After 141 games, it's officially the dog days of the Major League Baseball season, and players across baseball are managing the accumulation of the daily bumps and bruises that come with playing a 162-game season. Whether it be Willson Contreras, who landed on the injured list with a hamstring strain, Sonny Gray, who had his scheduled start pushed back from Tuesday to Saturday, or Ceddanne Rafaela, who was absent from Thursday's win in Baltimore as he nurses a sore quad, the Boston Red Sox are doing all they can to get their players right ahead of the wild card round. 

While watching the team drop series's to struggling teams like the Seattle Mariners is frustrating, look no further than Jake Bennett's success after his start was pushed back as proof that Boston's strategy of giving players rest ahead of the playoffs is the right approach. 

After a dominant stretch after being recalled from Triple-A on June 10, Bennett began to show signs of wear, posting a 5.67 ERA across five starts from July 22 to Aug. 14. After both Bennett and interim manager Chad Tracy insisted the 25-year-old was not running out of gas, the team opted to push his start back, giving him nine days of rest. 

In three starts since having his start pushed back, Bennett has returned to form, allowing six earned runs on seven hits, good for a 2.84 ERA, while striking out 20 and walking only one as the Red Sox have gone 3-0 in his starts. 

After three days off, missing the entirety of the Mariners series while nursing a sore elbow, All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman made his return to the lineup in Thursday's win, launching two home runs in his Baltimore homecoming. 

Thanks to their historic month of July, the Red Sox playoff odds, according to Fangraphs, sit at 98.4 percent. And after Sunday's loss in New York, it feels all but inevitable that they will be heading back to the Bronx for a Wild Card series for the second year in a row. It is far more valuable for the team to be fully healthy and ready to go for whatever their first postseason matchup is, rather than having guys banged up and limping into the playoffs.

The Red Sox will look to make it two in a row on Friday night as they take on the Orioles in game two of four from Camden Yards. Ranger Suarez (5-4, 3.64 ERA) will get the start for Boston opposite Shane Baz (5-14, 4.01 ERA) for Baltimore. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. ET.