Red Sox Weekly Report

Zak Drapeau
Jul 24
5 min read

by Zak Drapeau 7/23/2025 FansOnlySportz

Week In Review

After an insane 2 weeks leading to the hottest team in the league before the All-Star break, the Red Sox have come back down to earth. The team's schedule over the first two weeks after the break is exceptionally tough but they should be doing better than this.

A 6-game road trip this past week started in Chicago against the Cubs. A NL Central leading team at the time, the Cubs dismantled the Sox in the first 2 games. Finishing off the series with a 6-1 win, the road trip would conclude in Philadelphia where again, the Sox would win the 3rd game after losing the first 2.

Before the final game in Philadelphia, the Sox had only scored 10 runs in their 5 games and gave up 18 in the same span. Giving up 18 runs in 5 games and even the 26 they gave up in all 6 shows a decent pitching week but was not backed up by the bats at all.

After the Sox were the hottest team in baseball before the All-Star Break, a wave of reality hit the Sox like a ton of bricks. The bats seemed to find their way over the last few days but they'll need to come ready starting on Friday again.

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3 Positives of the Week

First Positive of the Week was the bullpen. In 21.1 innings pitched in 19 appearances, the pen had a 1.69 ERA and a .891 WHIP. Of the 8 pitchers that came out of the pen in the last week, only Chris Murphy and Aroldis Chapman would give up runs, (Chapman's first ER in 20 appearances.) The bullpen had one of it's best weeks of the entire season and if not for a couple of atrocious starts, the pitching would have been in line with it's pre-All Star Break form.

Second Positive of the Week was the pitching control. Including the great week from the pen, the entire staff had 49 innings pitched and only 12 walks this week. Allowing a 2.20 BB/9 is an elite figure for any team but especially a team who had a 4.04 ERA for the week. The team would earn a 1.245 WHIP for the week as a result.

Third Positive of the Week was Walker Buehler. I can't believe I'm saying this, but by far the best starting pitching performance of the week was from Walker Buehler. In his 7 inning performance in the Sox 3-2 extra innings loss, Buehler allowed 6 hits, 2 runs and only 1 earned run. His 4:1 K-to-BB ratio was impressive and one of Walker's lowest walk totals of the season. After 2 months of terrible starts, Buehler has been going later in innings lately but this performance has been his best.

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3 Negatives of the Week

First Negative of the Week was everyone's batting. As a team, they batted a .190/.259/.327 slashline for the week. A team .586 OPS is dreadful, especially compared to the .928 team OPS from 2 weeks ago. Players like Roman Anthony and Wilyer Abreu had a pretty good week while Refsnyder batted well from the pinch hitting role. Besides them, everyone had a below-.700 OPS which is why the team averaged 2 runs a game before last night.

Second Negative of the Week were the Catcher's Interference Calls. In back to back nights, Carlos Narvaez was called for game-altering Catcher Interference calls that both resulted in unearned runs. The first one was the worst play he's made all year, bases loaded in the 10th and Narvaez receives a pitch but sticks his glove into the wing zone. After the umpires huddled they gave the Philly the base and walked home the winning run. In the game the next day, Bryce Harper stole home but Narvaez balked by standing over the plate before the pitcher finished his windup. Both plays were mental lapses on one of the best Catchers this season and hopefully will teach the youngster a lesson that will help him improve even more.

Third Negative of the Week was the Starting Rotation. 5 pitchers pitched 6 starts and had a combined 5.86 ERA in 27.2 innings. Not the worst week they've had but terrible nonetheless, when Walker Buehler is the star of the group you know they had an off week. Lucas Giolito was the worst of the group and even after a very strong few weeks before the break, gave up 9 runs in 9.1 innings pitched. Brayan Bello and Richard Fitts both pitched less than 4 innings in their starts while giving up 3 and 4 runs respectively.

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Looking Forward

After a tough way to start the second half of the season, the next 2 series don't get any easier for the Sox. Going back home for three days, the NL West-leading Dodgers will come to town after just beating the Twins 2-1 in their series. After that they will then travel to Minnesota where the Twins are 28-20 in Target Field.

The three pitching matchups vs the Dodgers are, Bello (3.23) vs Sheehan (4.41), Crochet (2.19) vs Kershaw (3.27) and Buehler (5.72) vs May (4.73). The Dodgers are one of the best rosters in the league but have been in a major slump since the 4th of July and are 4-11 during that time. While the Dodgers bat during this time has been very poor, it has picked up in their last series vs Minnesota. With Bello, Crochet and Buehler pitching, the Dodgers bats will need to be even better. A series win especially back at home is very possible here probably by a 2-1 tally of games.

Scheduled vs the Twins will be Fitts (4.86) vs Woods Richardson (4.14), Giolito (3.97) vs Paddack (4.95) and Bello (3.23) vs Matthews (6.26). In a matchup in Minnesota, (where the Twins are pretty good) the Red Sox will have a distinctive pitching advantage. Time will tell what kind of rhythm or momentum the Sox will be on after the Dodgers series but if it's close to being good this should be another series win too. The Twins bats have been even worse than the Dodgers over the last few weeks but favorably for them, the Twins will take on possibly the worst 3 pitchers in the Sox' rotation. Either way, the best chance for the Sox to get some wins back and compete in the AL East after last week will be this series.

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