Red Sox swept by the Yankees and Xander Bogaerts said it was fun

In a season that’s been compared to backyard baseball, Xander Bogaerts made a statement that’s sure to draw some controversy in Boston on Monday.

“It sucks that we lost but it was pretty fun, honestly,” Bogaerts said after the Red Sox lost a 9-7 heartbreaker to the New York Yankees on Sunday night.

Bogaerts was 4-for-4 with two home runs as the Sox went back and forth with the Yanks in a Home Run Derby, only to lose on Aaron Judge’s second blast of the night in the eighth inning.

So let’s get this straight, the Red Sox were swept by their arch rival, fell to 3-7 on the year, watched the Yankees move to 7-1 atop the American League East and Bogaerts said it was fun?

Surely, the old school hardo baseball fans are going to be upset with that statement. But “there’s no fun in losing” is an outdated sentiment, and maybe that’s why there aren’t many stern, no-fun, business-only managers left in baseball.

Here’s a little secret: losing can be fun. Winning can be not fun.

How about the 2016 and the 2017 Red Sox?

From David Ortiz’s final season, to the constant questions about John Farrell’s job security, to David Price’s anger infiltrating the clubhouse and radiating for months, those teams rarely looked like they were enjoying themselves.

But they won! Well, they won in the regular season. They flamed out early and embarrassingly in the postseason.

And remember what Mookie Betts and Bogaerts both said in spring training in 2018?

Those teams weren’t having any fun. They weren’t playing with urgency.

Alex Cora brought the fun back in 2018 for the best season in Red Sox history. And despite the team winning just 84 games in 2019, they kind of looked like they were having fun then, too.

So what’s it matter, anyways? Who cares if they’re having fun if the Red Sox are losing?

Well, nobody but the players, is the short answer. But that’s also short-sighted.

What we’ve seen from these Red Sox teams is that when they’re having fun, they’re playing with energy. And when they’re playing with energy, they’re never really out of games.

“We fought back man,” Bogaerts said Sunday night. “This is one of the games we could take a lot of positives out of. There haven’t been many games like this…. This game was a nice fight from us.”

Nobody has the pulse of the Red Sox’ clubhouse like Bogaerts, who speaks a million languages and connects with players from every corner of the world.

And when he says they’re finally having fun, you better believe him.

“He’s become a leader, and that’s the type of player he is,” manager Ron Roenicke said. “That’s who you want to be a leader.”

And the leader says the Sox weren’t having fun until Sunday.

“The last two games playing here, the energy was down,” Bogaerts said. “This one we started off good, feeling good and they come right back at you, and you go. It was a lot of back and forth… Coming into today, the energy level was different before the game. Me and (Christian) Vazquez and (Rafael) Devers were talking about that.

“I don’t know why, but it was just different.”

It looked different. The Red Sox haven’t scored early at all this year. In the first nine games, they had two runs in the first inning.

Sunday night, Bogaerts wallopped a two-run homer in the first inning to give the Red Sox an early lead. Finally, a lead.

Four times on Sunday night the Red Sox scored a go-ahead run, only to give up the lead five times thanks to Matt Hall’s spotty performance out of relief and Matt Barnes’ hanging curveball to Aaron Judge, who looks like the best hitter in baseball history right now. He’s got six homers in five games.

“We ran into a hot Judge,” Bogaerts said.

It happens.

But Bogaerts was a monster at the plate too.

“Yesterday I talked to the hitting coach (Tim Hyers) and J.D. Martinez,” he said. “I kind of tried to explain that I was feeling stuck at the plate. I didn’t feel like I had much rhythm. I felt weak at the plate. J.D. talked to me about maybe moving a little bit, creating some movement going, some type of rhythm. I did it yesterday and continued today and it paid off.

“I just felt like I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t do damage. Props to those guys for helping me out with that.”

For the first nine games of the season, Bogaerts, Devers and Martinez didn’t do much offensively.

Sunday, all three took good at-bats.

“Obviously the big boys have been slacking a bit with the bats,” Bogaerts said. “Other guys have been picking us big time. Hopefully we can just do it together as a team.”

Devers’ first homer of the season broke a tie in the seventh inning, when he smacked an inside changeup to center field for a solo shot.

Something was different about the way the Sox played this game, he agreed.

“It was fun out there,” Devers said. “I came out there today a bit more motivated. There was an extra fire from all of us, not just myself.”

It was a devastating loss. But sometimes, losing can be fun.

And if the Red Sox are going to survive this season with their ace at home recovering from Tommy John surgery, their 19-game winner at home recovering from the coronavirus and their MVP in Los Angeles, playing for the Dodgers, they better learn to have a little fun.

Or it’s going to be a long year.

At least this way they’ve got a chance.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Pgzant