The Boston Red Sox have had a very disappointing start to the 2019 season but there’s still plenty of time for them to turn it around.
The Boston Red Sox bad start to the 2019 season has gotten to a point where some are already counting them out for the playoffs. It’s still early but the 12-17 record is the total opposite of what the record was last April when they went 17-2 in their first 19 games.
There was a minor glimpse of hope when the Red Sox went to Tampa and swept them two weeks ago. But then they went back to their losing ways and just recently were swept by the Rays at home. They also have yet to win a series at home this season. Hopefully, that and lots of things change soon.
They have seemed to calm down with bringing up 2018. The Red Sox really needed to close the book on that one. It seems like they feel they have nothing to play for so they’re not invested like they were last year. It was all new last year, a new manager and a chance to prove they are the best team in baseball. As of right now, they aren’t the best team in baseball and haven’t been .500 yet this season. It might still be early and they have a chance to turn things around.
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Since 2010, the Red Sox haven’t lost 17 games in the month of April. This record is even worse than the 2012 Bobby Valentine Red Sox who went 11-11 in April. In 2013, John Farrell‘s first year as manager, they went 18-8 in April and they would win the World Series that year. But they did have a slow start in 2014, going 13-13, but it wasn’t this bad. The reason I did those stats was to show how this year’s Red Sox team has had the worst start in the last nine years. It seems like you can’t even tell they just won the World Series.
On the pitching side, the Red Sox starting pitchers have a 5.69 ERA in 144 innings pitched so far this season. For the relief pitchers, the ERA is 4.61 in 105.1 innings pitched. Those two ERA’s are both way too high to begin the season. On the offensive side, the Sox have a .239 team batting average this season.
It’s been a rocky April but is it too early to say the Sox season is done? I’ll give them until Memorial Day to see if they can figure out a way to win games and play like they have something to play for.
They can turn things around if the starting pitchers can go more than five innings in a start without allowing so many hits or runs. The bullpen is weak as it is and the starting pitching needs to get better and it should after having such a rusty April.
The hitting should be getting there too. They are battling injuries but even the healthy players have underperformed. Mookie Betts is off to a slow start, batting .269 when last season he was killing the ball. It’s like at the moment they’re playing with no heart or drive to win. I want to see the fight they had last season they should pretend they didn’t even win the World Series so it can give them the drive to win it all again.
If Chris Sale, David Price, Nathan Eovaldi when he comes back, and Eduardo Rodriguez can pitch late into games they should be ok. Also, the hitting with Betts, Andrew Benintendi, J.D. Martinez, and Mitch Moreland should wake up the rest of the lineup. Michael Chavis has proven he belongs in the big leagues the way he’s been hitting the ball lately. At some point, this team will go on a run and hopefully be the team with drive like we saw a year ago.