Ballou on Baseball - July 18, 2025

By Bill Ballou,

The 2025 Worcester Red Sox hit the All-Star break two games above .500 and have been in the black at the break in three of the last four seasons.

The exception was 2024 when the WooSox were 44-48 but caught fire in August after the additions of Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, Kyle Teel and Hunter Dobbins. Worcester was 29-12 in its last 41 games of ’24.

The shot of adrenaline provided by last year’s Portland callups is unlikely to be duplicated. That was probably a once-a-decade event and Blaze Jordan and Jhostnyxon Garcia are already on board this season. So this year’s post-break record may not be quite as dramatic.

No WooSox team has ever finished below .500. This one, although in a recent dip, has managed to stay in the black for the last 40 straight games. It won’t match the 2021 team which spent the last 118 games of the season above .500, but it has at least one thing in its favor.

Worcester plays 33 of its final 57 games at Polar Park. It is 24-17 at home, just 23-28 on the road. Their next two road trips will bring the WooSox to places they have never been before. They are at St. Paul later this month and in Des Moines to play the Iowa Cubs in mid-August.

It is probably too much to expect the unofficial second half of 2025 to be as dynamic as last year, but if the big-league Red Sox can stay healthy and keep winning, it could lead to Worcester’s fifth-straight winning season.

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Since former WooSox players have been a huge part of Boston’s current 10-game winning streak, this is a relevant Triple-A fact. The BoSox have had 26 winning streaks of 10 or more games in their history including two in 1946. Ten of those teams finished in first place. All but one finished above .500, that being the 1993 Sox who were 80-82. … With 24 doubles already, Vaughn Grissom is close to tying Ronaldo Hernandez for the WooSox season high in that category. Hernandez had 27 in 2022. … Baseball wisdom holds that any offense a team gets from its catchers is a plus, but Worcester could use some more plus from its receivers. To date its six catchers — Blake Sabol, Sevy Zavala, Yasmani Grandal, Mark Kolozsvary, Nathan Hickey and Connor Wong — have combined to bat .191 as catchers. They have hit 14 home runs, though. Hickey has made three starts at catcher and homered in all three games. The WooSox recent two-man rotation of Sabol (traded to the White Sox on July 12^th) and Zavala was hitting .155 with 7 homers combined.

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TRIPLE-A TRIVIA

1. Which pitcher holds the WooSox franchise record for most consecutive innings worked without allowing a home run?

2. Who holds the team record for most innings played at catcher in one season?

Answers below.

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Tyler Uberstine has allowed nine home runs in nine appearances but still has a solid earned run average of 3.74. He has allowed 21 runs overall and 11 have come via home runs. … Speaking of Hickey, his 11 homers lead the team at the break. He has 24 in his two seasons with the WooSox and has moved into the franchise’s top ten in that category. He is tied for eighth place with Wong and Wilyer Abreu. Hickey’s homers have been productive. Sixteen of the 24 have come with men on base and his six 3-run homers are tied with Bobby Dalbec for second on that list. Ryan Fitzgerald leads with eight.

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Congratulations to Jose Adames on his WooSox record-setting performance Friday in Rochester. Adames became the first Worcester pitcher to throw one pitch and earn a save in the 5-3 victory. He is actually the only WooSox hurler to throw just one pitch in a game. The previous low was three, done June 4 versus Rochester by…..Jose Adames.

That appearance marked a turnaround point for Adames, whose ERA was 10.32 heading into the game. Since them he has allowed only one run in 12 2/3 innings and his earned run average has gone down in 12 consecutive outings.

Baseball being the king of oddball events, the day will come when a WooSox pitcher earns a save without throwing a pitch. He will pick somebody off.

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CATCHING UP WITH….

Tyler Danish, who pitched in six games for the WooSox in 2022, is in his second season with Tabasco of the Mexican League. He is 4-3 with a 3.28 ERA. One of his teammates is Yamaico Navarro, who played for both Pawtucket and Boston in 2010 and 2011.

Outfielder Jaylin Davis is with York of the Atlantic League after starting the season in Milwaukee. Not the Brewers, though — the Milkmen of the American Assocation, based in suburban Franklin. He is hitting .237 with a team high 11 homers. Davis played exactly 100 games between Worcester and Boston in the 2022 season.

Taylor Broadway is in the American Association, pitching for Cleburne in his native Texas. His manager is former major league slugger Pete Incaviglia. Broadway is 3-1, 4.30 for the Railroaders.

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TRIVIA ANSWERS

1. Zack Kelly pitched 47 2/3 innings from Aug. 7, 2021 through July 9, 2022 without having a home run hit off him. The streak covered 44 appearances. Kelly was 5-2 with a 3.40 ERA in that span. Rylan Bannon’s solo homer in the ninth inning at Norfolk on July 12, 2022 ended the streak.

2. Ronaldo Hernandez was behind the plate for 577 1/3 innings for the 2022 WooSox.

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Visited with Joe Morgan last week who, among other things, has managed more games (1,259) for Boston’s Triple-A affiliates than any other skipper. All those games came with Pawtucket. He is the only Boston Triple-A manager with more than 600 victories to his credit.

His record was 601-658.

Morgan is 94. He is the third oldest living former major league manager. Only Jack McKeon, who briefly attended Holy Cross, and Bob Lillis are older. Morgan is the 11th oldest living former major league player.

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WooSox alum Abraham Toro made one of the Boston Red Sox’ best defensive plays of the season in the sixth inning Saturday to help the BoSox beat the Rays, 1-0. He threw out Taylor Walls at the plate on a safety squeeze to preserve the lead. The play was so close that Walls’ sliding glove was a consideration.

Baseball should ban that piece of equipment exactly for that reason. It probably already has made a safe-or-out difference and should not. If runners are concerned about injuring their hand on a slide they can always go feet first. That’s up to them.