For more than two years, Xander Bogaerts has been tempting the baseball gods with his reckless and dangerous head-first slides into first base, making it seem almost inevitable that he’d one day bust a finger . . . sprain a wrist . . . dislocate a thumb . . . the list goes on and on.

And here we are: Bogaerts is day-to-day with a right-hand contusion.

OK, OK, so Bogey’s baserunning had absolutely nothing to do with the injury. What happened was that he was hit with a 99-mph fastball from rookie right-hander Seranthony Dominguez in the ninth inning of the Red Sox’ 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies Tuesday night, and the pitch left enough of a dent to keep him out of the lineup for the opener of last night’s big four-game Fenway Park showdown against the Yankees.

The Bogey base-running rants, then, will be placed on hold for the time being. But the injury does speak to a larger point: The Red Sox are in big, big trouble without this guy. No, he’s not their best player and he still hasn’t had that jaw-dropping, bust-out season that has long been expected of him, but try to imagine the Red Sox in the postseason without him.

No disrespect to Brock Holt but, well, he filled in at shortstop last night and was charged with an error on the first play of the game when he failed to come up with an Aaron Hicks grounder to his right. It was the beginning of what turned out to be a three-run first inning for the Bombers, as Giancarlo Stanton followed with a single to center and Didi Gregorius socked a Brian Johnson pitch into the Sox bullpen for a three-run homer.

Everyone respects Holt because he can play pretty much anywhere, and pretty much has. He’s been an All-Star. He’s a gamer, sure. But not for a potential 21 postseason games — or 22 games, if the Red Sox wind up in the wild card game, which is how the determined Yankees are mapping things out.

Props also go out to Tzu-Wei Lin, who made it to the big leagues last year and hit a respectable .268. Like Holt, he’ll play anywhere.

But neither player can provide the kind of heavy lifting the Red Sox will need in October. And, no, there is no can’t-miss kid down there in Pawtucket or up there in Portland waiting for his chance to burst upon the scene.

Listening to manager Alex Cora update the media on Bogaerts’ condition yesterday was to listen to a man torn between offering words of reassurance while knowing, from experience, that taking a fastball off the hand is no fun.

Words of reassurance: “Yeah, he’s day-to-day. He’s not starting today. Hopefully he’ll start (tonight). He’s available but we’ll stay away from him if possible.”

Words of been-there-done-that: “Whenever you get hit by 99, especially in the hands, it’s very dangerous.”

So Cora was horrified when he saw Bogaerts get hit by the pitch?

“No, not really,” he said. “He was squeezing his hand when he was down. I thought for sure that there was nothing major, to be honest with you.”

Pause.

“But you always think about it,” he said. “It’s still 99 to the hand.”

Yet as encouraging as were Cora’s words, there was something unsettling about his use of the number 99 — without the tail-end “mile per hour” — in describing the pitch that hit Bogaerts. Let’s replay the quote, one without the “mile per hour,” and one with it:

“Whenever you get hit by 99, especially in the hands, it’s very dangerous.”

And . . .

“Whenever you get hit by a 99 mile per hour pitch, especially in the hands, it’s very dangerous.”

The first one, which is where Cora went, is downright scary. It makes it sound like 99 is a living, breathing thing, or an unstoppable force of nature. To get hit by a 99-mph fastball is one thing, but Bogaerts got roughed up by ol’ 99.

Ouch.

The Red Sox are very lucky that this here ouch is of the day-to-day variety.