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Nine innings with the Red Sox, leading off with Masataka Yoshida’s importance

Playing nine innings while trying to get to the bottom of whether Triston Casas, Boog Powell, or Moose Skowron is/was the first first baseman in MLB history to wear nail polish …

1. It’s probably an overstatement to suggest that Chaim Bloom’s future with the Red Sox directly correlates with Masataka Yoshida’s performance as a Major League Baseball rookie. This team has more variables, more players who theoretically could recapture old glory or flop like the 1996 version of Kevin Mitchell than any in recent Red Sox history.

But there’s no doubt about it: Bloom needs Yoshida to be, at the least, an above-average offensive player with patience and some pop, and it needs to happen immediately.