{"id":754600,"date":"2026-07-18T00:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T00:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/754600\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T00:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T00:30:19","slug":"red-sox-credit-improved-offense-to-playing-different-brand-of-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/754600\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox credit improved offense to playing different \u2018brand of baseball’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Red Sox homered, but it was really the little things that put the big numbers on the scoreboard in Friday\u2019s 10-0 victory<\/a> over the visiting Tampa Bay Rays.<\/p>\n

Boston entered Game 2 of Friday\u2019s doubleheader with an MLB-best 18-5 record since June 19, 15 wins in their last 17 games, and on a nine-game win streak.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was about time,\u201d said catcher Carlos Narv\u00e1ez, whose three-hits in the Game 1 win included one of the two homers. \u201cThe energy has been up. If you break down the games before this streak, it was really, really close games, missing opportunities by just a little. It was about time to click.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for all their recent success, the Red Sox entered the day with the lowest overall home-run total in the majors, 85 in 94 games. The difference-maker, several players said after Game 1, has been small ball, the savvy manufacturing of runs through stolen bases and sacrificial hits, like bunting.<\/p>\n

Small ball put six runs on the board for Boston in an 11-batter bottom of the sixth. The Red Sox loaded the bases on a Caleb Durbin hit-by-pitch, Masataka Yoshida single and Romy Gonzalez walk. After Jarren Duran\u2019s two-run single deflected off the glove of leaping second baseman Ben Williamson, Narv\u00e1ez and shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng drove in a run apiece with back-to-back RBI bunt singles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what it\u2019s all about,\u201d said Narv\u00e1ez, who touched home on Ceddanne Rafaela\u2019s team-leading 23rd double. \u201cGet the job done, no matter which way it is. \u2026 I had the sign. OK, let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durbin is well-versed in small-ball strategy from both sides of the equation. He went 3 for 4 with two runs and an RBI Friday afternoon, and is making himself the frontrunner for the Gold Glove Award at third base by hindering opponents\u2019 attempts to play small.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve played good defense all year, and that\u2019s what\u2019s kind of kept us in games, even when we weren\u2019t winning as much, we\u2019ve been in every game, it feels like,\u201d Durbin said. \u201cNow the offense is clicking a little bit, and we\u2019ve got some momentum. And those close games that we were kind of falling on the wrong side of, we\u2019re on the right side now. And then we\u2019ll have games where we\u2019re kind of blowing it up, too, scoring a lot of runs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durbin beamed as he spoke about watching his teammates execute on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, it was awesome!\u201d Durbin said. \u201cI was fired up, I was fired up. We\u2019ve been playing more of that brand of ball lately. It\u2019s kind of, I think, loosened up other aspects of our offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes the pressure off of guys like Willson (Contreras),\u201d Durbin explained, referring to the team\u2019s first baseman, who leads the club with 20 home runs. \u201cWe don\u2019t have to hit the long ball. We can kind of score in different ways, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to need to do. That\u2019s what good teams do, and it\u2019s fun that we\u2019ve been able to do that recently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Narv\u00e1ez credited the team\u2019s unified focus to their recent success. He spoke of a meeting Tracy called in New York last weekend, and how nearly the entire team attended the optional workout at Fenway on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message was, \u2018OK, we\u2019re good. But after the break, we have series against our division teams, so everybody locks in,\u2019 \u201d Narv\u00e1ez recalled. \u201cI mean, yesterday we had the workout and pretty much every guy was here. So that tells you a lot, where we\u2019re at as a team, where\u2019s the mentality of it. \u2026 First game was very important, and everybody was ready. So that was the whole message, and I think everybody, (we) understand and received that message very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Small-ball success is indicative of a well-oiled machine. All parts of the game contribute to the sum of the whole, but small ball hinges on connection and teamwork. A solo homer, for instance, only requires a batter who can hit the ball out of the yard. A well-executed RBI bunt single requires situational awareness, perfect placement, and a speedy baserunner.<\/p>\n

So, is small ball the emphasis for the second half of the season?<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say we\u2019ll call it the emphasis, it\u2019s just take what the game gives you,\u201d Red Sox interim manager Tracy said. \u201cWe have guys in our lineup that are gifted bunters, they can get it down. It doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re going to do it every time \u2026 We\u2019ve been doing that for a while now, and credit to them, they buy in and they get asked to do a job and they execute the job. That\u2019s what baseball is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve talked a lot about like, execution,\u201d Tracy said, \u201cand the game gives back to you if you\u2019re playing team baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Red Sox homered, but it was really the little things that put the big numbers on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,48,74005,3615,789,15690,4,297,87730,2550,68,2551,2549],"class_list":["post-754600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-rays","tag-baseball","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-bunting","tag-caleb-durbin","tag-carlos-narvaez","tag-chad-tracy","tag-mlb","tag-rays","tag-small-ball","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabayrays"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116938160479098395","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}