Chris Gasper joins Mike Felger on Boston Sports Tonight to discuss the state of the Red Sox with just a few weeks left in the regular season
They haven't always thrived, but they have survived.
As the Red Sox return home to face the blistering Diamondbacks on Friday, they could certainly be in worse shape.
Arizona marks the end of a brutal run that started four weeks ago against the Yankees. Since then, every game the Red Sox have played has come against either a playoff team or the defending World Series champion Rangers.
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The Red Sox are 13-12 in those 25 games, which isn't going to make up ground in a pennant race, but it hasn't knocked them hopelessly out of contention, either. They remain a surmountable 3.5 games behind the Royals and Twins in the AL wild card standings.
They've spent their time on the ropes recently, with bullpen meltdowns costing them games against the Yankees, Astros, and Rangers. But they've also shown trademark resilience, winning their last two in Houston with 8.1 shutout innings from said maligned bullpen.
"We have a good team. We know we do," manager Alex Cora told reporters in Houston, including MLB.com. "But the cool thing about it is that they don't get caught up in it. They're humble, they're hungry."
The Diamondbacks, last year's National League pennant winners, present yet another test this weekend. Just a game over .500 and seven games behind the Dodgers at the All-Star break, Arizona has found another gear in the second half, going 23-8 to claim the National League's first wild card and pull within four games of Los Angeles in the division. The D-backs are the proverbial team no one wants to face in the playoffs, and with good reason.
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The athletic Red Sox could be the AL version, but it's going to take a continuation of their last 36 hours in Houston, when the setup corps managed to douse fires instead of igniting them. Once they finish this weekend, though, they'll have their last, best opportunity to string together some easy wins.
From Aug. 26 through Sept. 8, the Red Sox will face just one team with a winning record, and it's the Mets, whose season has followed a remarkably similar arc to Boston's. Otherwise, we're talking 10 games against the Blue Jays, Tigers, and White Sox, all of whom are below .500. The Red Sox haven't had a stretch like this since June, when they ripped off six victories in eight games against the Reds and Blue Jays. Wins against bad teams don't count any less.
From there, it's right back into the AL East meat grinder to close the season, with a potentially pivotal series against the wild card rival Twins thrown in. That doesn't leave a lot of room for error, especially since the Rays have improbably stayed afloat after dealing away half their roster and remain a pesky spoiler threat.
Still, given the expectations when the season began, which were nonexistent, we'll take meaningful baseball in September. Just hold your own against Arizona and then go to work against the dregs, and let's see where things stand in two weeks.
