So says his current manager, anyway.
With first base sill a question mark for the Red Sox, the team got some bad injury news. Utility man Romy Gonzalez suffered a setback in his attempt to rehab from a quad injury, and is going to take longer to return than expected. (Adam London, NESN)
While Kristian Campbell continues to work out at first base for the Red Sox, Marcelo Mayer is spending more and more time at second down in AAA. This clarifies a promotion path for Mayer, who is “absolutely” ready for the big leagues according to Woo Sox manager Chad Tracy. Hitting coach Doug Clark went to say that Mayer is “moments away from really the cusp of getting to the big leagues.” I guess that technically means that Mayer is not on the cusp of a promotion itself, but merely on the cusp of being on the cusp of being promoted. But I am excited to get excited nevertheless. (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)
Mayer deserves credit for cutting down his strikeouts as he’s moved up the ladder. After putting up strikeout rates around 25% in his first two seasons of pro ball, Mayer cut that down to 19.7% last year and has maintained that rate this year, even as he’s jumped up a level. If he can perform at a similar level in the big leagues (which, you know, would be pretty hard) that would be a huge help for the Sox, who are really struggling with strikeouts. The Sox have struck out at least 10 times in a game 26 times this season and have the fourth-highest strikeout rate in baseball. (Alex Speier, Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)
Unlike Marcelo Mayer, Garrett Crochet loves strikeouts. And last night he embarrassed Juan Soto of the Mets by striking him out three times on just 10 total pitches. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)
Crochet would have loved to stay in last night’s game longer and collect even more Ks, but he was lifted by Alex Cora in the sixth inning, having thrown just 85 pitches. Cora explained that the Red Sox medical staff and sports science team had identified last night’s game in advance as one in which Crochet’s workload would need to be managed more carefully. (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)
Cora called on Liam Hendriks to spell Crochet, which worked for two outs before Hendriks let the game slip away in the seventh. That performance came at a pretty awkward time for Hendriks, who had just complained to Sox management about his lack of usage in high-leverage spots. (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)