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Red Sox veterans Xander Bogaerts, JD Martinez and Chris Sale have called a players-only meeting ahead of Monday’s series final with the Rangers to deliver a simple message: play hard.
It’s hard to say it worked, exactly, after the Red Sox lost a ninth inning lead to the dismal Rangers, but Travis Shaw’s 11th grand slam left the club feeling better at the end of the season nonetheless. the day that the start of it after an 8-4 win.
“Bogey, JD and Sale addressed the team this morning and it was just great to have these guys guiding us and pushing us forward,” reliever and winner Garrett Whitlock said during from the WEEI post-game show. “These are the guys we’re looking for too, especially as a rookie. Just to get them to really lead us, really push us… It’s a great team and there’s nowhere I’d rather be. “
There was no doubt the Red Sox needed something. On Saturday they played perhaps their worst game of the year, making five mistakes and looking slow and lethargic in a 10-1 loss to a Rangers club who arrived in Boston averaging less than three points per game in August and with just 14 road wins, total, all season.
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After this, manager Alex Cora admitted he was embarrassed and said he did the same at his club. Monday morning, the three veterans took matters into their own hands.
“I am a manager,” Cora said. “I stay away from the clubhouse. It’s my choice. You think I’m involved, I just stay away.”
Outfielder Alex Verdugo, however, shared a bit of what happened behind closed doors.
“Energy,” he said. “That’s the most important thing. Obviously, the players, we had a little players meeting. We’re going to keep this in-house for the most part, but the most important thing to come about was just that we wanted to. playing under the power. That’s all. It doesn’t matter if something good goes or bad happens. It feels good to hear that. When you’re in the club and you hear your guys cheering you on from the canoe , that makes a little lockdown shot from the suite hitter. “
Before anyone rolls their eyes to the rah-rah nature of Verdugo’s admission, it’s worth considering just how gloomy the team have played over the past three weeks.
“Some people think that’s what the Little Leaguers are doing,” Verdugo continued. “Well that’s what brings energy. It’s what keeps you going. When I hit and I hear guys cheering me on from my canoe, I take a foul ball and they say to me : “It’s a boy – you’re right on it! ‘ It stimulates you. It certainly makes you want to get the next roll even more. “
Hence the meeting. Bogaerts, Martinez and Sale each own World Series rings – Bogaerts has two – and their words carry extra weight.
“We, the players, just wanted to get together and talk,” said Verdugo. “That’s all that really matters to us. We’re out there playing, giving our best, 162 games a year. We just felt it was the right time. It was like if that was what the boys needed. Obviously. to come out today and have the big win is huge. “
Perhaps the message was related, as Whitlock displayed unusual energy after recording the 11th final. “Win the game!” he shouted in the canoe, and his teammates soon obeyed him.
“This is our group,” Whitlock told WEEI. “That’s who we are. We know we support each other.”
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