It's never a good sign for any baseball team -- let alone a defending World Series champion with a mostly returning roster -- to be treating games in mid-August like it's the middle of October.
The Boston Red Sox were forced to show their hand in a three-game set against the Cleveland Indians last week. The team started the series 7½ games out of the second wild-card slot, trailing the Rays and A's. After telling Nathan Eovaldi he was rejoining the starting rotation, Boston pivoted with the urgency of a Game 7, bringing in the righty for six outs across two games, underlying the team's need to win now.