LOS ANGELES – “Due to technical difficulties, tonight’s drone show has been canceled. We thank you for your patience, and we apologize for the inconvenience.” – the message on both Dodger Stadium message boards late Saturday night.
There were no drones in the air over Chavez Ravine. No matter. In its place was the kind of buzz trade deadline season is built on.
All thanks to the Dodgers, Tarik Skubal and a Red Sox team that has earned the right to actually care what other teams – both in the American League and National League – are going to get better.
Setting the scene: The Red Sox just had another signature win during a month-and-a-half stretch that has been full of them. This one came in the form of a 3-2 win over Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Dodgers Saturday night, allowing Chad Tracy’s team to pick up where they left off after a historically successful July.
There was talk of Ceddanne Rafaela’s two home runs, Payton Tolle’s strong six innings and the meaning that came with the Red Sox clinching the series win over the best team in baseball. It was the Sox’s ninth win in as many tries against first-place teams, having already swept both the White Sox and Rays.
This is a Red Sox team that is now just 2 1/2 games behind the Yankees for the top wild card spots, and 4 1/2 games clear of the first team on the outside looking in at the playoffs (Texas). There was plenty for Tracy to feel good about as he conducted his four-minute postgame press conference.
But it was just as Tracy was wrapping up his analysis that the notifications started popping up: Skubal had been traded to the team on the other side of the ballpark.
Once the manager was finished, he was informed that this deal was done, and initial reports had the Dodgers’ scheduled starter Emmett Sheehan going to Detroit in the deal. “Who is going to start for them?” asked Tracy. “Skubal?” While he knew that most likely wasn’t feasible, it symbolized the chaos that was just kicking up.
A few minutes after Tracy adjourned to the clubhouse’s dining room, word started to trickle through the Red Sox’s players that the deadline’s biggest deal had just been made.
“For who?”
It was a question that came from multiple corners of the Red Sox’s clubhouse, with others simply burying themselves in their respective phones to find the answers. There was no rush to the buses. They had officially earned entrances into the Cool Kids Club as one of the teams jockeying for postseason supremacy.
Everyone knew this shock-and-awe moment involving the Dodgers and Skubal was probably inevitable. But a month ago, there were certainly no guarantees this group of Red Sox players might actually be contemplating how such a move might impact them in October. It’s understandable that a lot more good has to happen for the Sox to start game-planning for another go-round with the Dodgers. Still, Tracy and Co. have earned the right to dream big.
“Who are we going to get?”
It was another reaction from the Red Sox’ clubhouse.
Those answers might not be available until 6 p.m. Monday, but this postgame MLB trade deadline tidal wave raised some heart rates a bit and offered a hint at the additional giddiness that might be available. For the Dodgers’ fans, it was enough good news to make them forget the drone malfunction. For the Red Sox? It made them realize they could actually care about trying to win in October.
“You want to do that all the time,” Tracy said. “It’s not going to happen all the time like that, but to stack wins in this way and keep playing this way and keep momentum that we built and keep pushing — we have to do that again. We have to come out with the mindset tomorrow, winning another game.”
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