Baltimore, for its part, went out and got its own reinforcement — claiming Luis Robert Jr. off waivers from the Mets last week to patch an outfield that's lost two regulars to the injured list in the same stretch. It's the kind of add that can quietly change a series before the board fully catches up to it.
Boston's second half has been one of the best stretches in baseball since Tracy took over in the dugout, but the results right before this series haven't matched that reputation — Boston dropped 2 of 3 to the Yankees, including a 16-run blowout, before salvaging a wild finish against Seattle. Baltimore's trending the other direction, having taken 4 of its last 5 and sweeping a road set from the Athletics along the way.
Both injury boards are long, but they hit differently. Boston's rotation is already down Garrett Crochet and Tanner Houck for the season, and its bullpen has been bleeding arms — Tyron Guerrero is the latest reliever added to the injured list, joining Justin Slaten and Zack Kelly on the shelf. Baltimore's missing both Tyler O'Neill and Christian Franklin in the outfield and still hasn't gotten its late-inning relief corps of Felix Bautista and Ryan Helsley back. Two games into this set with the finale still to come, how each team's patchwork pieces hold up will say plenty about where September ends up taking them.