July 2021 was officially the wettest month on record in the history of the state of New Hampshire, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. The records for rainfall date back to 1868. Not only has it been raining in New England it has been pouring at the corners of Van Ness and Jersey Street in Boston.
Let’s go back to July 4th, 2021. Light rain in the morning, mostly cloudy for the rest of the afternoon. The Red Sox win a 1-0 gem from Pivetta with a save from Barnes in Oakland. I cooked venison backstrap on a salt block. It was a great 4th. When New England woke up the morning of the 5th they saw a forecast of Partly Cloudy skies with a high of 77(!) and the Red Sox with a 10.5 game lead over the Yankees and a 4.5 game lead on the Rays.
Now here we are in mid-August and we no longer have rain every day. Instead, it is in the high 80s to low 90s with the air having a soup-like consistency. (You really need to look at the dew point, humidity isn’t the true tell-all we think it is). And the Red Sox are now tied with the Yankees after losing both games of a 7 inning doubleheader. The 7 inning rule is the worst. Since that morning on July 5th, the Red Sox have gone 16-21 and have fallen to third place in the AL East and technically on the outside looking in of the Wildcard Game.
The bummer is the hot start was never supposed to happen. I think we were all content to watch a so-so year and see what Chiam Bloom does to build the future. But then they started hot. And that continued until the 4th. That gave us hope. As Red, Morgan Freeman’s character from The Shawshank Redemption, told us “Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.” Then they didn’t do much at the trade deadline and that hope is driving us insane.
Chris Sale is back which is why I think management didn’t go after a top pitcher at the deadline. Also, Tanner Houck has replaced Garrett Richards so the rotation should instantly get a boost. (As of late the rotation has been much better, thanks, Baltimore!) Kyle Schwarber is just coming back from an injury and finding his groove but should add some left-handed power. That leaves us with the bullpen. They did add two bullpen arms at the deadline, Hansel Robles and Austin Davis. Sporting ERAs of 4.91 and 5.59 respectively before the deadline. (I honestly gasped when I looked up Davis’ ERA) On top of all this, Matt Barnes has nose-dived in the second half. The All-Star is pitching much more like the old version of himself. Since the All-Star break, he has an ERA of 7.00, he is giving up 2 HR/9, 3 BB/9, and has a 5.40 FIP (Which rates his ERA independent from fielders, so runs that are truly his fault). He has only blown one save in this spiral but has given up the winning run in three separate appearances.
The offense hasn’t helped out. In August alone they have scored 2 or fewer runs in 7 games, losing 6 of them. Early in the season, the offense was carried by the main three guys J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, and Rafael Devers. Those three have slipped ever so slightly in this skid and they have gotten no help from the rest of the lineup. Hunter Renfroe has been a very pleasant surprise and Kiké Hernandez has become more patient at the plate and is setting the table but they are not driving runs in when they need to. During the swoon, the Red Sox are hitting .243 with runners in scoring position. Compared to .271 in the first half of the year. They aren’t getting it done in any facet of the game. I’m not going to even start on why Christian Vazquez runs so much.
The collapse of the bullpen coupled with the anemic bottom of the lineup has taken this team from a surprising contender to a team that has New England wondering about Mac Jones’ starting potential. They did the worst thing to us, they gave us hope and as we learned earlier that is a dangerous thing.
(Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images)
Thanks to Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs for all the stats
The Never Weres 
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