The final week of the Triple-A season is milestone time for many International League teams and players. Worcester is no exception.
The 2026 WooSox have already achieved a significant one by ensuring they will finish above .500. That makes it six straight seasons in the black since they arrived here in 2021. Worcester is the only International League city to finish above .500 in each of the last six years.
The WooSox have also tied a Red Sox Triple-A farm system record for the most consecutive years in the black. Boston’s top affiliates did it six straight times from 1957 through 1962 but in three different locations. Those cities were San Francisco, Minneapolis and Seattle. Three of the managers of those teams also managed in the majors — Joe Gordon, Gene Mauch and Johnny Pesky.
WooSox manager Iggy Suarez has to win just one more game to be one of 23 Boston Triple-A skippers with a career record above .500. Suarez heads into the season’s last week at 59-54 (.522). Chad Tracy’s winning percentage here was .523.
Braiden Ward has broken Boston Triple-A records for stolen bases and hit by pitches. He had 60 steals and 30 plunks going into play on September 17. The 60 stolen bases are the most in the International League since Billy Hamilton had 75 for Louisville in 2013. The IL record, not counting pre-1900 when stolen bases were given out like Tootsie Rolls, is 94. Future Boston center fielder Otis Nixon set that mark for Columbus in 1994. In this century, only Hamilton and Esix Snead have had more 60 or more in a season. Snead had 61 for Norfolk in 2003.
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TRIPLE-A TRIVIA
1. What WooSox batter holds the record for most extra base hits in a season?
2. Not including position players, who holds the Worcester record for fewest pitches thrown in a WooSox career?
Answers below.
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Red Sox people labeled outfielder Allan Castro as a player to watch when the year began but in the early weeks of the season he seemed overmatched. It turns out they were right.
Through June 3, a span of 46 games, Castro was batting .198 with just eight extra-base hits including five home runs. He had more strikeouts, 48, than hits (34) and games played.
Since then, the 23-year old from Santo Domingo, DR is hitting .286 with 9 homers and 46 RBIs in 70 games. He has cut down the strikeouts to 44.
His 14 home runs include three of the season’s most important. On September 16th his 2-run HR (his second of the game) in the 7th inning erased a 5-4 deficit and gave the WooSox their first lead of the night during an eventual 8-5 victory over Durhan. On September 13th at Lehigh Valley, Castro hit a two-run shot in the top of the ninth to turn a 7-6 deficit into what turned out to be an 8-7 win. And on May 7, Castro’s two-run homer in the bottom of the 12th was the sudden-death winner in Worcester’s 10-8 triumph over S-W-B.
As the season’s final week looms, Castro leads the WooSox in games played (116), HR (14), and RBI (70). His four multi-homer games is tied for the WooSox single-season best in that category.
Eddy Alvarez and Niko Kavadas did that in 2024, Bobby Dalbec in 2023 and Jarren Duran in 2021.
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CATCHING UP WITH…
The Durham Bulls are are at Polar Park all week and their No. 1 catcher is Blake Sabol, who batted .167 in 43 games for the WooSox last season. He has had a much better offensive season in Durham with a .250 average including 11 homers, 41 RBIs and 11 stolen bases.
One of Sabol’s teammates for much of the season was pitcher Luis Guerrero, who pitched in 69 games for Worcester from 2023-25. Guerrero began the year with Triple-A Durham but was demoted to Double-Montgomery. For the season, Guerrero is 1-7 with an 8.49 earned run average.
Slugging catcher Ronaldo Hernandez’ career seems to have dead-ended. Last month he quit playing for the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. They were his second team of the season after he began the year with Yucatan in the Mexican League, which released him.
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For all the roster comings and goings this year, the WooSox will have five different players with at least 100 games played. They are Castro, Kristian Campbell, Romero, Capra and Ward. That is a franchise record. Second best is four 100-plus players in 2024. It is the most in Boston Triple-A history since 2008 when seven players were in 100 or more games for Pawtucket. Six of those guys wound up playing in Boston at some point in their careers. They were Joe Thurston, Chris Carter, Jonathan Van Every, Jeff Bailey, George Kottaras and Gil Velazquez. … A good thing? Boston not bringing Franklin Arias up to Boston for a few games, what with a possible work stoppage ahead for 2027. If he’s on the 40-man roster next year, he can’t play. If he spends part or all of that season in Worcester, Arias could put up memorable numbers. Not so good? If Tyler McDonough had not been sent down to Portland in the middle of a hot streak, the WooSox might be in first place for the second half, not trying to catch up. … McDonough has 14 career home runs in a Worcester uniform. Four have been hit in Polar Park, five in Coca-Cola Park in Lehigh Valley.
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TRIVIA ANSWERS
1. Ryan Fitzgerald had 46 extra base hits in 2022. They included 24 doubles, 6 triples and 16 home runs.
2. Luis Garcia, who has pitched for both the Twins and Mets this season, appeared in one game for Worcester on Sept. 17, 2024 and threw 13 pitches in one inning of work. It was his only game in a WooSox uniform.