Luis Tiant, the charismatic Cuban with a horseshoe mustache and mesmerizing windup who pitched the Red Sox to the brink of a World Series championship and pitched himself to the doorstep of the baseball Hall of Fame, has died. He was 83.
Both Craig Breslow and Sam Kennedy vowed the Red Sox "will look to improve through every pathway," this winter, though we know one of those pathways will not be shelling out top dollar for top quality pitching.
Kutter Crawford allowed his major league-high 34th home run, a go-ahead drive by Junior Caminero, and took his big league-worst 16th loss when the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox 7-2 Saturday.
For a team that was projected to win around 77 games and finish last place in the AL East for what would have been a third consecutive year, that can be viewed as a step in the right direction. For a team that was 10 games over .500 at the All-Star break and a team that had they simply played .500 ball in the second half would currently own the AL's 2nd Wild Card, that should be viewed as a failure.
Jonatan Clase hit his first career home run, Kevin Gausman pitched six innings to match his career high in wins and the Toronto Blue Jays beat Boston 6-1 on Wednesday night, eliminating the Red Sox from postseason contention.