The Red Sox’s Troubling 3–8 Start
by Ben Weisel
This article is for those who don’t watch baseball, and to fill you in on why those who do in New England are upset. The Red Sox won the World Series in 2018 and left a trail of crumbling teams in their wake. They posted a postseason record of 11–3 and won a franchise record 108 games. As a result, much of the Red Sox Nation has found their 3–8 start off-putting. There’s more behind their record than most people think, both good and bad. The Red Sox began the year with an 11 game West Coast road trip after playing a pair of exhibition games against the 2017 World Series champion Chicago Cubs. Together, the trip consisted of four different stops spread across the West Coast. That said, here’s a breakdown of the trip.
The Good:
This road trip does not conjure up many good thoughts. Despite the bumpy start, the Red Sox did have a few bright spots. Mitch Moreland single- handedly provided the Red Sox with two of their first three wins thanks to a pair of clutch home runs. JD Martinez began the season with a ten game hitting streak, picking up right where he left off after his productive campaign in 2018. The Red Sox bullpen, the number one concern heading into this season, delivered in high leverage situations and silenced the doubt about their capabilities for 2019, for now. Finally, Alex Cora is starting to show some emotion, a side of him that took months to shine through last year.
The Bad:
And there was lots of it. After an abysmal first start in which he tied his career high in earned runs with seven, Chris Sale came out throwing a sluggish 88 after signing a hefty five year, $153 million contract extension. Sale was a shadow of his normal self, which prompted concerns regarding his recurring issues of elbow inflammation. Rafael Devers failed to produce anything offensively, and the bottom of the lineup hit well below the Mendoza line in the first 11 games. The rest of the starting rotation followed suit and combined for an earned run average of 9.00 over the first ten games. Any case for the Red Sox having the best rotation in baseball at the start of the season was flushed down the toilet after the first 11 starts. These negative aspects of the Red Sox add up to tell a concerning story, one of the reigning World Series champions posting the worst ten game start in franchise history.
A final bright spot in the end of this minor tragedy is that the Red Sox can finally return to the comfort of Fenway Park to celebrate their marvelous 2018 season. All we can hope for is a quick turnaround, or else the Red Sox could be in for a repeat of the unspeakably bad 2012 season.
