Red Sox Report: Wake Me Up When it’s October

The Sox are rolling. Thanks to a 4-game sweep of the lowly Baltimore Orioles, Boston is 50 games over .500 for the first time since 1946.

Where is October is my question. I want to see if this team, and their bullpen, is legit.

Don’t get me wrong I love and live Red Sox baseball, but at this point in the season it is dragging. How many times can I really watch the Sox beat teams like Baltimore or the Kansas City Royals.

The Yankee series was interesting because they are actually a playoff team, but Boston still put them to sleep faster than a Steve Pearce homer landing in the Monster seats.

I want to see the Sox play the Astros, Indians, Athletics, Mariners, and even the Yankees again. All the teams with a shot.

We know that the Red Sox lineup can hang with any of those teams. Mookie, J.D., and co. lead the league in runs scored by a large margin (50).

Even their starters have shown the ability to get through stout lineups without getting shelled. The bullpen though…shaky.

We saw it yesterday. Chris Sale went through 5 innings striking out 12 on 68 pitches against the O’s. Enter Tyler Thornburg and it becomes a ballgame. Even Boston’s most reliable reliever -Craig Kimbrel- has been bad of late.

In August Kimbrel has a 6.75 era and a 2 WHIP. Opponents OPS against him this month also lies around 1.160. That is not close to being the elite, let alone reliable, Kimbrel that we know. If he continues to falter there is little hope in my mind that the Sox end up doing anything in the postseason.

I do think Kimbrel turns it around but for the rest of the bullpen I have no idea. The only guy I trust at the moment is Ryan Brasier who literally came from another country.

We will see what happens in the postseason but as of now, it is smooth SALE-ing (see what I did there) to the point that it’s almost boring. I am ready for the playoffs.

-Jarrod Ribaudo (@Jribs53)