Second guesses abound in Red Sox fourth straight loss Tuesday in Toronto

TORONTO, CANADA - AUGUST 11: (L-R) Adley Rutschman #31 of the Boston Red Sox walks away from a mound visit with Patrick Sandoval #43 of the Boston Red Sox in the sixth inning of their MLB game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on August 11, 2026 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images) | Getty Images

In what’s been a Cinderella summer for the Red Sox, the clock on the wall suddenly appears to read four minutes after midnight. No, the season is not over, but the magic carpet ride that transported this team through a wormhole and into the thick of the playoff race is almost certainly fading into the fabric of history.

Instead of everything breaking Boston’s way and almost everybody being hot at the same time, we’re suddenly seeing a brand of baseball where every mistake is magnified, every clutch play ripples, and every little thing makes a huge difference. In other words, welcome to meaningful baseball in August, where the goal for the next three months is to make that July matter as much as possible.

Nowhere is the reality check more evident than in the way the last four games have ended. They’re not just losses, they’re losses to subpar pitching performances all ending with with men on base in the ninth inning and the tying run either at the plate or stranded somewhere aboard the broken carousel.

Tonight in particular was filled with lowlights. Here’s some of the most glaring:

The team was 0-7 with runners in scoring position (part of a 3-36 stretch with 38 men left on base over their last four games).

Caleb Durbin, usually one of the more surehanded defenders, made a costly error that led to a pair of unearned runs in the fifth.

Jarren Duran got thrown out representing the tying run trying to steal second base in the eighth inning.

Willson Contreras went hitless again and looked like he belongs closer to the IL than the cleanup spot.

Wilyer Abreu struck out in a key spot to end the seventh to a guy who trotted out from the bullpen with a 10.20 ERA.

Adley Rutschman made the final out of the game in his Red Sox debut, missing a very hittable pitch during the second offering of the at bat.

The team collectively failed to score a run against the soft underbelly of Toronto’s gassed bullpen despite the Blue Jays bullpen usage looking like this in terms of innings pitched over the last week:

Tuesday (8/4): 6.0 innings

Wednesday (8/5): 6.0 innings

Thursday (8.6): 3.1 innings

Friday (8/7): 4.1 innings

Saturday (8/8): 5.2 innings

Sunday (8/9): 5.2 innings

Monday (8/10): 5.0 innings

Speaking of bullpen work, how about this 0-2 pitch by Seth Martinez in the bottom of the eighth with a chance to get out of the inning without any damage?

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But all of this doesn’t even get to what I think might be the biggest big picture problem from this game: Patrick Sandoval kind of sucks. He doesn’t throw enough strikes, he struggles to go deep into games, and he’s flirted with all out disaster in at least half his starts despite not yet having a signature meltdown.

Over The Monster’s own pitching guru Jake Roy noted during the game that “Sandoval’s fastball velocity was down about 1.5 mph, and he had a ton of arm side misses, which tells (him) he was probably fatigued.”

Well, that’s kind of an enormous problem, because he’s already not giving the Sox enough length, and they don’t really have anywhere else to go with Payton Tolle and Jake Bennett already at career highs in innings pitched, Connelly Early traded away, and reinforcements from the likes of Garrett Crochet, Johan Oviedo, Kutter Crawford, and Tanner Houck nowhere to be found on the immediate horizon.

Compare this to the more fixable nature of everything else that went wrong tonight: I know the Sox offense is going to be streaky. I know Caleb Durbin is a better defender than his misplay showed. I know Willson Contreras is a better hitter than the last week indicates. I know Adley Rutschman is going to come through his fair share of the time when his spot comes up in the ninth, and I know Seth Martinez isn’t going to be pitching in the eighth inning all that often. You know what I don’t know? How the Sox are going to manage the bottom of this rotation over the next few weeks if anything else cracks.

Chad Tracy knows he’s stuck with Sandoval for the foreseeable future too, because oh boy was he putting lipstick on this pig after the game:

“I thought he was really good. Just two earned runs and a few walks. I thought he controlled counts much better. Didn’t have many spurts where he lost control. I thought he had a pretty good outing.”

I like Tracy and think he was just covering for his guy, but this here is not at all what I want to see from my starter:

Way too many uncompetitive balls that proved easy takes for the opponent, and not nearly enough swing and miss stuff. If it wasn’t for a pair of double plays and Wilyer Abreu’s assist in the fifth, there’s almost no way he makes it through six innings. Going forward, this is a ticking time bomb.

And yet, do you know what’s worse? The obvious second guess of leaving Sandoval in this game too long isn’t all that obvious given the broader circumstances. If this was a “gotta have it game” down the stretch, Tracy could’ve pulled Sandoval after five innings and just used some combination of Justin Slaten, Tyron Guerrero, Erik Miller, Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman for the final four frames.

But at some point, you need length out of your starters at this stage of the season, so Tracy took a chance with Sandoval in the sixth given his low pitch count (60 pitches entering the inning). It obviously didn’t work, but there’s going to be nights where Tracy has to do this because he can’t get to the end of September with his bullpen completely gassed. Sadly, tonight is a good example of what’s generally going to happen whenever he has to ride with Sandoval too long. It’s a true damn if he does and damn if he doesn’t situation when it comes to s...

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: Yahoo Sports. Open at source →