This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BOSTON – Typically, Memorial Day is viewed as one of the checkpoints in any baseball season. WIth that in mind, it seemed a good time to take inventory on some items involving the 22-30 Red Sox, who resume play on Tuesday at Fenway against the Braves.
Fenway freeze needs to end
Of all the things that have plagued the Red Sox this season – and there are many – no issue has been bigger than the team’s lack of success at Fenway Park, which should be one of the best home-field advantages in the game.
After sweeping the Royals in Kansas City to cap a 4-2 road trip, the Sox came home with high hopes of at last reversing their fortunes at Fenway. Instead, they were swept by the Twins, as their home record fell to an MLB-worst 8-17.
For most of the season, Boston’s issues at home had to do with offense, or lack thereof. So, the one silver lining in a disappointing weekend is that the Sox did show some firepower in their home ballpark, scoring six runs on Friday and five on Sunday. However, baserunning was costly as a runner was thrown out at the plate on both Saturday and Sunday in one-run losses.
In this series, there were rare mishaps by key members of the bullpen – one by Justin Slaten on Friday and another by Garrett Whitlock on Sunday – that turned leads into deficits and eventual defeats. And Sonny Gray, who had been Mr. Reliable in his previous four starts, faltered and didn’t make it to the fifth inning in the series finale.
It won’t get any easier with loaded Atlanta (36-17) up next.
“You can readily acknowledge: At some point this year, if we're gonna do something, we're gonna have to get going at home,” said interim manager Chad Tracy. “It's just that simple. These are not blowouts. We're playing good baseball games. But we're gonna have to win some games at home, no question.”
The Sox are 1-6-1 in home series. The last successful series they had at Fenway was when they took the rubber match against the Brewers on April 8.
Bello battling for his place
Hard to believe it was just over two years ago the Red Sox had a ceremonious day for starting pitcher Brayan Bello in his homeland in the Dominican Republic, where the sides formally announced a six-year, $55 million contract for their righty.
At that time, the general expectation was for the trajectory to be upward. Bello even started Opening Day in Seattle a couple of weeks later.
But consistency has not been his friend since signing that deal. And this season has largely been rock bottom for Bello, who finds himself in danger of being moved out of the rotation entirely with Garrett Crochet’s trip on the 15-day injured list expected to end within the next couple of weeks.
Bello, who is 2-5 with a 6.43 ERA over seven starts and three bulk-inning performances, acknowledges he needs to earn his keep.
“I think so,” said Bello. “There’s plenty of stars coming up and I do think that.”
Though Bello is in his fifth Major League season, he does have Minor League options remaining.
One thing that has worked for Bello is when the Red Sox use an opener in front of him. In those three instances, Bello has a 0.98 ERA over 18 1/3 innings. However, that doesn’t seem to be a sustainable solution.
Can Mayer pull a ‘14 Bogaerts at short?
It isn’t out of the ordinary for a young player to exude more confidence at the plate when playing their natural position on defense. Perhaps that can be the case for Marcelo Mayer, who made his MLB debut at his natural position on Sunday and will stay there at least until Trevor Story returns from a prolonged stint on the 10-day injured list.
We saw it last year with Ceddanne Rafaela, who performed far better at the plate when playing center field than he did at second base.
In 2014, Xander Bogaerts opened the season at shortstop, his natural position, but was moved to third base when the Red Sox reunited with Stephen Drew at the beginning of June. At the time, Bogaerts had a line of .296/.389/.427 with 15 doubles and looked en route to a strong rookie season.
The Drew reunion was short lived, as Boston traded him to the Yankees at the Trade Deadline. But when Bogaerts was primarily playing third from June 2-July 30, his batting line sunk to .182/.217/.300 with five homers and 13 RBIs. Bogaerts was able to finish that season strong at short, and hit .313 with four homers and 16 RBIs in September. He was a productive offensive shortstop for the rest of his time in Boston.
It will be interesting to see what Mayer, a .214 career hitter, can do offensively while playing his most comfortable position.