The Boston Globe - 06.08.2019

A step forward

Porcellohandles Kansas City

to endRedSox’ eight-gameskid

Sports

THEBOSTONGLOBE TUESDAY, AUGUST6, 2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/SPORTS

D

TVHIGHLIGHTS

Baseball: Royals-Red Sox, 7:10 p.m., NESN
Baseball: A’s-Cubs, 8 p.m., MLB
Listings,D6

Van Noy enjoyshomecoming

INSIDE Former Lion says it’s “good to comeback a winner.”D2

WLPct.GB

Cleveland 66 46 .589 +2

Tampa Bay6549.570—

Oakland6449.566½

BOSTON 60 55 .522 5½

Texas5854.5186

Los Angeles5658.491 9

ALwild-cardstandings

ByMatt Porter

GLOBESTAFF

RedSox7

Royals 5

They can’t get it back
withone swing, or one
game, or one series.
If they are to make the playoffs af-
ter last week’s flop,whichcameafter
the stumbles of the first few months,
they will have to chip away the next
seven weeks.
After their seismic eight-game los-
ing streakto the Rays and Yankees,
the one-day-at-a-timeRed Sox began
anew Monday. They snapped the skid
witha 7-5 win over the struggling
Royals at Fenway Park.
Hey, it counts. Better nowthan
never.
RickPorcello, with a 9.35 ERA in
his last seven starts, did what only one
Boston starter had donethe previous
nine days: He completed six innings.
The righthander pitchedsix innings
of one-runball, allowingfour hits,
walking two, and striking out five.
Manager Alex Cora shrugged off

the ideathat a weightwas lifted off

Porcello’s shoulders.

“Today was a first step,” Cora said.

“That’s what we need. They knowit.

We believe in the group.Fifteen days

of good pitching... or seven days of

good pitching, the narrative will be

different.

“They’re working hard to get it

right. Today was a good beginning.”

Porcellohad a shutoutgoing with

two outsin the sixth,whenKansas

City thirdbasemanCheslorCuthbert

hammered a fastballoff the baseof a

left-field light tower.

Only one Red Sox starter — Eduar-

do Rodriguez, 6„ innings against the

Yankees last Friday — had gone into

the seventhinningsinceAndrew

Cashner did against the Yankees on

July 26.

“Eight-game skid,” Porcello said af-

ter improvingto 10-8 witha 5.54

ERA. “We neededto stop the bleed-

ing.”

REDSOX, PageD5

Finn:Lots ofreasonsfor Sox’ flop

There’s not just one explanation for dismal showing.D6

Rays’ Chirinos outa month

Tampa Bay loses a third starter to injury.SportsLog,D6

Odds now

stacked

against

Red Sox

History doesn’tfavor

theirplayoff chances

ByAlex Speier

GLOBE STAFF

Is it over?

The Red Sox are plumbing unfath-

omabledepths, theireight-gamelos-

ing streakhaving left them with a

6½-game deficit in the wild card sug-

gesting a team that isn’t far from being

able to start making October vacation

plans. Indeed, it’s worth asking wheth-

er such a point has already arrived.

After all, the Red Sox are muchclos-

er to teams deemed noncontenders,

the Rangers (the Sox are a half-game

ahead) and Angels (3½ games), than

the Rays (5½games)and A’s (five

games).The eight-gameplummet that

ended with Monday’s win over the

Royals is preciselythe sort of down-

turn that the Red Sox couldn’t afford

off their dismal start.

Do playoff teamsendure stretches

like this? Usually, no, but it does hap-

pen.In fact, since 2010,therehave

been seven playoff teams that had los-

ing streaksof at least eightgames.

Most recently, the 2017 Dodgers over-

camean 11-gamelosingstreakto

reachthe playoffs — albeit at a time

when they had all but clinched the NL

West and still could cruiseto a triple-

digit victory total. That same year, the

Rockies overcame an eight-game los-

ing streakto win the NL wild cardat

87-75.

Those 2017Rockies were aided by

the lack of elite teams in the National

League.It’s doubtfulthat boththe

Rays and A’s — eachon pacefor 93

wins — will permit the Sox to reach the

postseason with 87 wins.

That reality underscores the signifi-

cant gap that the RedSox face. A

6½-gamedeficit with 48 contests left

meansthat it’s startlinglylate. If, for

instance, Tampa Bay and Oakland

merely maintain their current paces,

the Red Sox would have to go 34-14

(.708) to reach 93 wins.

Again, that’s difficult, but not en-

tirely unprecedented. Indeed, the Red

Sox and Rays have a measureof first-

handfamiliarity that sucha sizable

gap in August can be closed.

On Aug. 7, 2011,the Rays lost to

the A’s, 5-4, to dropto 59-54. They

SPEIER, PageD3

JIM DAVIS/GLOBE STAFF

RafaelDeversand RoyalscatcherMeibrys Viloriawatchtheflightof Devers’s fifth-inningsolohomerunto left fieldthat puttheSox ahead, 4-0.

JIM DAVIS/GLOBE STAFF

SamTravis sharesa high-fivewithRafaelDevers,whoscoredonTravis’s

two-runhomerin thethirdinningMonday nightagainst theRoyals.

ChristopherL. Gasper

Nothing is

guaranteed

It’s gridiron gospel that Tom Brady has
nothing left to prove in a gilded career en-
tering its 20th season. He has defied the
athletic actuarial tables and the state-
mandated parity of the NFL to serve as the
linchpin of a football dynasty defined by
his longevity and unprecedented jewelry
(six Super Bowlrings). But Brady is going
to have to prove to Bill Belichick, the sa-
trap of Patriot Place, that he’ll keep aging gracefully under
center.
On paper, Brady and the Patriots found middle ground
Sunday on a two-year contract extension worth $70 million
that will keep the 42-year-old quarterback with the team
into the onset of middle age, throughthe 2021season. In
reality, that “extension” is a fancy financial facade with
nothing behind it. It’s a Brady Band-Aid. Like a home on
the set of a television program, it’s designedto look real
fromthe outside, but it’s just empty framework.
The sides avoided the awkward dance of Brady playing
out the final year of his contract at a below-market rate,
providing him remunerative redress by bumping his 2019
pay from $15 million to $23 million. That’s aboutit. The
GASPER,PageD3

Brady focused on

moving past deal

ByNora Princiotti

GLOBE STAFF

ALLENPARK, Mich. — The morning after he and the Pa-

triots struck a new contract agreement that gives him an $8

million pay bumpthis season,Tom Brady was clear, honest,

and at ease about the fact that the deal doesn’t tie him to the

team beyond this year.

“It’s a uniquesituation I’m in — 20th year with the same

team and I’ll be 42 years old,” Brady said Monday after the

first of three joint practices with the Lions. “Pretty muchun-

charted territory, I think, for everybody.”

Brady was set to enter the final year, full stop, of his old

deal in 2019.Then on Sunday, the Patriots and his represen-

tatives finalized a new deal that technially runs through

2021 but is expected to be restructured next offseason.

Brady reportedly has salariesof $30 million and $32 mil-

lion set in place for 2020and 2021in the new deal, but both

are void years, which makes those figures little more than

placeholders.The benefit of the void yearsis that they help

the Patriots spread out Brady’s salary-cap hit and give him

the knowledge that he’ll avoid the franchise tag.

If Brady didn’t want to be portrayed as essentially going

year to year, he couldhave hiddenbehindall that nitty-grit-

ty and pretendedthings were all hammered out for the next

threeseasons. Instead, he seems fine with the arrangement,

in part a bet on himself, and had a sense of humoraboutit.

PATRIOTS, PageD2

DANIEL MEARS/DETROIT NEWS VIA AP

Tom Brady, witha new contract extensionin hand, caughtupwith

former teammate DannyAmendolaat the joint practicewiththeLions.