After a west coast road trip that saw the Red Sox take back-to-back three-game sets against the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston will settle into a nine-game home stretch, commencing with a series against AL East rivals, the Baltimore Orioles.
Coming into Tuesday night’s contest against the Orioles, Boston held onto the second-best record in the American League (77-55) and the outright lead in the AL East, but a competitive Tampa Bay Rays club has loomed close behind for much of the second half of the season, sitting just 2 ½ games out of the division lead.
With that being said, September will prove to be a month of strong competition across the league, in particularly the battle that is being played out at the top of the AL East standings. Boston will have to continue playing successful baseball and make few errors along the way in order to clinch a desired playoff berth (which is the case for all contending teams across the league).
Boston manager John Farrell has embraced that sentiment, understanding that whoever joins the lineup in the coming weeks will be looked to as being able to contribute down the stretch.
“I would side to the players that have a chance to impact us, recognizing that some exposure in September is beneficial for a young player,” Farrell said. “We’re in the heat of it. Guys that come here would have the ability to help us.”
The following is an assessment of the Top 5 players in the Red Sox organization that will most likely be called up to the big league roster in the month of September.
