Brock Holt and David Price earn the honors to do the Red Sox Strut in week one of the regular season.
Now, to fully understand what the Red Sox Strut is, it means to have reason to walk with a confident, proud air around you. Some people mistake it for vanity, arrogance, or being pompous. This incorrect assumption is not what we mean. The Strut is about knowing that your deeds showed off your amazing skills to the baseball-loving public.
With the first week of the season in the books, the Red Sox find themselves sitting at 3-2 and tied for second in the AL East. They split what turned into a two game series in Cleveland to open the season after the final game was rained out on Thursday. Then Boston came back to win the first two games of their weekend series in Toronto before falling flat in the third game on Sunday. We’ve seen one full go-around of their starting rotation and some timely hitting from their offense, so it’s now time to award the Red Sox Strut for week one.
POSITION PLAYER/OFFENSE: The Brock Star Strut
Despite getting shut out on Sunday, Boston is averaging over 5.5 runs per game after scoring 28 runs in the first four tilts. The offense has come through with timely hits and some clutch power hitting. They’ve hit six homeruns over the course of the first week, and every position player has at least one hit except for Ryan Hanigan (only 3 at-bats thus far) and the belt tearing Pablo Sandoval (six at-bats).
Surprisingly, Mookie Betts has had a rough start to the season going just 3-for-23 and hitting .130/.167/.261/.428. He did manage to blast a homerun in the opener and picked up 3 RBI, however the eight times he sat down after striking out leads the team. Mookie will have to be better if this team is going to contend, but I’m not worried about him.
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Blake Swihart, Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley, Jr. have also gotten off to slow starts.
David Ortiz managed to hit two big homeruns in the first two games of the season in Cleveland and is hitting .294. Those that were concerned about inconsistency in spring training can breathe a sigh of relief – Big Papi looks to still be Big Papi for now.
Dustin Pedroia has also silenced his critics for now starting of 7-for-23 (.304) and driving in two big runs.
Travis Shaw has settled right in to his starting role at third, and has been solid at the plate as well.
It’s not tough to see that this week’s best offensive player came down to two guys. Although it’s very early, it’s been a pleasant surprise to see Hanley Ramirez coming through both defensively at first base and at the plate. He’s gotten off to a great start going 10-for-22 which is a whopping average of .455, has splits of .478/.727/1.206 and has driven in four runs. Hanley has also made some big time plays with his base running, whether they were too risky or just heads up moves is debatable however. Still, I’m not going to allow myself to get sucked in like 2015. Hopefully Ramirez keeps this up and it’s the same April tease we’ve seen before.
That means that the position player that gets to strut his way to the home opener at Fenway on Monday is none other than the man once known as the ultimate super utility player, Brock Holt. Holt was named the starting left fielder just before the start of the season, but has also played some innings at third over the course of the first week as well. I questioned the move by John Farrell at the time, but it’s definitely paid dividends so far. Brock is 7-for-17 (.412/.444/.882/1.327) with eight RBI and two homeruns including an awesome grand slam against the Blue Jays on Friday night that revitalized the team as they came from a five run deficit. Without a doubt, Holt is a fun guy to root for, and I’m hoping I get to award him with the Strut honors frequently in 2016 – now do the Brock Star Strut young man!
PITCHER: The Price is Right Strut
After the final game of the series was postponed due to inclement weather on Thursday in Cleveland, John Farrell could have elected to have given David Price his second start in just five total games. Instead he opted to go with Steven Wright on Sunday, bumping Price to the home opener on Monday much to the dismay of many in Boston. Whether you agree or disagree with the move, it makes for a nice first week for the Red Sox Strut. This was a rather easy decision as far as I’m concerned.
Clay Buchholz was given the ball in Cleveland for game two of the season, and he looked like the same old Clay out there. He struggled to get through four innings, couldn’t deal with pitching while men were on base and now has an ERA of 11.25 after giving up five runs.
Unbelievably, Joe Kelly was worse on Friday night. He only managed to get through three innings giving up seven hits and seven runs which means he has a ridiculous ERA of 21.00. A couple more starts of this nature and Kelly will find himself replaced by Henry Owens in no time – just read BoSox Injection’s Rick McNair’s post on what Owens looked like in his debut for Pawtucket.
Rick Porcello was able to get himself in the win column on Saturday, but he it was a rocky, up-and-down start for him. He gave up four runs on two big two-run bombs to Jose Bautista, but weathered the storm to get through six innings and allow the Sox to get some runs on the board. He also struck out seven.
Steven Wright was very solid on Sunday, but the offense couldn’t manage any run support as they were shut out. Wright only gave up one earned run on six scattered hits and pitched 6.2 good innings.
It was a good week for the bullpen with a great group effort. The bullpen was key in the victories on Friday night and Saturday pitching six scoreless innings and three scoreless innings respectively to allow the offense to come back. The only major setback was Junichi Tazawa giving up what turned out to be the game-winning homerun to Mike Napoli in Cleveland on Wednesday. Matt Barnes, Robbie Ross and Koji Uehara have all looked close to dominant thus far, and Craig Kimbrel earned his first save as a member of the Red Sox. Still, no relief pitcher was dominant enough to earn the honors to Strut for week one in my mind.
Next: Red Sox: Pablo Sandoval's belt gives up on him
Yes, that’s right – the first week of the 2016 season sees the new ace of the team earning his right to strut. David Price lived up to the hype in his first start for the Red Sox going six strong innings giving up just two runs on five hits and sitting ten batters down by way of the K. Price was the only starter to set the tone from the very beginning of the game until he exited, and truly looked like a number one pitcher. It’s going to be fun watching him every five games, and I definitely expect to give him this recognition often in 2016. He may even be strutting next week after the opener on Yawkey Way.