Red Sox Wednesday Report

Zak Drapeau
Jul 9
7 min read

by Zak Drapeau 7/9/2025 FansOnlySportz

Disclaimer: This edition of the Red Sox Weekly Wednesday Report will contain the last two weeks, (6/25-7/1 and 7/2-7/8).

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(6/25-7/1) Week In Summary

The Red Sox concluded their West Coast losing streak at home versus the Blue Jays, bringing the count to 6. They would also be swept by the Angels in that span as they desperately raced home afterwards for some sorely needed rest at home.

As a whole, the Red Sox turned in around and finished the week with a 3-3 record on the back of a 3-1 run in their last 4. In that stretch, the boys would have a beautiful 15-1 win at Fenway to firmly exercise their West Coast demons.

Several players REALLY stepped up in this last week including Lucas Giolito, Roman Anthony, Jorge Alcala and Wilyer Abreu. Unfortunately, to end their losing streak several players didn't rise to the occasion like Garret Crochet and SURPRISE SURPRISE; Walker Buehler.

3 Positives of the Week

The First Positive of the Week goes to Roman Anthony. In his short pro career, this was by far the best 6-game stretch at the plate for the #1 prospect in baseball. His slashline of .409/.435/.591 is RIDICULOUS including a 5-game hit streak. Anthony's also getting comfortable against lefties too, defeating the "platoon advantage" which was his biggest hurdle coming into the league. Roman is still getting better by the day and we LOVE to see it!

The Red Sox Fielding Percentage will be the Second Positive of the Week. After last week's struggles including 5 errors and 9 unearned runs, the Red Sox only allowed 1 and 1. Unfortunately for Lucas Giolito, it was in his shutout bid in the 15-1 trouncing of the Blue Jays when he missed a throw to 1st. Which means, for an entire 6-game week, the Red Sox field didn't have a single error. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

Speaking of the 15 run-game versus the Blue Jays, that has to be our Third Positive of the Week. In the best score line of the season, the Red Sox bats were led by Wilyer Abreu and Romy Gonzalez. 18 hits and 3 home runs for the boys were enough to have the Blue Jays give up hope in the 4th inning. Not to mention Lucas Giolito continuing his hot run of form in a 6 hit-7 inning performance only hindering a shutout based off his own error. A DOMINANT performance like this is something that can turn a team around before the All-Star break.

3 Negatives of the Week

The First Negative of the Week has to go to the ERA of the club. In a week where the team's fielding was perfect, the pitching didn't hold up their end surrendering 26 earned runs in 5 starts for a 4.673 ERA, (not including Giolito's start v TOR.) The team's WHIP wasn't even bad at a 1.365. Giving up 6 home runs and 22 walks loaded the bases and the struggles to get out of a jam were for real.

The Starting Rotation was mostly to blame for the earned run woes so they will be our Second Negative of the Week. He is ABSOLUTELY DESERVING of one, but Garret Crochet's blow up start vs Cincinnati saw 5 earned and 9 baserunners in 6 IP. As a whole, (again besides Giolito's gem) Boston's starting rotation had 28 IP, surrendered 16 ER, had 37 baserunners and gave up 6 home runs for a 5.14 ERA. Shake it off boys.

The 6-game losing streak technically was between both of the last two weeks but is nonetheless our Third Positive of the Week. 2 games in San Francisco, being swept by the Angels and losing at home to the Blue Jays was embarrassing. Luckily it seems like the boys just had a bad West Coast trip and have ended the week with 2 wins vs Cincinnati. Let's hope that's the longest losing streak of the season and it's firmly behind us.

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(7/2-7/8) Week In Summary

After putting their West Coast trip firmly behind them, the Red Sox exploded into this week and MIGHT BE... the hottest team in baseball right now?

Their team stats say it all; their team slashline was .329/.354/.575 showing they RAKED. Even the pitching was incredible with a Team 2.63 ERA and 1.23 WHIP.

Too many players played outstandingly to give credit to but the best of the best were Cedanne Rafaela, Lucas Giolito and Brennan Bernardino.

The team's 5-1 week included 50 runs scored and only 22 runs allowed. They would also sweep the Nationals in Washington and cause the organization to fire both their GM and Manager. We saw the firm comeback bids from Lucas Giolito and Trevor Story in great "stories" this week and with only one game remaining in the Rockies series tonight, could get a second series-sweep in a row.

3 Positives of the Week

After a TERRIBLE West Coast road trip soured the Red Sox in the last two weeks, the boys' 5-game winning streak has to be the First Positive of the Week. Sweeping the Nationals in Washington over the 4th of July weekend and winning the first two versus the Rockies has the boys a midst their best momentum of the season. In the 5-game streak, the Red Sox have outscored opponents 46-15!!!! They even hit the 10-run mark 3 times. Are you starting to see why this has been their best stretch of the season.

The Second Positive of the Week is summed up in one word: Raking. Over the past 6 games, the Red Sox are slashing .329/.354.575. A .329 TEAM AVERAGE and .928 TEAM OPS is ridiculous!

Since it belongs in the same category, Cedanne Rafaela will get our Second-and-a-Half Positive of the Week and may have had the best week in the League at the plate. In Rafaela's 25 plate appearances, Rafaela slashed .417/.440/1.042. His OPS of 1.482 is other-worldly and deserves to be shouted out amongst his peers.

After last week's terrible pitching, the team turned it around and the team's pitching as a whole will be our Third Positive of the Week. Specifically, the pitching control has been elite, only surrendering 15 BBs and 1 home run. More gems by starters Lucas Giolito and a complete game from Brayan Bello headlined this week but some bullpen work by Brennan Bernardino, Jorge Alcala and Chris Murphy were incredible. The team had a combined 2.63 ERA and 1.23 WHIP this week and to reiterate... only allowing 1 home run in 6 games is SPECIAL.

3 Negatives of the Week

In another example of the field's roller coaster season, our First Negative of the Week has to go to Fielding. 2 weeks ago they had 5 errors for 9 unearned runs, last week they had 1 error for 1 unearned run, and now this week they had 5 more errors for 5 unearned runs. To accentuate this problem, their lone loss of the week can really be blamed on these errors as 4 unearned runs from the Reds led to an 8-4 loss on July 2nd. Trevor Story and Abraham Toro both had an error in this game and another throughout the week. They're lucky the bats were so alive or these mistakes would be really hurting them at this point in the season.

The next two negatives aren't really bad, but this week was so good I couldn't find any others...

The Second Negative of the Week goes to Cedanne Rafaela's All-Star Snub. The 24-year old's .986 fielding percentage and .774 OPS are already good but don't even scratch the surface of his recent form. His success this week was already talked about but Rafaela also is 3rd in the ENTIRE LEAGUE in WAR since the start of June. All-Star reserves like Byron Buxton and Steven Kwan are far away from Rafaela's performances as of late and Javier Baez is listed as a starting outfielder who's only played 33 games at the position. I hope Rafaela takes the snub seriously and keeps being mad and DOMINATING the plate.

The Third Negative of the Week will I guess go to the bats of Marcelo Mayer and Carlos Narvaez. The two are ops-ing .600 and .579 respectively, which is only a little below where they should be but there's nothing else to critique. Mayer didn't walk in 15 PA and Narvaez only had 1 in 16 PA so they could do better looking for free passes.

Next Week's Predictions

As earlier stated, the Red Sox will host the Rockies tonight as they go for 6 wins and 2 sweeps in a row. Lucas Giolito will oppose Antonio Senzatela in what seems to be a gross mismatch considering Giolito's last 5 starts of .83 ERA, .918 WHIP and more strikeouts than he's had baserunnners.

The following 4 game home stand versus the Rays will be the final games of the 1st Half. The short way to put this series matchup is a team that's won 5 in a row and 8 of their last 10, versus a struggling team that's lost 8 of their last 11. Currently, the Rays are 1.5 games ahead of the Red Sox in the AL East race and the Red Sox are coming for that lead.

With the bats overwhelmingly favoring the Red Sox right now and the home field advantage in their pockets, a 3-out-of-4 Win series can easily be assumed here.

Carrying momentum is hard to do for a long stretch in the MLB but the Red Sox look very poised to continue it at least until the All-Star break. Winning 8 of their last 10 and with a VERY POSSIBLE 4-out-of-5 incoming, it'd be clear that the Red Sox will enter the 2nd half as one of the scariest teams in the league.