After a rough first homestand in April, the Boston Red Sox rebounded this past week.
Despite dropping the finale of their series with the San Francisco Giants, 3-1, on Thursday, the Red Sox finished their second homestand of the season with a 4-2 mark and plenty of positives despite more injuries and more roster churning.
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“It was a great homestand,” manager Alex Cora said. “We played great. We pitched well. We played clean baseball. Sweeping at this level is very hard. They are a good team. Now we have Minnesota and we’ll try to do the same thing on the road.”
It’s going to be a tall task. The Twins are the hottest team in baseball, having won 10 straight, though the Red Sox are 8-4 in their past 12. The Red Sox then have two games in Atlanta, reuniting with Chris Sale, before returning home next Friday.
As the team heads on the road, let’s take stock of a few players.
Stock up
Tanner Houck, RHP
Any stock-up/stock-down story about the Red Sox would be remiss without Houck’s name up top. The righty makes his seventh start of the season in Minnesota on Friday and it might be his toughest test. Still, Houck’s 1.60 ERA is tied for eighth among MLB starters while he ranks sixth in the majors in strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.20) with 41 strikeouts and five walks.
Tanner Houck has 3 starts of 9+ strikeouts and no walks in April. pic.twitter.com/8wxUsjZ2op
— Red Sox (@RedSox) April 29, 2024
Jarren Duran, OF
Duran had an 0-for-4 day at the plate on Thursday but is coming off a terrific homestand in which he went 7-for-20 with two doubles, two triples and five walks. He’s started all 32 of Boston’s games this season, the only player to have done so. Ceddanne Rafaela has played in every game, but not started all of them.
Brennan Bernardino, RHP
With another scoreless outing on Thursday, Bernardino lowered his ERA to 0.73 in 10 appearances since joining the club on April 9. He’s retired 35 of 46 batters faced in 12 1/3 innings.
Connor Wong, C
Wong went 0-for-3 on Thursday but entered the day hitting .396 with a 1.111 OPS in his previous 13 games, having recorded multi-hit games in seven of those contests. In 22 games, he’s hit .351 with a .975 OPS. Meanwhile, alongside Reese McGuire, he’s managed a pitching staff with the lowest ERA in the majors at 2.58.
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Stock down
Triston Casas, 1B
Casas has been sidelined since April 21 with a rib cartilage injury and was moved to the 60-day injured list six days later. The earliest he can return to the team is June 21. It’s still early in the recovery process, but we checked in with Casas recently. He’s still having pain while breathing 12 days after tearing the cartilage between his rib cage and sternum, however, he feels he’s able to get a fuller breath than in the days following the injury.
To keep him moving while not overly taxing him, Casas has been doing light walks on the treadmill but isn’t allowed to pick up anything or rotate, which has made getting in and out of bed difficult. Any crunching movements have been painful. (He noted he hasn’t sneezed or coughed yet since the injury but did have a painful hiccuping experience.) Because he has a fairly extensive yoga and exercise routine as part of his daily regimen, the lack of movement has been tough for him.
“My spine feels freakin’ tight,” he said. “I feel like a snake needing to molt out of its skin. I haven’t been able to stretch, or put my arms over my head or do any of the things that I love doing. So it’s been tough, but I think my body is thanking me a little bit. It needed this rest I think. So I’m just taking it one day at a time.”
Casas will stay behind during the road trip to minimize movement and will continue to get treatment at Fenway over the next week.
Casas is scheduled to get an MRI in about 10 days so the doctors can see how it’s healing, but Casas admitted even if it’s not healing quickly there’s not much that can be done. He was told surgery is not an option because they would have to cut through the abdominal muscles and they don’t want him to have to heal multiple injuries simultaneously.
Bobby Dalbec, IF
The infielder who was called up shortly after Trevor Story went on the IL was optioned to Triple-A Worcester after the game on Thursday. WEEI.com first reported the news. Dalbec offered solid defense at first base after Casas landed on the IL, but with the addition of Garrett Cooper this week, it appeared Dalbec’s days were numbered. In 22 games, he went 7-for-53 with a 52 percent strikeout rate.
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Masataka Yoshida, DH
The designated hitter was placed on the 10-day IL on Wednesday with a left thumb strain after getting hit by a pitch on Sunday. Initially, it seemed Yoshida was just sore, but as the days progressed the injury appeared like it might be something more. Yoshida had an MRI Wednesday that revealed a strain, but both Yoshida and Cora were asked if they could rule out surgery on the hand and both said they’re gathering more information.
With so many injuries piling up and the need to use the DH for other players, Yoshida didn’t start a game for about a week at the end of April. He returned to the lineup Saturday and had a four-hit game before getting drilled in the hand on Sunday.
Enmanuel Valdez, IF
The Red Sox optioned Valdez to Worcester on Thursday to make room on the active roster for infielder Zack Short, whom they’d just acquired from the New York Mets. Short offers the club more defensive versatility playing second, short and third.
As for Valdez, known more for his offense than defense, he’d taken great strides defensively at second but wasn’t able to produce much with the bat. In 28 games, he hit .156 with a .452 OPS. Valdez having minor-league options also made it easier to send him down to Worcester where Cora said they want him to work at other positions. Cora said Valdez will start seeing reps at first base and third base as well as in the outfield, where he played some while in Houston’s organization before his trade to Boston in 2022.
(Photo of Houck: Ron Schwane / Getty Images)
