The Boston Red Sox Friday, June 21, 2019 * the Boston Globe
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Boston Red Sox Friday, June 21, 2019 * The Boston Globe Positional shuffle hasn’t hurt Michael Chavis on defense Peter Abraham Michael Chavis was a shortstop when the Red Sox drafted him in 2014. He became a third baseman in 2015, then started playing some games at first base in 2017 in the Arizona Fall League. Second base was added to his portfolio this season, and he’ll probably get some games in left field before the year is out. For much of his professional career, Chavis has been a good hitter in search of a position. But since joining the Red Sox in April, his defense has actually been a positive. “It’s been great, both at second and at first,” manager Alex Cora said. “But he’s been great at first base. Good decisions. Good instincts.” Chavis has started 29 games at second base for the Sox, 21 at first base, and one at third base. He has been primarily a first baseman this month, taking over with Mitch Moreland and Steve Pearce on the injured list. Chavis has handled throws adeptly, taken charge on popups, and fielded the position cleanly. He’s made several stops on hard-hit balls down the line, too. It’s a small sample size, but Chavis has already been credited with two defensive runs saved at first base. That’s two more than Moreland, a Gold Glove winner in 2016, has had the last two seasons. “I feel comfortable at first. I like it,” Chavis said. “As long as I’m still in the lineup, I’m happy.” Infield coach Carlos Febles, who managed Chavis in Double A in 2017, told Cora that the rookie wouldn’t be a detriment in the field. “He’s a good athlete,” Cora said. “He has good hands, good feet and he learns quickly.” Pearce should return from the injured list in the coming days. Moreland, out with a quad strain, likely will not return until after the All-Star break. Where Chavis fits long term remains to be seen. Rafael Devers, at 22, appears set at third base for years to come. Moreland and Pearce will be free agents after the season, so Chavis could fit there. But the Sox also have 23-year- old corner infielder Bobby Dalbec in Double A Portland. You have to laugh J.D. Martinez turned to the dugout and raised his arms in mock triumph when he reached first base after an RBI single in the eighth inning of Wednesday’s 9-4 victory against the Twins. The hit snapped an 0-for-11 streak that included five strikeouts and two double-play grounders. “I’m sorry you had to see that. That was ugly,” Martinez said. “It’s part of it. You can laugh about it or you can put your head down about it. I choose to laugh about it.” Even with the mini-slump, Martinez has a .953 OPS and eight RBIs in 10 games since he missed four consecutive with a back strain. “It’s gotten lot better. It hasn’t been bothering me of late,” he said. Schedule turns The Red Sox had a difficult schedule through 76 games. They opened the season with 11 games on the West Coast, and have already played two series at Yankee Stadium and another in Houston. But now the schedule will turn in their favor. The Sox have 14 games remaining before the All-Star break, 12 against teams with a losing record. The other two will be against the Yankees in London next weekend. The Sox also have two days off before the first game in London, then a day off after. That will give them a chance to re-set their rotation and give the bullpen some rest. Coming out of the All-Star break, 14 of the first 20 games will be at Fenway Park. Bogaerts being snubbed That Xander Bogaerts isn’t higher in the All-Star voting among American League shortstops is puzzling. He is second in OPS (.928) and home runs (14), and first in RBIs (49), extra-base hits (38), walks (45), and runs (58). Bogaerts also has started all but three games this season. But in the latest on-line voting, which ends at 4 p.m. Friday, Bogaerts was somehow sixth behind Jorge Polanco, Carlos Correa, Gleyber Torres, Tim Anderson and Francisco Lindor . Brock Holt has hit .371 with a .929 OPS in 18 games since returning from the injured list on May 27 . Chris Sale is the scheduled starter against Toronto on Friday to start a three-game series at Fenway. Sale has a 2.09 ERA in his last nine starts with 14.6 strikeouts per nine innings. The Blue Jays will start rookie righthander Trent Thornton, who will be facing the Sox for the first time. He threw 6⅔ shutout innings at Houston on Sunday . Pearce was 2 for 4 in a rehab game for Triple-A Pawtucket against Durham. Righthander Tyler Thornburg allowed four runs on three hits and a walk in the same game, getting just two outs. He gave up two home runs. Thornburg has appeared in five rehab games for Pawtucket and been charged with eight earned runs over 4⅔ innings. Strong finish to a tough stretch has Red Sox feeling optimistic Alex Speier On one hand, an 18-15 record (.545) for a 33-game stretch hardly seems like cause for celebration. The 2019 Red Sox have far grander ambitions over a stretch that encompasses roughly one-fifth of the schedule. Yet when considering the degree of difficulty of the period leading into Thursday’s off-day, the perspective on that 33-game run altered. The Sox forged that mark during what will quite possibly be their most demanding stretch of the season. Those 33 contests came in 34 days, with just one scheduled off-day and (due to a rainout) two actual days without games. Four extra-inning games totaling 15 extra innings took place during that time, with the result that the Sox pitched a total of 306 innings — roughly nine more than any team — during the 34-day stretch. Of the 33 games, 23 came against AL playoff contenders with records of .500 or better. Finally, the team played 17 contests the final 16 days, going 11-6. Against that backdrop, the Red Sox took a measure of satisfaction that they’d played better during their most unrelenting stretch of the year than they had in the 43 games that preceded it (23-20, .535). Manager Alex Cora compared the stretch to a challenging one that he endured as a player to start the 2008 season, when the Red Sox (under manager Terry Francona) pinballed around the globe, opening the season in Japan, heading to Los Angeles for exhibition games, then traveling to Oakland and Toronto. The jetlagged Red Sox felt punch-drunk at the start of their 2007 title defense. Early in the season, Cora recalled, Francona called a team meeting when the team’s record was around .500. The team was caught off guard when the manager delivered a message of encouragement and congratulations for their performance. “We were like, ‘What are you talking about?’ ” Cora recalled. “He was like, ‘That was a tough stretch. That was tough to do with schedule and traveling and everything that went on.’ ” Cora thought of that team — which reached Game 7 of the ALCS — in the latter stages of these nearly five weeks, taking pride in how this year’s Red Sox seemed to embrace their challenge with determination and focus in the latter part of the run. It was, members of the Red Sox agreed, a period that presented considerable challenges in the effort to balance short- and long-term considerations, particularly for the pitchers. The Red Sox keep a color-coded chart identifying recent player workloads based not only on appearances, innings, and pitches in games, but also warmup work in the bullpen and physical activity before and after games. Toward the end of the trip, the Sox saw what pitching coach Dana LeVangie described as “way too much” red among its bullpen members — the product of extra innings, doubleheaders, and short starts. “We’ve been fighting the schedule. It is what it is,” LeVangie said on Wednesday. “At times, we’re asking guys to pitch who are in the red. We really don’t want to. At some point, we have to find a way to get these guys some rest. That’s an important part of our team. We can’t win without a bullpen. We can’t achieve our goal without the bullpen.” There were several days when the Red Sox had one or two or three pitchers whom they worked fastidiously to avoid, even in high-leverage situations — an undertaking exacerbated when Ryan Brasier had to leave the team to go on bereavement leave, and when Heath Hembree landed on the injured list due to elbow soreness. Yet even when shorthanded, the Red Sox tried to remain mindful of the big picture, whether that meant having Josh Smith close a game against the Rangers last week; or avoiding Matt Barnes, Brandon Workman, and Walden in a 2- 0 win over the Twins on Monday; or making sure to stay away from Marcus Walden in Tuesday’s 17-inning marathon. The rotation, too, required protection in the eyes of the team, something that placed a toll on the bullpen. After David Price made his 1⅓ -inning start against the Rangers last week, the Red Sox made a proactive decision to limit his pitches on Tuesday in deference to their efforts to keep the 33-year-old healthy for the long haul.