Romy

Gonzalez

Gonzalez was incredibly valuable for Boston last year, beginning the year as a bench bat and then emerging as a near full-time player. He slashed .305/.343/.483 with nine home runs and six steals in 341 plate appearances. He will likely be a valuable super sub for Boston in 2026.

It’s a classic post-playoff clinching lineup from the Red Sox in this one with off days for a quartet of veterans. Story, Bregman and Duran could certainly use a break as they’ve played nearly every day down the home stretch. Boston appears poised to let the chips fall where they may this weekend as they’re pretty much locked into the second AL Wild Card spot.

The versatile 29-year-old drove in a run with an RBI single in the seventh inning that pulled the Red Sox to within a run at 4-3. That would be as close as they would get. After reaching base safely in all four of his plate appearances on Sunday, Gonzalez is slashing an impressive .308/.346/.492 with nine homers and 51 RBI in 324 plate appearances on the season.

Both veterans were originally meant to be short-side platoon players for the Red Sox, but have been thrust into larger roles with injuries to Roman Anthony, Wilyer Abreu, and Marcelo Mayer. Refsnyder has hit .265 in 11 games this month with two home runs and seven RBI, while Gonzalez has hit .340 in 12 games in September with one home run and seven RBI. David Hamilton will start at second base and Nate Eaton will start in right field on Thursday.

Gonzalez is back at first base and leading off Saturday afternoon’s contest at Fenway Park after missing two games with left knee soreness.

Gonzalez has not been able to play since leaving Tuesday’s contest with soreness in his left knee. The 29-year-old infielder will miss at least the start of Friday’s game with David Hamilton once again handling second base in Gonzalez’s absence.

Gonzalez left Tuesday’s game due to soreness in his left knee, and it appears he’ll miss at least one more contest with the issue. David Hamilton will get the start at second base with Gonzalez unavailable to begin Wednesday’s affair.

Gonzalez, who has been playing second against righties of late, was at first base versus a lefty tonight. Nathaniel Lowe replaced him in the contest. Hopefully, it’s just a day-to-day thing for Gonzalez, who homered and doubled before departing.

Gonzalez played first base in the first three of those games with Nathaniel Lowe on paternity leave. Now he’s at second, where it seemed like David Hamilton was getting an opportunity last week. Gonzalez is 9-for-21 over his last five games, though that’s with no extra-base hits or walks. Mostly a platoon player previously, he’s hitting a fine .296/.335/.494 overall this season.

All Gonzalez does is hit. Usually part of Boston’s fleet of right-handed mercenaries to hammer left-handed pitchers, Gonzalez drew his second straight start against a righty and smoked two doubles off Michael Wacha. He hit each at least 102 mph and could finally be boxing out Abraham Toro for the starting spot at first base. Perhaps this was just a matchup based decision though, since Wacha’s best pitch is his changeup and it works better against lefty hitters than righties. Still, Gonzalez has elite bat speed, very real power, and has been highly productive this season in his platoon-based role.