A way too Early Take on the Red Sox

Tyler Krusz

Call it a hangover. Call it a slow start. Maybe they’re saving it for the homestand. Whatever. The Red Sox are terrible right now.

Now, they’re not the Yankees, with a jillion strikeouts throughout five games. But they’re bad. Two wins in their first seven games is not good.

Disclaimer: baseball numbers are fun to look at early on in the season because they’re crazy- either insanely high or insanely low. Let’s dive into it.

The first stat that jumps out is the starting pitching. Coming off of 108 wins, with Chris Sale recently locked up long term and David Price showing promise, the rotation was not the aspect of the Sox roster in question. The bullpen? Maybe. Now the numbers are inflated, because it’s the seventh game of the season. But no starter has an ERA under 6.00, with David Price setting the bar. I mean, Price was the only guy to pitch after the fifth inning.

The offense hasn’t been much better, either. It’s easy to say this coming off of a 7-0 loss to the Athletics, but they haven’t been anywhere close to last season. Just right now, as I’m typing, they’re in the middle of a 20+ scoreless inning streak.

Mookie Betts? The multi-million dollar MVP? Six hits so far. Xander Bogaerts? The guy just signed long-term? Has struck out in roughly a third of his at-bats.

J.D. Martinez has been the only continuity from last season, and he leads the team. Martinez has an insane average of .360. I wouldn’t be shocked if he kept it up.

The bullpen, while closer-less, has held their own. Turns out, when you’re losing every game, the closer position is kind of pointless. Genius strategy from Dombrowski.

Anyways, the bullpen has been active- because that’s what happens when the starters stink on ice. In their 22.0 innings pitched, they’ve only allowed seven runs, compared to 24 from the rotation arms. Maybe they should switch?

Whatever the problem is with the Sox, they have not come out of the gate well. But, unlike the last Boston team to win a championship, the Red Sox play 162 games, not 16.

Alex Cora has a long time to spark something under these guys, and a few games back at Fenway may be just what the doctor ordered. Unless the doctor is Alex Guerrero- then some avocado ice cream ought to do the trick.

Count the Sox out? Fughettaboutit. These guys will be back, just the way we remembered them.

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