If the Boston Red Sox hope to shed the underdog label that was placed on them by their own chief baseball officer, they need to take advantage of their upcoming schedule.
A critical stretch begins Friday when they open a three-game set against the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park. Despite losing four of their last five, the Red Sox enter the series only two games behind the Blue Jays for the third and final American League wild-card spot and actually can overtake Toronto in the standings with a series win, thanks to their advantage in the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Our John Tomase broke down the importance of the Toronto series here, but it's the 10 subsequent games that could make or break Boston's season.
The lowly Kansas City Royals will come to town for a four-game series, followed by the Detroit Tigers for three games. After that, the Red Sox will hit the road for a three-game series with the rebuilding Washington Nationals. That's 10 straight games against three of the worst teams in the majors.
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Coming out of that stretch with a winning record is imperative, because it'll be an uphill battle the rest of the way. Boston wraps up the month of August with three games against the New York Yankees in the Bronx and four in Houston before heading back home for three against the Los Angeles Dodgers and another three vs. the Astros.
The road to October doesn't get any easier from there. September will be a grind. After opening the month with what should be an easy trip to Kansas City, the Red Sox will face all four of their AL East foes in consecutive series. The powerhouse Texas Rangers await them in Arlington after that, then the final three series of the regular season will come against the Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, and Baltimore Orioles.
All of this is to say the next two weeks will tell us everything we need to know about the 2023 Boston Red Sox. If they can take care of business against Toronto and beat up on their inferior opponents, they should have no problem staying in the playoff conversation.
If they lose ground in the playoff race before their trip to the Bronx on Aug. 18, we might as well turn the page to 2024.
