Is the Pink Sox (comparatively) improved play of late late all right down to Jarren Duran? Duran hit 9 homers within the month of Could — probably the most residence runs he’s ever hit in a single month in his profession — and the Pink Sox went 7-2 in these video games. He additionally moved into second-place on the all-time Pink Sox leadoff residence run checklist with 11 profession leadoff dongs, second to (who else) Mookie Betts’ 20. (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)
However not everybody digs the lengthy ball. There are these amongst us preferring the delicate artwork of bunting, and people folks have discovered their champion in Nick Sogard, who had a key sacrifice bunt in final week’s win in opposition to the Braves. For Sogard, the bunting runs within the household. “It goes again to being taught easy methods to bunt by his father, former Tufts baseball and soccer participant Steve Sogard. ‘He was an analogous participant to me, not a ton of residence runs, and he relied on his velocity,” Nick mentioned. ‘One of many first issues I discovered in baseball was bunting.” (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)
The Sox would possibly must bunt much more, sadly. FanGraphs ZiPS mannequin infamously didn’t challenge a single Pink Sox hitter to hit 20 residence runs initially of the season. Whereas each Duran and Willson Contreras are actually greater than midway to that mark, the mannequin has been up to date and now has no Pink Sox hitters reaching 25 homers, which, 2020 excluded, can be the primary time the crew didn’t hit that mark since 2017. (Andrew Gould, NESN)
There’s some stunning energy potential within the minors, although. Infielder Henry Godbout, who was heralded as an elite contact hitter when he was drafted final 12 months, already has seven homers on the 12 months down in Greenville. He has a reasonably large fan within the Pink Sox dugout: Connelly Early, who was teammates with Godbout at UVA. “Fairly cool to observe him succeed,” Early mentioned. “I really feel like final 12 months, in his little brief stint that he had, it was fairly wonderful to observe as nicely. So clearly obtained off to the best foot, made a extremely good first impression.” (Christopher Smith, MassLive)
Godbout was not the Pink Sox’ first choose in final 12 months’s draft. That may be Kyson Witherspoon, who, on the time, was seen as somebody who might probably climb as much as the massive leagues in a short time. As an alternative, Witherspoon has struggled because the Sox tinker along with his mechanics. “One evaluator who noticed him final month noticed a pitcher whose execution seemed like that of a center reliever, relatively than the projected mid-rotation starter seen as the perfect school righthander in final 12 months’s draft.” (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)
