The Red Sox are winning games with their gloves, and it’s sustainable

The Red Sox are winning games with their gloves and it’s sustainable originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Two plays the Red Sox wouldn’t have made last year, one game they definitely would have lost.

Yeah, I’d say things are already different in 2024.

We talked about the Andrew Bailey effect and highlighted the newfound injection of energy and excitement. In Tuesday night’s 5-4 win over the A’s, defense took center stage.

The Red Sox made two plays into extra innings that provided the slim difference between victory and defeat. First, Raphael Devers attacks and barehanded a sacrifice bunt attempt in the 10th, which had a bonus hit written all over it, pinning speedy Zach Geloff at first with a quarter-step.

Instead of first and third, with no outs in a tied game, the A’s had one out and a runner on third. The Red Sox got the next baseman to ground into a double play, and Josh Winkowski then erased the winning run at home on a groundout on a contact play. Disaster #1 averted.

The even better play came an inning later, with a ghost runner on second and the Red Sox trying to close out the game. Big catcher Shea Langeliers sent a blistering liner into deep center. The hit rate was 83 percent. With last year’s starting center fielder, Adam Duvall, patrolling the deepest reaches of the Oakland Coliseum, he could push that to 100 as well.

Instead of a tied game and a go-ahead run at second or even third, the A’s got nothing but a scream of terror from Langeliers as rookie center fielder Sedan Raffaella chased the ball 391 feet from home before firing to the infield that forced the runner to return to second place.

“I made a pretty good jump,” Raffaella told reporters, including Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe. “I think that’s why I made the catch. I think everything in the park I have to catch.’

It was a brilliant game from someone who has been touted as a potential Gold Glover since reaching Double-A. Other than Jackie Bradley Jr., no Red Sox center fielder in the past 20 years has gotten to that ball as easily, and that includes outfielders Johnny Damon, Jacoby Ellsbury and Quique Hernandez. But Raphaela is such a rare talent.

“I was watching him turn around and kind of keep moving to right-center further and further away from Rafaela,” Winkowski told reporters. “And the fact that he caught it was unbelievable. Obviously 100 percent saved the game. Just a crazy play.”

Because we ask the same question about every win at the start of the season – “Is this sustainable?!?” — at some point we’ll just enjoy a well-played game for what it is. But in the meantime, it’s worth noting that much of what the Red Sox are doing during this 4-2 start — effort, hitting, energy, defense – is absolutely sustainable.

That may be less true of Devers, who has led AL third basemen in errors for a record six straight seasons and has been known to lose his defensive composure for long stretches, but there’s no reason to think shortstop Trevor Story , two-time Gold Glove outfielder Tyler O’Neal or Rafaela will face similar slumps.

Even though Brian Bello struggled in his own home for hours to deliver the first underperformance of the season (5 IP, 4 ER) by a Red Sox starter, the formula is coming into focus. Throw it and catch it high and find enough offense to win. So far it’s working, with Rafaela’s catch being the most dramatic example yet.

“For me, yeah, I knew he was there,” manager Alex Cora told reporters, including MLB.com’s Ian Brown.

“He had it all along. That’s what we’re doing now. We’re playing better defense and passing a lot better.”