Red Sox Young Players Learning Through Playoff Push

BOSTON — Nick Sogard could sense he would have a pinch hitting opportunity late in the Red Sox’ Wednesday night win over the Athletics. He needed to track the A’s relievers shuffling in-and-out of a game where Boston’s runners in scoring position struggles reached a maddening 3-15, forcing extra innings where he finally got the call with runners on second and third. The Red Sox turned to small ball late, and Sogard just needed to put the ball in play. Nate Eaton, another minor league call-up, stood at third and got a good jump.

“I didn’t think I hit it good. I knew I didn’t hit it good,” Sogard said. “It might’ve been just soft enough to get it done. Great job by Nate on third to get a good jump and then obviously he’s really fast, so a lot of credit to him.”

Eaton slid ahead of the throw home from second base and the Sox came back to win, 5-4, in 10 innings after trailing 4-2 in the fifth. Lucas Giolito faltered after walking five, Justin Wilson let his inherited runners cross and Boston scraped together game-tying runs in the fifth and sixth while leaving five additional runners on.

Steal attempts by Trevor Story and David Hamilton couldn’t produce runs between the seventh and ninth, so the Sox turned to a Carlos Narváez sacrifice bunt to set up the Sogard winner. An approach Alex Cora considered a growth experience for the increasingly young team.

“A lot of guys grew up today,” Cora said, commenting on Zack Kelly’s contribution in the 10th. “That’s where we’re at too. It’s not like we have a lot of veterans that know what happens in October, so that was a huge learning experience.”

Yet Cora smiled and laughed when asked how they’re balancing winning with development. They’re not, he said. They plan to play in the playoffs, recalling his comments from last week about preferring not to talk talk about October. The Guardians could’ve pulled within 1.0 game of Boston if the Sox lost. September is to suffer, he said, quoting a friend.

Boston suffered plenty while leaving 12 runners on base across the game. Alex Bregman’s struggles continued with hard line outs and fly outs in his first four at-bats. Masataka Yoshida reached three times on his liners, and produced the first run in the cleanup spot. Cora shuffled the lineup again, got early returns between Yoshida and a Rob Refsnyder solo shot in the second, then familiar issues emerged. The heart of the order went down in order with a runner on second and no outs in the third. Narváez hit into a double play in the fourth. González and Refsnyder struck out with the bases loaded in the fifth. Cora had altered how they’d approach strikes going in.

“Hopefully, today, we’re very stubborn, as a group in the strike zone,” Cora said. “I think that’s where we’re at our best. We know that.”

The returns over the last week continue to puzzle, the Sox producing hits and walks early in innings only to falter when the time comes to drive them in. Boston fell to 20th (.249) with RISP, and 17th in OPS in those situations (.749), though the team has continued to stress that it’s not because of the pressure, inexperience and moment.

Giolito wore Wednesday’s near loss while praising the efforts of the team’s young arms like Connelly Early, who thrived the day before in a loss. Kelly, an AAA call-up righty, picked the back end of the bullpen up in back-to-back days. For Trevor Story, who himself hasn’t played significant amounts of October games in his career, and Giolito, they’ve mostly preferred to let the young cast be through this process while being available for advice when needed. But he handed it to the young contributors on Wednesday while putting the blame for the harder-than-necessary win on himself.

“I was trash,” Giolito said. “Battling the command thing, there were periods of time where I was locked in, I was executing pitches, especially pitches I needed to in that one situation with runners in scoring position where we got out of that scoreless. Same situation in the fifth, I just didn’t have it … you can’t walk five, that’s just not acceptable, but I’m glad that everyone else picked me up today. It was a much needed win.”

• Wilyer Abreu (calf) will not make his return from the injured list on Thursday afternoon against the Athletics in the series finale, Alex Cora said on Wednesday. Abreu continued running the bases and ramping up, with a return still in play at Tampa this weekend, but felt continued soreness that the team will manage cautiously in an effort to avoid a set-back. He’s now missed 28 games with the injury.
• Roman Anthony (oblique) walked for 25 minutes on the treadmill, Cora said, two weeks after suffering the injury against the Guardians. The Sox have lost 7-of-11 since Anthony exited their lineup.
• Kyle Harrison will join the Red Sox rotation on Saturday against Tampa after Boston steered clear of using him in relief on Tuesday and Wednesday. Cora said the Sox made the decision based on his effort against Sacramento last week, when he kept the Sox in play late through three innings of relief, allowing no runs on three hits while striking out two. He tossed 35 strikes on 49 pitches in his first MLB appearance since arriving from San Francisco in the Rafael Devers trade. Payton Tolle will go to the bullpen, with Connelly Early returning for his third career start on Sunday in Tampa. Garrett Crochet will pitch as scheduled on Friday to begin the series.
• Trevor Story broke the AL record for most steals to begin a season without getting caught (31) before Shea Langeliers put him out in a 4-4 game to end the eighth inning. Cora discussed his base-running prowess before the game: “I don’t know where he’s at in his career, 82%, probably, success rate. I know Carlos Beltran is the best one in the history of the game, it’s 85-86% and one of the things both of them talk about is like, ‘I’m in scoring position at first, so when I go, I better be safe’ … I remember last year, or the year before, he got thrown out and he doesn’t show a lot of emotion, but in the dugout, he was very upset … it’s not a gamble with him. It’s not. With him, he knows when he’s gonna be safe and he takes off. I think his first step is great. His leads are the ones. You guys should take a look at them, I think it’s the biggest lead in the big leagues … he does everything fundamentally sound, perfect, to be in this position.”
• OF Kristian Campbell remains in play to joined the Red Sox once the AAA season ends, but Cora stressed that despite an uptick in hitting, particular putting the ball in the air, he still has things to work on, including a recent switch to the outfield defensively: “He’s had some good days hitting the ball hard, and others, not so great. He’s been getting hits, he’s been playing better defensively in the outfield, there’s still work, I think, offensively and we’re gonna grind with him.”