Forget Pretty. The Red Sox Just Need to Get There.

(AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Well, that was ugly.

Actually, ugly probably doesn't quite cover it.

The Red Sox went into Yankee Stadium this weekend with a chance to make a statement. Maybe even a big one. They had just won five of six games, they were playing good baseball again, and after all of the nonsense we've watched with this team this season, there was an opportunity sitting right there.

Go into New York. Beat the Yankees. Maybe take three of four. Make everyone pay attention again.

Instead, they lost three of four.

And Sunday? We can just agree to never speak of Sunday again.

A 16-1 loss to the Yankees is not something that requires deep analysis. Sometimes you just put the game in a box, seal the box, throw the box into the ocean and move on with your life.

So that's what I'm going to do.

Because here's the thing.

For probably the first time all season, I really don't care how the Red Sox look.

I just want them to get there.

October.

That's it.

We've spent months trying to figure this team out. I've written about whether they should sell. Whether they were fooling us. Whether the winning streaks were real. Whether I finally believed. Whether the offense disappeared again. Whether they actually looked like a playoff team.

I'm tired.

And I'm guessing they probably are too.

There are 25 games left. Boston is 74-63. Even after the disaster in New York, the Red Sox remain five games ahead of the current American League Wild Card cutoff. That's not an insignificant cushion on August 31.

So now?

Grind.

Just grind the damn thing out.

There doesn't have to be another 15-game winning streak. There doesn't need to be some dramatic September where they suddenly become the 2004 Red Sox and start steamrolling everyone in their path.

They don't need to impress anybody anymore.

They need to win enough baseball games.

That's different.

And maybe that's the next thing this team has to learn.

Earlier this season, Boston needed long winning streaks because they had spent the first couple months digging themselves into a hole. They needed something ridiculous. They needed 15 straight wins. Then nine straight. They needed stretches where it felt like they couldn't lose because they'd already spent so much time doing exactly that.

Now they've earned themselves a little breathing room.

Not enough to relax.

Definitely not enough to relax.

But enough that every loss doesn't have to feel like the season is collapsing.

Friday night in New York was actually the type of loss we're probably going to see a few more times over the next month. The Sox lost 1-0. That's baseball. Paul Goldschmidt hit a home run, Boston couldn't push anything across, and Cody Bellinger threw out the potential tying run at the plate.

Annoying? Absolutely.

Catastrophic? No.

Then Boston came back Saturday afternoon and won 6-0.

That's the part I'm trying to remember.

Lose one.

Come back and win the next one.

Then, unfortunately, things went completely sideways. The Yankees won 9-2 Saturday night and then administered the aforementioned 16-1 public execution Sunday afternoon.

Fine.

The series sucked.

Next.

That's September baseball.

At least, that's what September baseball has to become for this particular team.

They cannot spend two weeks sulking over Yankee Stadium. They can't let three losses become six losses. They can't turn one bad series into one of those stretches we saw earlier in the season where everything seemed to unravel at once.

Lose three of four?

Okay.

Go win two of three.

Then win two of three again.

Do that enough times and somebody will be handing you a playoff roster sheet.

It sounds incredibly simple because it is incredibly simple.

And also incredibly difficult.

The encouraging thing is that the Red Sox should actually be getting stronger.

Roman Anthony finally returned Sunday after being out since May with the hand/wrist injury, and Trevor Story returned as well. Anthony wasted almost no time reminding everyone what he can do, homering in his return.

That's a pretty significant development.

Obviously one guy isn't going to rescue an offense every night. We've already learned that lesson about this team. But adding Anthony changes the lineup. Adding Story gives them another veteran bat and another option.

And maybe more importantly, they're arriving at exactly the time when Boston needs every available body.

September isn't going to be about finding one hero.

It's going to be about surviving 25 games.

It's going to be a bullpen guy getting out of a bases-loaded jam on a Tuesday.

A sacrifice fly in the seventh inning.

Somebody beating out an infield single.

A starter giving you six innings after the bullpen got destroyed the previous night.

A 3-2 win where nothing particularly memorable happens.

Good.

Give me ten of those.

I don't need 12-3 every night.

Actually, after Sunday, I'd prefer we take a little break from games where anybody scores 12 runs.

The Red Sox have already proved the most important thing they needed to prove.

They're still here.

Think about where they were in June.

When Boston entered that late-June series against the Yankees, they were 15½ games behind New York. What followed was a four-game sweep that helped launch this bizarre, completely unpredictable summer. There was a 15-game winning streak. Then another nine-game winning streak. At one point, Boston went an absurd 27-3 over a 30-game stretch.

That's how they got here.

But that's not necessarily how they have to finish.

This is where the mentality changes.

You're not chasing anymore.

Now you're protecting something.

There's a playoff position sitting there.

Protect it.

The Yankees are ahead of Boston in the Wild Card race. Fine.

Tampa Bay probably isn't getting caught in the division. Fine.

Would it be nice to host a Wild Card series? Of course.

Would it be nice to finish ahead of the Yankees? Absolutely. I don't think anybody needs me to explain that one.

But I'm not going to get greedy.

Not after everything we've watched this season.

Get in.

I'll worry about who they're playing and where they're playing when we get there.

Because once October starts, nobody cares how you qualified.

Nobody gets an extra run because they won 96 games instead of 89.

Nobody cares that you lost 16-1 in Yankee Stadium on August 30.

The standings reset to zero.

That's been the strange evolution of this season for me.

A few months ago, I wanted the Red Sox to convince me they weren't wasting our time.

Then I wanted them to convince me the winning was sustainable.

Then I finally stopped fighting it and decided to enjoy the ride.

Then they started looking, occasionally anyway, like an actual playoff baseball team.

Now?

I don't need convincing.

I need survival.

That's what the next month is. Twenty-five games.

There will be bad nights.

Probably a few terrible ones.

There will almost certainly be another game where the bats disappear and we all stare at the television wondering how the same lineup scored seven runs two nights earlier.

There will be a bullpen meltdown.

There will be an error at exactly the wrong time.

There might even be another series where everything goes wrong.

Just don't let it linger.

That's the whole thing.

Don't turn three losses into seven.

Don't let one bad week erase three good months.

Don't start scoreboard watching so obsessively that you forget to win your own game.

Win tonight.

Then worry about tomorrow.

Seattle comes to Fenway next. The Mariners enter the series at 64-73 and on a four-game losing streak.

Take advantage of it.

Not because Seattle is some massive test.

Because this is exactly the kind of series playoff teams win.

Two out of three.

Then move on.

No parade. No declarations. No column from me announcing that they've finally figured everything out.

Just another series in the bank.

Stack enough of them and suddenly it's late September and we're talking about playoff pitching rotations instead of Wild Card math.

That's where I want this thing to go.

We've already gotten the roller coaster.

We've gotten the losing streaks, the winning streaks, the injuries, the young guys, the trade deadline, the Yankees drama and more emotional swings than one baseball season should reasonably contain.

Enough.

There's no mystery left.

Twenty-five games.

Grind them out.

Win more than you lose.

Get to October.

And then?

Then we can start getting unreasonable again.

Written by: Tim Hourihan

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