And, even thought the Red Sox themselves lost, I think there's a lot of positivity that came out of the game.
Mostly it continued to show that the trading deadline "additions" of the injured calvary could be huge. Paxton's start was another in a solid run for him. Ina vacuum, that might not mean much. But, with Sale coming back, it means that's a fourth solid stater the Sox have in the rotation, with Houck on the way. The days of the bullpen games, or back to back openers, could be on their way out. That's a big deal. As much as people liked to point to struggles with the rotation, they didn't like to mention the lack of actual rotation. There's a big difference in that case between "decent" and "awful". Even with the offense the So have had for much of the season, "decent" would have been enough. With what they should have moving forward? Decent is perfect.
Trevor Story struggled at the plate last night...like the rest of the team did against a good young lefty. But, his flashes in the field showed he's an upgrade over whatever the Sox were throwing out there all year. He'll hit better too. For an offense that was already the highlight of the team, that's a big deal.
And even after Whitlock's struggles last night, once again even having him as an option is huge. He wasn't sharp last night. It happens. But, adding him to a pitching staff as yet another arm you can trust is once again huge.
With all the talk in the media about last place and first place, and games behind, and struggles, it's easy to forget sometimes that the Sox have been on a playoff pace all season. Teams around them have stayed around them. But, even through all the injuries, they've been a playoff team. So it's not like they needed to add three Hall of Famers just to be average. They just needed to pick up a few extra wins. Going from "bad" at some positions to "adequate" is all they needed. And there's a good chance they got better than that.
This is going to be a fun last six weeks to the season. And beyond.
The upcoming schedule is going to be gauntlet of teams we are directly competing for playoffs with. With Houck back, The Red Sox will be putting out the strongest possible version of the team that they're going to ever be. It's sink or swim time, and it'll hopefully be exciting until the last day!
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