The Red Sox finish up a nightmarish August in St. Petersburg behind new face Brad Peacock as they try to even up their series against the first-place Rays (7:10 p.m., NESN). They made a lot of roster moves before the game because of the ongoing COVID issues.
Here is the official rundown of roster moves for today. Renfroe reinstated to roster. Brad Peacock added to roster for start tonight. LHP Stephen Gonsalves added. LHP Josh Taylor, RHP Hirokazu Sawamura placed on Covid-19 related IL. RHP Raynel Espinal returned to Worcester.
— Ian Browne (@IanMBrowne) August 31, 2021
The Sox enter the game down nine games to the Rays and effectively out of AL East contention barring a 2007 Rockies-like September run. Tampa Bay is also up seven games on the Yankees, which is cool and all, but a pennant that seemed winnable on July 31 seems like a distant dream a mere month later. Baseball will surprise you and it will hurt you, and it won’t let you know ahead of time which one is coming.
Now the Sox are facing a widespread COVID outbreak, and Peacock, recently acquired, makes his Sox debut in a huge spot, albeit in a bullpen game. He’ll be faced by Ryan Yarbrough, who enters the game with a 4.57 ERA, but it never seems to matter with the Rays. Heck, you can’t even spell his first name without “Ray.” (Or mine. Oops!)