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Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras (40) tags out San Francisco Giants’ Rafael Devers, left, at first during the fifth inning of a baseball game Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo\/Mary Schwalm)<\/p>\n
Mary Schwalm\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
BOSTON\u00a0\u2014 When the Giants<\/a> acquired Rafael Devers<\/a> from the Red Sox last year, the move was supposed to push San Francisco even closer to the Dodgers, maybe even beyond, transforming a good team into a sure-fire contender.<\/p>\n Boston appeared to be heading the other way, and at the start of this season, without Devers and with his replacement at third, Alex Bregman, also gone, the Red Sox looked woeful. They were 32-46 on June 24, in last place and 15\u00bd games out of first in the AL East.<\/p>\n The Giants went 81-81 last year, failing to make the playoffs for the fourth year in a row, and like Boston, they got off to a poor start\u00a0\u2014 much more unexpectedly so. On June 24, they were 33-46, a half-game better than Boston, and 18 games out.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n And then the Red Sox ripped through July, going 21-4, somehow discovering something the Giants never could: momentum. To date, San Francisco has yet to win four consecutive games. Boston won 15 in a row at one point.\u00a0<\/p>\n What is the difference between these two clubs, which looked so much as if they were going opposite ways\u00a0\u2014 the other direction\u00a0\u2014 after the Devers deal?<\/p>\n This year\u2019s trade<\/a> between the Red Sox and Giants is instructive: Boston moved one of the game\u2019s most highly touted prospects, infielder Marcelo Mayer, who by all accounts profiles as a player who should have a long and successful big-league career if healthy, for a reliever, Erik Miller. Set-up men, as Miller himself said this week, do not usually bring back such big returns.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n And that\u2019s one major difference: Boston has prioritized its bullpen, adding a good lefty to a group that includes one of the most fearsome closers in the game, Aroldis Chapman. The Red Sox\u2019s bullpen has a big-league best 2.92 ERA and a major-league low nine blown saves. Over the past 44 games going into Sunday, the group was 15-3 with 17 saves and a 2.00 ERA.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re winning a lot of games in a row, you\u2019re probably going to be winning games that are close and that\u2019s easier to do when you have an elite bullpen,\u201d Miller said. \u201cSo that\u2019s definitely not a coincidence.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew that the bullpen here was good, but I didn\u2019t know it was the best bullpen in baseball. I was like, \u2018OK, wow.\u2019 That\u2019s how much they\u2019re leaning into, they\u2019re fully all in. I think they understand what wins games in October.\u201d<\/p>\n The Giants\u2019 bullpen has a 4.25 ERA and has blown 20 saves. Since the start of July, the relievers have a 4.20 ERA and 10 blown saves. Boston\u2019s bullpen has blown two saves in that time.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAn elite bullpen makes decisions a little bit cleaner, a little bit easier,\u201d Boston pitching coach Andrew Bailey said. \u201cIt shortens games, and of course it\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n It\u2019s tough to sustain momentum without a reliable bullpen, and it was evident before the season that the Giants had not done enough to fortify things, adding Jason Foley and Sam Hentges, both rehabbing from shoulder surgery and unavailable until close to midseason. By that point, the team was fairly well out of it. The Giants have cycled through closers: Ryan Walker<\/a>, Caleb Kilian, briefly Keaton Winn<\/a> and now rookie Dylan Smith, who\u2019s had the most success.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no hiding from the fact we\u2019ve had trouble in the ninth inning, and it\u2019s going to be something we address,\u201d general manager Zack Minasian said, pointing to some bright spots such as Smith and Winn. \u201cBut really, there\u2019s no aspect of the team you don\u2019t try to improve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Red Sox, meanwhile, were whirring in all aspects from midseason on.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAt one point, they won 27 of 30,\u201d Minasian said. \u201cYou don\u2019t win at that rate without everything clicking. Things can change quickly and it doesn\u2019t mean some of our arms can\u2019t take a bigger step forward next year and be a part of a really good bullpen.\u201d<\/p>\n How, then, do the Giants find momentum? It\u2019s a nebulous concept, sure. No one has a sure-fire recipe.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess as to how and why you gain that,\u201d Minasian said. \u201cI think some tough late losses can really kill momentum, and that\u2019s probably been something that\u2019s bit us more times than obviously we would have liked. But I\u2019ve always heard this line from veteran scouts, \u2018Momentum\u2019s as good as the next day\u2019s starting pitcher,\u2019 so it\u2019s really tough to pinpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n Remaining positive is always a good approach, Minasian said, and here the Red Sox really shine, especially since Chad Tracy took over after Alex Cora and much of his staff were fired. On Saturday, the entire Boston team gathered around to watch staff members\u00a0\u2014 all wearing Red Sox unis, even a venerable clubhouse manager\u00a0\u2014 raced around the bases, some wiping out, some missing the plate, some plodding, to determine fantasy-draft orders. Everyone had a ball.<\/p>\n In addition, Tracy has cut back on some pregame workload, setting later clubhouse times than many managers, with more \u201cshow-and-go\u201d with no batting practice, for instance.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Trace brings to the table is just a different energy\u00a0\u2014 nothing good, bad, just different from what Alex brought,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cWe get a lot of late reports throughout the course of this season, 4 o\u2019clock reports for home games, late buses on the road. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve taken BP on the field in three months. There is a lot of communication and hearing what the players are thinking and wanting and also trying to maximize recovery and just readiness to go play a game.\u201d<\/p>\n Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, under fire for some of his moves last year, comes in for some praise for putting the team together and for making what has turned out to be a well-timed staff overhaul.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cAs far as the success the team has had on the field over the last couple of months, I think the players deserve a ton of credit for that and I think Chad Tracy and the rest of the staff do as well,\u201d Breslow said. \u201cThe team has really found its identity and has come together, they are playing with a lot of confidence and belief in each other and that\u2019s manifested as putting a lot of pressure on opposing teams, on consistently pitching and playing good defense and running the bases aggressively.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been really fun to watch from my seat and I hope that it can continue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras (40) tags out San Francisco Giants’ Rafael Devers, left, at first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,6595,162,4,863,89,2543],"class_list":["post-786583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-red-sox","tag-baseball","tag-boston","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-bostonredsox","tag-buster-posey","tag-giants","tag-mlb","tag-rafael-devers","tag-red-sox","tag-redsox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117146875556224093","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786583","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=786583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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