 with 10 home runs and 48 RBIs for the Dorados
**********************************************************
Worcester batters have combined for four pinch hits this season. The team’s best pinch hitter? No surprise here as it is Mickey Gasper, who is 2 for 2. Maybe pinch hitting is going to come back into the game, like bunting has. … Now that Braiden Ward has set a new Boston Triple-A record for most times HBP in a season (21), he can go after the WooSox team record for triples in a year. Ward’s three-bagger on Sunday was his fourth. Jarren Duran and Ryan Fitzgerald co-hold the high mark with six. Duran did it 2022, Fitzgerald in 2023. … Rookie pitcher Michael Sansone is back in Portland after tying a team record for most consecutive appearances allowing a home run, six. It is ongoing, should he return. Sansone has been reached for nine homers during the streak. Kyle Hart set the mark in 2021, allowing seven home runs. Brian Van Belle tied it in 2023, also serving up nine. Sansone need not despair. Hart, a lefty like him, is in the major leagues, currently a busy man in the Padres bullpen.
*************************************************************
More home runs have been hit off WooSox pitching, 13, by players named Jones than any other last name. Two of those Jones home runs have come off the bat of Jahmai Jones, who hit a big one for Boston last weekend.
Versus the WooSox, Jahmai Jones homered off Shane Drohan and Jose DeLeon on May 1 and May 3 last season while with Toledo. Yankees prospect Spencer Jones has eight home runs off Worcester pitching. Brock Jones has two, Nolan Jones one.
**********************************************************************************************
TRIVIA ANSWERS
1. Ceddanne Rafaela homered in five straight games from Aug. 1 through Aug. 5 in 2023. He only had one other hit during that streak, a single.
2. It has been more than a year since right hander Brian Van Belle worked seven innings as Worcester beat Rochester, 9-1, at Polar Park, on June 4, 2025. That covers a span of 181 games.