“We all fail, at times. And it’s more about how you deal with failure than the failure itself.”
Those were James Paxton’s words on Saturday evening, after an uncharacteristically rough start culminated in a frustrating loss.
On Sunday, the Red Sox bounced back in a big way, wrapping up their weekend at Wrigley with a commanding 11-5 victory and series win, and proving once again that they’re more than their place in the division standings.
After struggling in all aspects the day before, the Boston ball club fired on all cylinders in the series finale. Kutter Crawford pitched six scoreless innings, striking out nine Cubs and holding the home team to one hit, four walks, a hit batsman, while the Boston bats tallied three walks and 14 hits, including multi-hit performances by Rob Refsnyder, Rafael Devers, Masataka Yoshida, Jorge Alfaro, and Yu Chang.
Despite what the final score suggests, this was anyone’s game until the fifth inning. Aside from Devers’ solo home run in the top of the first, both teams had opportunities to make things interesting, and wasted them.
Crawford didn’t look sharp early on. He began the day by giving up a single and hitting a batter, giving the Cubs an immediate chance to even the score. By the third inning, he’d issued three walks.
“The walks, obviously, put him in spot,” Alex Cora acknowledged to reporters postgame.
Fortunately for the Red Sox starter, he had reliable backup; Chang, Christian Arroyo, and Justin Turner completed inning-ending double plays to get out of the first and third frames, and gave the Red Sox starter a chance to lock in, which he did.
In other words, look what this team can do when it defends.
Buoyed by his teammates, Crawford gained control, and finished the day in dominant fashion. His ERA is down to 3.74.
“He’s knows his craft,” Cora lauded. “He’s grown so much.”
“Obviously, where we’re at right now, it’s huge,” the manager said frankly. “It’s not fair for them, but we cannot have too many short outings, right? They gotta go five and six.”
The Red Sox rotation is without Chris Sale, Garrett Whitlock, and Tanner Houck. Crawford, who began the season as a starter, then excelled in a long relief role before his teammates’ injuries called him back to the rotation, has been key to their sustained success. He’s gone at least five innings in four of his last five starts, and the team has won three of those four games.
Crawford was up against a formidable opponent in Justin Steele. The 27-year-old left-hander entered the game with a 2.56 ERA, 1.062 WHIP, and the best win-loss percentage (.818) in the National League.
But fresh off his first career All-Star Game, Steele was far from the shutdown pitcher he’s been this year. Much like James Paxton’s third inning implosion on Saturday, when the Cubs tagged him for six runs, including a grand slam, most of Steele’s struggles happened all at once. After giving up the solo home run to Devers in the first, Steele got through four scoreless innings before coming undone in the fifth.
After only giving up four home runs in his first 16 starts of the season, he gave up two on Sunday, including a grand slam to Yoshida. Though he, too, went six innings, he exited charged with six earned runs on 10 hits, a walk, and six strikeouts.
After snapping an MLB-best 8-game multi-hit streak on Saturday (his 30th birthday), Yoshida got back in the swing of things. His 5th-inning grand slam and 7th-inning RBI triple netted six RBI. He finished the day 3-for-5 with a pair of runs scored, a double short of the cycle.
“We’ve been saying all along, he’s a good hitter,” Cora said. “He’s good man, there’s nothing else I can say.”
By the top of the eighth inning, the Red Sox had a comfortable 9-0 lead, and the manager began swapping out his starters for pinch-hitters. Triston Casas took over for Justin Turner, and made sure he’d leave Chicago with one home run in each game of the series. Doing so landed the rookie in elite company; according to the team’s media relations, Casas joins Devers, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Bobby Doerr, Rico Petrocelli, and Jim Tabor as the only players in franchise history to homer in three consecutive games at 23 years and 182 days or younger.
While the Cubs capitulated in the form of position player Tucker Barnhart pitching the 9th, Cora kept Jake Faria on the mound for the final two frames. Selected from Triple-A Worcester the night before, Faria’s Red Sox debut wasn’t pretty. He allowed five earned runs on four hits and four walks, but his outing served its true purpose: preserving the regular bullpen arms for the next series.
The Red Sox are 50-44 and in fourth place in the division thanks to their season record against the Yankees, which breaks their tied record. According to MLB’s venerated stats guru Sarah Langs, Boston’s 50th win of the season makes the 2023 AL East the first division in Major League history to have all of its teams reach 50 wins in fewer than 95 games.
Since June 14, the Red Sox are 17-9, the best record in the AL. They own baseball’s best record since June 30, and have won each of their last four series.
That’s the way to open the second half.
