Celtics grant ‘winning high’ to Red Sox, who deserve the fans’ support for now

The Boston Red Sox opened a three-game series with a thrilling 7-6 walk-off victory against the Toronto Blue Jays Monday night at Fenway Park. As, well, let’s call it a special extra attraction, the newly crowned NBA champion Boston Celtics also appeared, with Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum (or Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown) the last to emerge from the dugout.

More about that later. First, let’s go back to exactly one week earlier, when the Red Sox opened a three-game series against the same Blue Jays, only at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. The Red Sox emerged with a 7-3 win, with Nick Pivetta putting together seven strong innings, Tyler O’Neill hitting a pair of home runs, and…and it’s possible you’re reading these details for the first time. For it was that night at TD Garden that the Celtics finished off the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals for their 18th NBA championship, an event that Boston turned into a roundball Mardi Gras for the rest of the week.

Only now are local citizens waking up from that party. And for some, they are only now waking up to the reality that the Red Sox, written off during spring training as little more than a collection of hopeless pasts and hopeful maybes, are suddenly playing just about the best baseball in the world.

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How fitting, then, that a Celtics delegation was at Fenway for another celebration and passing of the torches. Now, no one is so bold as to use their Celtics-issued rose-colored glasses to declare the Red Sox potential World Series champions, but that’s not the point. What is the point is, with Monday night’s win, the Red Sox have won eight of their last nine games, putting them at seven games above .500 for the first time this season.

And lo and behold: the Celtics hung around the clubhouse practically until game time. What is that? The team’s pregame ritual disrupted? Apparently not, Sox manager Alex Cora said.

“There’s only one chance to have the NBA champions in your clubhouse,” he explained.

NBA champions, the Boston Celtics, are at Fenway tonight 🏆

Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Joe Mazzulla, Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White and Al Horford threw out the ceremonial first pitches ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/tLkHfe3aHt

— MLB (@MLB) June 24, 2024

These aren’t the Manny Ramirez-David Ortiz Red Sox, and there’s no Pedro Martinez around to spark discussions about who is the best pitcher in team history. But they do have Jarren Duran, a one-man comedy of uncertainty a few years ago, who is now emerging as one of the game’s most exciting players. He extended his hitting streak to 14 games on Monday night, including the walk-off single that ended it. In Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Duran didn’t go a Big Papi-like 4-for-6 with two home runs. What he did do was score the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly to shallow left field, and then, in the bottom of the ninth, prevent the Reds from tying the score when he raced to the center-field fence to rob Scott Fairchild. of a home run.

As “great” catches go, this one was, oh, a 7. Duran ran to the right spot, sat down and jumped into the air. But it’s a catch Duran probably wouldn’t have made a few years ago. On this day he had a chance with the steadfast approach of an established top flight player.

Jarren Duran had the winning RBI single in the ninth to extend his hitting streak to 14 games. (Paul Rutherford/USA Today)

If you’ve been following these Red Sox with any serious knowledge, I don’t need to sell you on Duran. But considering he’s getting buried in the buzz for next month’s All-Star Game, it’s clear not many fans are following his exploits.

You may not have noticed that Tanner Houck has a 2.18 ERA in 16 starts, or that O’Neill, if he can stay healthy, is a big presence in the lineup, with 15 home runs in 54 games. Catcher Connor Wong, who has gone home for paternity leave, has a Jason Varitek-like on-base percentage of .390. (I say that because I long believed that one of the most underrated individual statistics of the 2004 World Series champion Red Sox was the, you guessed it, Varitek on-base percentage of .390.

“People love this brand of baseball,” Cora said before Monday’s game. “It’s fun to watch. The athleticism is there.

“Defensively we still need to be better, but offensively we are doing a lot of good things,” Cora said. “Were running a lot ofnot only on the bases, but also by keeping the bases running properly.

Referring to the Celtics’ visit to Fenway, the manager said: “We get to celebrate them, and then it’s us, right?”

It is them.

Right?

Perfect evening at Fenway Pahhhhk ☘️ pic.twitter.com/zXtwCliJ8r

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) June 25, 2024

Okay, you should be worried that Cora, whose contract expires after this season, might be out of here. One wonders what long-term ideas are swirling in the head of first-year chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. And you should be absolutely annoyed that principal owner John W. Henry, who stood outside Fenway Park on opening day in 2002 to personally shake hands with fans, recently told the Financial Times: “Because fans expect championships almost every year, they quickly become frustrated and do not believe in what the odds actually are: one in 20 or one in 30.”

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Whatever the calculation, that comment seemed regal and dismissive. Especially since this is the team that traded away future Hall of Famer Mookie Betts and continued to cut payroll.

I learned a long time ago that blaming the players when things go wrong is simplistic and often wrong. And these players, from what we’ve seen so far, are on a tailspin. Even if some of you – okay, some of you us – have not been connected in recent months.

Sox right-hander Josh Winckowski gets it. He opened the season with the big club, was optioned to Triple-A Worcester in May and was recalled on Monday. In other words, he spent the last month afterward both teams from far away.

“It’s super exciting to see what the Celtics have done,” he said. “Obviously they have a great team there. And being in Triple A and seeing our boys win series after series, it’s also quite exciting to watch. And I’m happy to be back. Now it’s summer and now it’s our time to go.”

Infielder Vaughn Grissom, currently on the injured list, told me he played for the Atlanta Braves last year and was with the team in Philadelphia to play the Phillies while the Celtics were in town to play the 76ers. “We were in the same hotel and I shared a ride with Jaylen Brown and some other guys. I’m thinking about that now because I feel like the city is kind of on a winning streak right now because that team won a championship. And now it’s a great opportunity for the fans to come to us.”

Agreed, but with a caveat: If the Sox continue to compete for a wild-card spot — first place in the American League East could prove out of reach, even if we’re not quite there yet — will Breslow take steps to improve the roster?

Or will a computer, or a room full of statistics-obsessed whiz kids, provide data that prompts Breslow to resign? If that happens – that is, the resignation – it means that the investment you have made in this team so far has been a waste of time, money and emotions.

That’s all later. As of now, the 2024 Red Sox have earned your support.

(Top photo of Jarren Duran celebrating with Rob Refsnyder after his game-winning hit: Brian Fluharty / Getty Images)