Kevin Youkilis’ Return to Boston Full of Storylines and Other Thoughts From the Week in Baseball

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Jul 16, 2012

Kevin Youkilis' Return to Boston Full of Storylines and Other Thoughts From the Week in BaseballIt’s going to be a busy week down on Yawkey Way, starting on Monday night with an emotional return to Fenway Park.

Red Sox fans will get a chance to welcome Kevin Youkilis back to Boston on Monday when the former Red Sox infielder comes in wearing different colored socks for the first time in his career. 

It’s also the start of a very important week for the Red Sox, as they continue to jockey for potential playoff positioning. 

We get into all of that in this week’s 6-4-3. 

Six Red Sox Thoughts

1. Now what?

The Red Sox open their four-game series with the Central-leading White Sox on Monday with 73 games to play. What’s it going to take for them to make the playoffs? It might take a lot, actually. The Sox are at the point of the season where they need to go on some sort of a roll. If this was a PGA tournament, it would be Saturday — moving day. If Boston can play .643 (47-26) baseball the rest of the way they would get to 92 wins. That would probably be enough to earn them a wild card spot. That’s essentially winning every series from here on out, which is easier said than done. Ninety-two wins is pretty arbitrary at this point, but it’s some sort of a gauge, at least, especially when you consider the Yankees are currently on pace to win 99 games.

2. Encouraging signs

First, the optimistic view of this weekend’s series for the Red Sox in Tampa Bay. The pitching looked pretty strong. Franklin Morales turned in another nice effort on Friday night. Clay Buchholz followed that with a start that didn’t feature the prettiest line, but for his first start in about a month, there were encouraging signs from one of the most important pieces of this team in the second half. Finally, Josh Beckett was very good aside from an ugly first inning on Sunday, as Boston took the series with a win. We’ve said it many times, but it’s worth repeating — this team will only go as far as the starting pitching allows them. While the pessimist will remind you that the Rays are a light-hitting bunch, but it’s still a nice way to start the second half regardless.

3. Welcome back

The pitching will be key, but there’s no understating the importance of Jacoby Ellsbury‘s return to the top of the lineup. The Sox are obviously getting back an MVP-caliber player which is always nice, but Ellsbury does so much more than that. He stabilizes the lineup and allows everyone else to fall into place down the batting order. He’s also going to set the table and make life easier for your run producers, as having Ellsbury on base makes life miserable for pitching staffs. He’s looked good in his brief time since returning, with six hits in the three games against the Rays, capped by a three-hit performance on Sunday.

4. Carl, good to see you

Ready or not, here comes Carl Crawford. One of the most bizarre storylines with this team continues to be what’s going on with Crawford. He’ll make his return on Monday against Chicago, and does anyone have any idea what to expect? He had some puzzling things to say last week while putting the finishing touches on his rehab, speaking about the pressure to return in a timely matter. It’s really kind of unclear where that pressure is coming from, though, as it really doesn’t sound like the fans are putting a lot of pressure on him, especially given the play of guys like Daniel Nava and Cody Ross. That being said, it would make sense that people would want to see a $20 million player back on the field ASAP. Either way, Crawford’s ready to come back, and it’s going to be real interesting to watch.

5. Wait, what?

Bobby Valentine set the stage for Kevin Youkilis’ return to Boston on Monday with what he said over the weekend down in St. Pete. Valentine could have easily stepped around questions regarding Youkilis’ return. Instead, Valentine said that he thought Youkilis didn’t want to get over his comments about the infielder earlier this season. Given the chance to respond, Youkilis took the high road and didn’t offer any sort of fire-stoking comments. So essentially you have Valentine saying that Youkilis wouldn’t let it go, yet it was the Red Sox manager, not Youkilis, who is bringing it up now. It will be an interesting series, that’s for sure.

6. It’s not going to get any easier

We touched on how important it is for the Red Sox to play some really good baseball in the second half, and that starts right out of the gates. The Tampa Bay series was a success, but it doesn’t get any easier moving forward. The White Sox are a first place team, albeit in the Central. The Sox then get a bit of a break with a weekend series against the Blue Jays, but things get really difficult thereafter. Boston opens a three-game series in Texas on July 23 before heading to New York for the first time all year next weekend. They then return to Boston for a homestand that will welcome Detroit and Texas to Fenway. That’s quite the gauntlet.

Four Observations From Around Baseball

1. National treasure

The Nationals aren’t really going to shut down Stephen Strasburg, are they? Maybe they are. Everything you hear out of the Nats is that they’re insistent on shutting the ace down. He continues to dominate, though, and Washington continues to win games. The matching number is said to be about 160 innings. After Sunday’s gem, Strasburg is now at 105 innings. So if he goes seven innings a start, you’re looking at eight more starts, give or take one or two. The Nationals look like a team ready for a long playoff run, and that’s a stretch of baseball that’s going to carry long beyond eight more times around the rotation. 

2. Ozzie’s at it again

Ozzie Guillen is back in the spotlight again, just the way he likes it. His antics can be entertaining and humorous, but his insistence on teaching Bryce Harper some sort of a lesson seemed to go overboard. Read more about that one right here.

3. Here come the … A’s?

The new playoff format opens itself to some parity, and the Oakland A’s are trying to get into the party. The A’s weren’t expected to do much of anything this season, but they are on a roll right now, winners of nine of their last 10. Because of that, the A’s are now part of a logjam of teams that are in the hunt for one of those wild cards. They’re once again doing it on the strength of their pitching, allowing just 2.5 runs per game over the last 10 games. They still have offensive problems, but you can’t say enough about the play of Josh Reddick this season. The former Red Sox outfielder has 20 home runs — 14 more than Adrian Gonzalez — and 43 RBIs this season. If the pitching continues to shine and the A’s can get continued production from Reddick and say, Yoenis Cespedes, they could be a team that hangs around.

4. Good news bears

One team the new playoff format can’t even save are the Chicago Cubs. That being said, the Cubs have played much better as of late. They’ve won five of their last six, sweeping the Diamondbacks to open the second half, and they’ve raised their winning percentage almost 100 points since the last week of June. A lot of that has to do with Ryan Dempster. The veteran right-hander hasn’t allowed a run since May 30, or 33 innings ago. That’s the good news for Cubs fans. The bad news is that you have to assume Dempster will almost certainly be traded before the deadline. If he keeps pitching like this, though, Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer will be getting a lot in return.

Three Things to Watch This Week

1. Yooooouuuuk

Even if Bobby Valentine hadn’t made his comments over the weekend, Kevin Youkilis’ return to Boston this week was going to be appointment viewing. Youkilis is a player that fans in Boston loved during his time here, and his letter to Sox fans over the weekend sure sounded like it came from the heart. He’s going to get a big-time welcome on Monday night when the two clubs open what will be a pretty important for the team wearing the red shade of socks.

2. Wild West showdown

We mentioned the resurgence in Oakland, and the A’s will get a chance to really make things interesting this week when they host the Rangers and the Yankees. All it takes is a little bit of confidence (along with some good starting pitching) and a team can really go on a big run. If they can rattle off four or five wins during this six-game homestand, that could do wonders for a young team that doesn’t know they’re not supposed to be in this race.

3. Sheets to the win

Remember Ben Sheets? The former can’t-miss phenom has had a rough career, thanks in large part to injuries, but he’s getting another chance at a comeback. Sheets made his first big league start since 2010 on Sunday, and he shut down the Mets on Sunday with six scoreless innings. Is that a fluke thing or could we be seeing a career rejuvenated? Sheets will likely get his next chance over the weekend against Washington, when the Braves look to stay hot after winning their last seven games to pull within three games of the Nationals in the East.

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