With the Sox playing away games until July 24, I will be missing a handful of the games since I cannot travel with the team but, as the Sox continue to win games, it gives us plenty to talk about especially with the playoffs in the somewhat near future.
Fighting for the last playoff spot, hitting the ball exceptionally well and pitching that makes league history (last night’s no hitter!), the Salem Red Sox are feelin’ it right now…to say the least.
But, they still have 45 games left in the regular season, meaning nothing is promised.
I sat down with Red Sox manager, Billy McMillon, on Sunday night after winning the weekend series against Potomac three games to one. And with the Sox currently sitting at 48-48 on the year and 15-11 for the second half, McMillon seems to be very optimistic about the team’s ability to continue winning games both at home and away from home.
Here’s what McMillon had to say:
ON CARRYING MOMENTUM AWAY FROM HOME:
“It’s the same approach every time. We just tell the guys to go out and play the game the way they’re supposed to play it. We had a really good home stand and hopefully guys are starting to get comfortable with what they can and cant do. Hopefully it’ll keep goin’ for the next 45 or so games that we have left.”
ON PLAYERS COMING AND GOING SO OFTEN (Cecchini, Jacobs, Betts):
“When players move up it’s because they’ve had a fair amount of success here and its time for them to be challenged at the next level. The idea, the goal here is to get guys playing closer to their potential so that they have an opportunity to move up. In those instances that you mentioned (Cecchini, Jacobs, Betts), those guys needed to get a new challenge; they had put together a string of good at bats and good games.
It works on the other side too, where the guys in Greenville are trying to get here. Sometimes it’s no good because when your better players leave, you don’t have as good of a chance to win. But, at the end of the day we always remember that the goal here is development, getting guys ready to go to the next level. When those guys do move, you feel good about it, you feel like you’ve helped in their development and you’ve helped the Red Sox organization.”
ON PLAYING POTOMAC AND FREDRICK FOR THE NEXT 14 GAMES:
“We don’t change anything, we go about our business the right way. Hopefully it’ll be good because we will see a lot of the same pitchers over and over so guys will get a feel for how they are going to be pitched.
Our pitchers hopefully have a decent understanding of how to approach their hitters and the same thing goes for them too, the other teams have got to make adjustments for us as well.”
